A Working Pallophotophone - 1922 audio recording method

History in Audio Recording: The only working pallophone in the world(2010), plays back the earliest radio station recordings ever made. It used light bouncing off a tiny mirror to expose a strip of film. A photoelectric cell is used to read the recordings. The film recorded waveforms of sound as tiny black stripes. Demonstration on kodak acetate film. Invented by Charles Hoxie, this lead to the RCA Photophone motion picture system. The machine was built by Russ DeMuth of the GE Global Research Center in 2009-2010. Research and presentation by Chris Hunter of the Schenectady Museum. WGY was recorded in 1922, hear the NBC chimes which started at WGY Radio Station. WGY reached an audience as far away as South Africa and was the voice of General Electric. The pallophotophone preceded magnetic recording. A strip of audio was used along side film to do sound with film. By 1927 the "Jazz Singer" came out which was the first sound film in the entertainment industry.

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[frenchjr25]

CORRECTION - There have always been sound films. The Jazz Singer happened to be the first blockbuster sound film. Mainstream sound films started exhibition a few years before JS. And in 1894 Edison did a sound film with a violin that still survives and can probably be found on YouTube.

[EdisonTechCenter]

@frenchjr25 Thanks for the correction, it must be a common misconception that Jazz Singer was first in the technology just because it was the first widely available to the public.

[abn666]

@EdisonTechCenter In 1923 a danish movie called "Den Talende Film" (which means "The Talking Movie") had premier, and that movie should be the first feature with sound.

[TheMaxx111]

It can't be that old if it is acitate and not nitro celluloce.

[Zefrenm]

@Zefrenm other wise if your using photoresistor for playback tighting the scanning depth to only one pixel wide ratios of light and dark might also tighten the sound lol

[Zefrenm]

Hmmm, what might result in better playback is to program the scanner to trace the outline of each track, The playback to a record cutting lathe required a photo resitor to translate the light bias as a electrical signal, but the recording directly from the photo mic to flim negates the use of photo resistors which im guessing is what they used before thay settled for the comercail release.

[Zefrenm]

C.P. Hoxie also designed this system to wax 78 rpm records for Burnswick and the Duschte Gramophone COmpany 1925 to 1927you should check out Froggmoni's youtube page about it title (Burswick LIGHT RAY recordings & Deutsche Grammophon 1926

[3zy]

@ReverendWayne The people who make a hobby out of collecting vintage radio shows usually speed correct NBC shows by the chimes. In this case, it should be low G, C, high G, and E, and if you compare with what's on nbcchimes.info, they're doing pretty well on the basic speed.

[RecordCouncil]

To reduce flutter, this machine needs a drum which the film is held firm against that spins at the same speed. I thought the large silver cylinder might have been a drum but it appears to be the light source. You could modify a 35mm projector soundhead quite easily to play these films with unnoticeable pitch instability, that is of course, unless they were recorded with flutter.

[DMahalko]

Since the tracks don't overlap where sprockets are located on modern film, you should make a copy of the media onto new 35mm film. That way you don't risk further damaging the original media by constantly flexing and bending it.

It may work to scan it with a typical flatbed scanner that has the ability to feed 35mm negatives through the scanner lid. Cut slots in the lid to allow for a continuous film path, and scan it in 11 inch long blocks, for direct digital processing and playback.

[ReverendWayne]

Fascinating. You could use the classical music as a speed reference, such as the Beethoven "Eroica" symphony 3rd movement heard in the video. Flutter can be treated with digital processing, such as the technologies developed by Dimitri Antsos and by the folks at Plangent Processes, both of which have been used successfully for commercially released CDs sourced from problematic originals.

[batterymaker]

Great job! Now if you can get the flutter out of the system, it'll be perfect!