The worlds only working pallophotophone

Music Other Boards Technology
The worlds only working pallophotophone
pallophotophone.jpg

Retro Thing has a great article on recreating an archaic recording device to recover some old recordings. A while back Schenectady Museum curator Chris Hunter came across some old pallophotophone recordings from radio station WGY. “What’s a pallophotophone?”, you might ask. Also known as the RCA Photophone, it’s an early recording device developed by GE researcher Charles Hoxie.

Eventually Hunter meets GE Engineer Russ DeMuth, who recreates a pallophotophone from Hoxie’s original design and manages to extract some rather interesting recordings from the old media. Recovered are long-lost recordings of GE founder Thomas Edison, Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford, a recording thought to be the second oldest known sports broadcast, and the earliest known recording of the NBC chimes.

Recreating the RCA Photophone

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I make cool stuff and write about other people making cool stuff on makezine.com. If you have something you think I should see, send me a tip.

View more articles by Adam Flaherty

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK