1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. Hedude, 2 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,239 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jovan Strickland. I'm 3 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: an executive producer with iHeart Radio and how the tech 4 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:22,279 Speaker 1: are you? You know? I recently started buying DVDs and 5 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: blue rays and vinyl records again, partly because I'm tired 6 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: of titles disappearing from various streaming platforms. You know, you 7 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: you count on something being there, and then you log 8 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,560 Speaker 1: into your account and realize, Hey, that thing I wanted 9 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: to experience isn't on this service anymore. So that's part 10 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: of the reason. Another part is because I actually have 11 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,879 Speaker 1: this tiny little house in the middle of nowhere that 12 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: has like no connectivity, and so I wanted to get 13 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: some media that doesn't require an Internet connection because I 14 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: can only watch the lizards and squirrels for so long 15 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: before I start criticizing their lack of narrative of they 16 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: do not take direction well. Anyway, I thought it might 17 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: be fun to talk about some older forms of media 18 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 1: that have passed out of favor or even gone completely obsolete. 19 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: And this is more than just an episode where we 20 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,400 Speaker 1: look back and make goofy jokes about old forms of media. 21 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 1: I've talked before about how data preservation is a real challenge, 22 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 1: and and this is part of it. There are a 23 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: lot of different challenges associated with the preservation of information. 24 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: Sometimes we commit data, whether that's computer code, or it's 25 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 1: an audio recording or video or digital documents or anything else, 26 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: and we commit to a medium that subsequently loses support, 27 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:52,080 Speaker 1: and at that point, the information that's stored on this 28 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: old format is on borrowed time. We need to either 29 00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: port the information over to another format, one that at 30 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: least has support today, or we have to resign ourselves 31 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: to eventually losing those older copies. Now, in some cases, 32 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: like popular TV shows or movies or albums, we might 33 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: not need to worry too much about the whole thing disappearing, 34 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:24,640 Speaker 1: but we might lose certain instances of that thing. For example, 35 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: let's say that you were you bought an early DVD 36 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: and had an amazing commentary track on it, and you 37 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: really thought it was entertaining, and you've since lost it, 38 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 1: and now when you start searching for a DVD of 39 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: this same thing, all the current ones don't have that 40 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:47,200 Speaker 1: commentary track. That's one example of the sort of stuff 41 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: you can lose even with things that continue to have 42 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: at least some support in in current media. So this 43 00:02:56,880 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: is a tricky thing. And let me give you an 44 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: example of just lost media entirely. There's a popular television 45 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: series called Doctor Who, and this is an English TV 46 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: series if you're not familiar with it. It's been on 47 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:15,919 Speaker 1: forever since nineteen sixty three, actually, though not consistently since 48 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:21,919 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty and it was broadcast by the BBC, which 49 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: is effectively a state backed broadcast network in the UK. 50 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:28,920 Speaker 1: And at the time, the BBC's normal method of operation 51 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,520 Speaker 1: was to broadcast content and if they started to run 52 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,360 Speaker 1: low on real to real tapes where they would store 53 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: this stuff, they would just white older programs in order 54 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: to put something else on that tape. So instead of 55 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: buying new tape and figuring out where to store it 56 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff, they just say, hey, 57 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: let's just erase this old thing. No one who's who's 58 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,520 Speaker 1: going to care? Because I mean, that was the thought was. 59 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't preservation, it was just it was transmission of entertainment, 60 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: and then you moved on. No one was really thinking 61 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: ahead two uh, you know, documenting this stuff and keeping 62 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: it in a library and then further down the line, 63 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:11,960 Speaker 1: opening it up for home consumption. That just wasn't even 64 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: remotely in the cards when people were thinking about this. 65 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:17,039 Speaker 1: In fact, I want to say that Eric Idol of 66 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,920 Speaker 1: Monty Python argued with the BBC and made certain that 67 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: he got possession of the tapes after they produced the 68 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:30,479 Speaker 1: TV show so that the original Monty Python broadcasts would 69 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:34,279 Speaker 1: not subsequently get wiped because other shows had met that fate. 70 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: So as a result, several of the early seasons of 71 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: Doctor Who have missing episodes or entire missing seasons. And 72 00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:44,719 Speaker 1: now and again you'll hear someone happening across an old 73 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: copy of a previously lost episode, and that's a big deal. 74 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: And because all forms of storage media have a limited lifespan, 75 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: as time passes, the chances of finding a good copy 76 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:03,280 Speaker 1: of a previously missing episode decrease because the actual material 77 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:08,400 Speaker 1: that the the broadcast is saved upon will deteriorate over time. 78 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: So yeah, data preservation is an important thing for us. 79 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,680 Speaker 1: To preserve things like like work of cultural significance, art information, 80 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 1: you know, being able to document changes in public perception 81 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 1: even like these are all important things, and they're made 82 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:29,680 Speaker 1: more difficult by the fact that we have these various 83 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: forms of media that can go obsolete over time. Now, 84 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:37,799 Speaker 1: in the case of the BBC, the media isn't missing 85 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,480 Speaker 1: because we no longer support the format right real to 86 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: real tape is still something that we have, you know, 87 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:46,160 Speaker 1: working equipment that can you that can actually access that. 88 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: But you know, it is likely that you can grasp 89 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 1: that when formats evolve, we can end up leaving data 90 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: on previous formats behind. And again, as someone who is 91 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: back to buying optical disks for tell television and movies 92 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,200 Speaker 1: and vinyl records for my albums, I frequently encountered the 93 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: problem of looking for specific titles only to find out 94 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: that the version I want is out of publication, or 95 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,039 Speaker 1: that the addition I wanted has long been unavailable, and 96 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:16,599 Speaker 1: anything that I can find on the market today is 97 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:21,120 Speaker 1: not exactly what I was looking for. So let's get 98 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: a look at some formats that either no longer exist 99 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: or they have such limited support that they might as 100 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:32,039 Speaker 1: well be obsolete. One type of recording that was very 101 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:36,320 Speaker 1: nearly lost for good was the phone autograph. So this 102 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: is the in fact, one of the earliest, possibly the 103 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 1: earliest example of recording an audio signal UH to a 104 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:50,719 Speaker 1: different medium. So a French inventor named Edward Lyone Scott 105 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:55,800 Speaker 1: built the phonotograph way back in eighteen fifty seven. This 106 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: predates Edison in the phonograph and as the names just, 107 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,719 Speaker 1: this device was meant to quote unquote right down sound. 108 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: As I said, this is the earliest version of recorded 109 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: sound that we have not for reproducing sound, our programming sound. 110 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: We'll touch on that as well in this episode. Because 111 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:20,720 Speaker 1: there were ways where you could program sound for a 112 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: device like an organ for example, but you couldn't just 113 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: record audio and play it back. Now Scott, unlike Edison, 114 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 1: he wasn't concerned with playing audio back. That wasn't what 115 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,800 Speaker 1: he was thinking of at all, So his methodology wasn't 116 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: meant to allow playback. His plan was to use the 117 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: phone autograph to record audio for study, with the perhaps 118 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:52,840 Speaker 1: ultimate goal of creating a speech to text methodology. That is, 119 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:58,000 Speaker 1: you could use the phone autograph to record speech, and 120 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: then by studying the record the thing that was produced 121 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,280 Speaker 1: by the phone autograph, then another person who was skilled 122 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,239 Speaker 1: in the art would be able to recreate what was said, 123 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:13,559 Speaker 1: or to reproduce what was said or read what had 124 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:17,000 Speaker 1: been said. So the record left behind would be distinct 125 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:20,200 Speaker 1: enough to know what words had been spoken, but it 126 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: would take a lot of study to learn which phonemes 127 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:26,239 Speaker 1: produced particular shapes. And as it turned out, it's way 128 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: more complicated than what Scott was thinking, but it was 129 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: an interesting line of thought. So by shapes, I'm talking 130 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: about patterns drawn on smoke blackened glass or paper. So 131 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:42,320 Speaker 1: let's say you get a pane of glass. It's it's 132 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:46,040 Speaker 1: coated with lamp black. So there's this thin black coating 133 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,800 Speaker 1: on the surface of the glass, and the stylists that 134 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: they would use was actually some bristles, and those bristles 135 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: connected to a diaphragm that itself was at the narrow 136 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 1: end of an acoustic trump It not the musical instrument trumpet, 137 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: but the trumpet shape. So you have the big open 138 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: side and then on the narrow side you've got this little, thin, 139 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 1: sensitive diaphragm. Connected to that are these bristles that can 140 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:18,679 Speaker 1: just barely make contact with the lamp blacked surface of 141 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: this piece of glass. This acoustic trumpet would mimic the 142 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:26,080 Speaker 1: human ear, So if you look at a human ear, 143 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,959 Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I see the ear is the opening 144 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,720 Speaker 1: of the trumpet the canal. Is this narrowing to the 145 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,560 Speaker 1: ear drum is the same as this little diaphragm. So 146 00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: in sound waves would enter the acoustic end of this trumpet, 147 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:43,480 Speaker 1: the open end of this trumpet, I should say, and 148 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: then travel down the narrow pathway. It would cause the 149 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: diaphragm to vibrate. The glass would move across the bristles 150 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: at a regular speed, at an unbroken regular speed, and 151 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:02,200 Speaker 1: the bristles would have vibrate with the vibration of the 152 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,200 Speaker 1: diaphragm which came from the speaking. So the idea was 153 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 1: that because the time was was constant, the travel time 154 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:14,120 Speaker 1: for the glass was constant, you could look at the 155 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:18,800 Speaker 1: wiggly line created by these bristles and that would represent 156 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:24,839 Speaker 1: the sound that entered into the trumpet. And theoretically, if 157 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: you were able to really study this, you should be 158 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: able to tell what someone said based solely upon that 159 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:35,640 Speaker 1: squiggly line tracing the lampblack on the glass. And you know, 160 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:42,040 Speaker 1: that was a really interesting idea. Scott's work wasn't fully successful. 161 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:44,400 Speaker 1: Like he he was able to create the device and 162 00:10:44,440 --> 00:10:48,520 Speaker 1: the device worked, but figuring out what was said based 163 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:52,280 Speaker 1: upon what was recorded turned out to be way harder 164 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: than what he expected. It was just much more difficult 165 00:10:55,400 --> 00:11:00,480 Speaker 1: to really suss all that out, and Scott's work plunged 166 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:03,440 Speaker 1: into obscurity for many years and was in danger of 167 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: just being forgotten entirely, and then the narrative would just 168 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:10,160 Speaker 1: be Edison as the father of recorded sound. Now, in 169 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: two thousand eight, a project called First Sounds found phone 170 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:17,680 Speaker 1: autograms these recordings that were made from Scott's invention, and 171 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:22,359 Speaker 1: through the use of digital scanning and some clever programming, 172 00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: they were able to recreate the sound that was originally recorded. 173 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:29,559 Speaker 1: Since the phone autogram could only record in two dimensions, 174 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:32,680 Speaker 1: the amount of information it captured was somewhat limited, but 175 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:38,280 Speaker 1: they could actually create uh simulated playback of this recorded sound. 176 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:41,679 Speaker 1: Elements of the phone autograph would actually make their way 177 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:46,600 Speaker 1: into devices like the grammophone, and this would aim to 178 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: record audio for the purposes of playback rather than scientific studies. 179 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:55,240 Speaker 1: So this was taking Scott's idea but then expanding it 180 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:59,160 Speaker 1: specifically for the purposes of playback. So the grammo phone 181 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:03,240 Speaker 1: and then Edison phonograph technology would create the foundation for 182 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 1: what would ultimately evolve into vinyl records much further into 183 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:12,199 Speaker 1: the future. So While the phone autograph itself is obsolete, 184 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:14,839 Speaker 1: its influence lives on today for those of us who 185 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:19,120 Speaker 1: still have a soft spot for turntables and LPs. All Right, 186 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, 187 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 1: i'll talk about another super cool but obsolete form of media. Okay, 188 00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 1: we're back, and I want to talk about organets. This 189 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: one's a little tricky because tracing the history of organets 190 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:47,280 Speaker 1: can take you down a very long rabbit hole. Uh. First, 191 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 1: let's start off with what an organet actually is. So 192 00:12:50,720 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 1: it is a device that plays back music, instrumental music, 193 00:12:56,160 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: and specifically, it's a read instrument. It that will play 194 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,839 Speaker 1: back music and you can't just play any tune on it. 195 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:08,280 Speaker 1: It's not like a keyboard that blows air through reads 196 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 1: or anything like that. Instead, you would program music using 197 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:17,120 Speaker 1: a perforated surface, very much like a player piano. Right. 198 00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: So it might be a long strip of paper that 199 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: has perforated holes at specific points that represent specific notes 200 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:31,199 Speaker 1: and the duration of those notes. Or it might be uh, 201 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,840 Speaker 1: strips of cardboard, which was also very common, Or it 202 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: could even be metal disks that have perforations in them 203 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,520 Speaker 1: so air can flow through those perforations. And thus ultimately 204 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: allow reads to play, either by blowing directly across the 205 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:50,079 Speaker 1: reads are or allowing a valve to open and do that. 206 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:52,600 Speaker 1: But there's a lot more going on than just that. 207 00:13:53,679 --> 00:13:56,560 Speaker 1: If we were to trace the history of pipe and 208 00:13:56,679 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: read organs which pre eight Oregon nets, uh, that history 209 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 1: takes us really far back um. In fact, it takes 210 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,320 Speaker 1: us all the way back to ancient Greece with a 211 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:16,720 Speaker 1: musical device called the hydrau liss, and this was essentially 212 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:21,520 Speaker 1: an organ that used air pressure and water pressure to 213 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 1: play notes through pipes. So the organ head different pipes 214 00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:31,280 Speaker 1: that were built to tune to specific notes, and if 215 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,760 Speaker 1: you were to force air through this pipe, it would 216 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:37,040 Speaker 1: produce the note it had been tuned to. And you 217 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,040 Speaker 1: would have keys that you could press down, and if 218 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:43,520 Speaker 1: you press on a key, it would essentially allow a 219 00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 1: valve to open for that specific pipe, and air would 220 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: then be able to pass through. But where did the 221 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:52,880 Speaker 1: air come from? Right? Yes, if you press the key, 222 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:55,240 Speaker 1: it opens up this air path and that would allow 223 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,160 Speaker 1: a note to play for air to force through the pipe, 224 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: But the air has to come from somewhere. Well. The 225 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,400 Speaker 1: air came courtesy of a chamber that was partly filled 226 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: with water, and a bellows like pump would force air 227 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 1: into this chamber, so the air would actually start to 228 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: push the water down, and the water would have this 229 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: regular pressure on the air inside valve would stop the 230 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,720 Speaker 1: air from just flowing right back out towards where the 231 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:26,440 Speaker 1: bellows were, where the pump was, and when you pressed 232 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: down a key, it would allow the air and escape route, 233 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,920 Speaker 1: so it would go out and go through the pipe, 234 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:36,120 Speaker 1: And by continuing to pump the bellows, you would continue 235 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:40,640 Speaker 1: to maintain pressure inside this chamber that also had water 236 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: in it, so that you could continue to play the instrument. 237 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,720 Speaker 1: And this thing is thousands of years old. It was 238 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,840 Speaker 1: before a common era when this was invented. It's it's 239 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:54,400 Speaker 1: incredibly ingenious. I would love to do a full episode 240 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:59,000 Speaker 1: about um pipe organs and reed organs and their history 241 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: because it is really fascinating. It's also a little complicated 242 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,680 Speaker 1: to talk about without the use of visual aids, so 243 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: it's a daunting principle. But anyway, this basic idea would 244 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: evolve over time and we would get pipe and read 245 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: organs that you might be more familiar with. In fact, 246 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: once upon a time I actually owned some bellows organs, 247 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 1: some pump organs where I could move the foot pedals 248 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:30,200 Speaker 1: to pump air into the organ and then play um 249 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:32,680 Speaker 1: musical notes, and you had to keep on pumping if 250 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:35,200 Speaker 1: you wanted to maintain that pressure. To be able to 251 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:40,440 Speaker 1: do that, it was really neat. So then we get 252 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 1: to devices similar to the organets that would take advantage 253 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,680 Speaker 1: of this air pressure idea, but they would remove the 254 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:53,920 Speaker 1: human player from the experience. UH. One of these, a 255 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: predecessor to the organet was the barrel organ or roller oregan. 256 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 1: So with a barrel organ, you have a pump or 257 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,640 Speaker 1: bellows that provides air power. You have musical notes that 258 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: get produced through pipes or reads, but instead of a keyboard, 259 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:14,959 Speaker 1: the valves for these pipes connect to little levers, and 260 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: you program music on a cob or barrel. So this 261 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,800 Speaker 1: is a cylinder and has various little projections on it, 262 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: like a little spike or sometimes kind of staples, similar 263 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,000 Speaker 1: to what you might see with a music box. If 264 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:29,840 Speaker 1: you've ever looked into a music box and seeing the 265 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 1: little barrel turning has a little projections on it. So 266 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:38,160 Speaker 1: these little protrusions would come into contact with these levers 267 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:41,480 Speaker 1: connected to the valves, and when they would. It would 268 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:45,000 Speaker 1: make the valve open, which would allow air to escape 269 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:50,119 Speaker 1: the chamber of the instrument through a read or pipe, 270 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:54,400 Speaker 1: and a note would play. So as the cylinder rotates, 271 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,359 Speaker 1: it hits these levers to produce pre programmed music. The 272 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:00,639 Speaker 1: quality of the music depends largely on the quality of 273 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:03,040 Speaker 1: the pre programmed barrel. If you did a poor job 274 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:06,440 Speaker 1: placing the pens and staples on the barrel, then the 275 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:09,000 Speaker 1: songs just not gonna sound right. The staples, by the way, 276 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:12,159 Speaker 1: would hold a valve open longer than just one of 277 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,399 Speaker 1: the little projections would, so if you needed a sustained note, 278 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: you would use these staples to do that. Now, if 279 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:23,040 Speaker 1: you've ever encountered an organ grinder, like a person who 280 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:25,520 Speaker 1: plays one of these on the street, or you've seen 281 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:27,879 Speaker 1: one in movies or whatnot, you have seen a version 282 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,919 Speaker 1: of the barrel organ. They are typically cranked by hand, 283 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,240 Speaker 1: and the hand crank powers both the bellows and the 284 00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: rotation of the barrel itself. And again, I would need 285 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:41,640 Speaker 1: to do a full episode to talk about the technology 286 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: behind this, the various gears that allow this to happen, 287 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:49,760 Speaker 1: because it's really fascinating stuff. But let's finally get too orcadets, 288 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:53,560 Speaker 1: so rather than using a barrel with these little projections 289 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:57,800 Speaker 1: or a cob like the organ grinder and barrel organ devices, 290 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:02,560 Speaker 1: they would use referred of material through which air could 291 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: flow freely. Some organets depended upon forcing air through the holes, 292 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,280 Speaker 1: like blowing air through the holes in order to engage 293 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 1: with reads and play a note. Others would create a 294 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,919 Speaker 1: vacuum so they would pull air through the holes and 295 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,640 Speaker 1: essentially do the same. It's really not that different from 296 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,919 Speaker 1: how a harmonica works. Like if you ever play to harmonica, 297 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,880 Speaker 1: you know that if you blow air, you will make 298 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,240 Speaker 1: the reads vibrate and get a certain sound. If you 299 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,520 Speaker 1: suck air in, the reads will vibrate and you'll get 300 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 1: a slightly different sound. So anyway, the solid bits of material, 301 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,320 Speaker 1: like the solid bits of of the paper or the 302 00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:43,959 Speaker 1: disc block airflow right. Air cannot flow through solid paper 303 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:47,399 Speaker 1: or solid metal, So in those cases like no note 304 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:51,320 Speaker 1: plays because it has it can't go through the material. 305 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,800 Speaker 1: A hole allows a note to play out. Now, most 306 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:59,240 Speaker 1: organets had between fourteen and forty or really more frequently 307 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:03,760 Speaker 1: thirty nine reads, so your media would have to match 308 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:07,200 Speaker 1: the instrument to play properly. Right, if your player only 309 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:13,560 Speaker 1: had fourteen reads and you had a paper roll designed 310 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: for a thirty nine read device. It won't work because 311 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,280 Speaker 1: you can't line things up properly and you have to 312 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:22,160 Speaker 1: line up the whole's just right, or else the wrong 313 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 1: notes are gonna play, or you're gonna destroy the recording 314 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 1: now or the program, I should say, it's not even 315 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 1: a recording, it's a program. One version of the organ 316 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,639 Speaker 1: at used metal discs, which were not this similar to 317 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,160 Speaker 1: record albums, except these had holes punched in them as 318 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,760 Speaker 1: opposed to grooves cut into them, and you would align 319 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:45,959 Speaker 1: them properly on the organette. You would turn a crank 320 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,959 Speaker 1: and this would turn the disc and wind would go 321 00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:51,280 Speaker 1: through it and through to the reads, and you would 322 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:56,199 Speaker 1: play the pre program music. And it's pretty impressive stuff. 323 00:20:56,240 --> 00:20:59,520 Speaker 1: Their videos on YouTube where you can watch people demonstrating 324 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 1: how Gannett's work, including these metal disc versions, and some 325 00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:07,479 Speaker 1: of them sound really nice, like they're tuned really nicely 326 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,800 Speaker 1: and they're producing nice notes. But the rise of the 327 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 1: phonograph would reduce organets to curiosities. And while they are 328 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: highly sought after today by collectors, at the time when 329 00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:22,239 Speaker 1: phonographs were starting to rise in popularity, most folks were 330 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,200 Speaker 1: just putting their organ ets away and not thinking about 331 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:29,879 Speaker 1: them anymore. These days, I could arguably talk about film 332 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 1: being a nearly obsolete medium, almost completely replaced by video, 333 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:39,120 Speaker 1: but that seems particularly harsh and it's not completely true. 334 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:42,440 Speaker 1: I mean, there are still filmmakers who are using actual 335 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:47,040 Speaker 1: film in their and their projects. Photographic and cinematic film 336 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,720 Speaker 1: has been around for more than a century. Basically, it 337 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: all has to do with a strip of plastic film 338 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,600 Speaker 1: coded in photoreactive chemicals. When these are exposed to light, 339 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:59,280 Speaker 1: the chemicals on the film react. And if you were 340 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:01,960 Speaker 1: to put such a film in a device that can 341 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:05,520 Speaker 1: direct light to the film using a lens and a 342 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,879 Speaker 1: shutter to control when the light can come through and 343 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: when it can't, you can make yourself a fancy schmancy 344 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:14,119 Speaker 1: film camera and capture images. It will capture whatever the 345 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: light captured when it was entering the lens and hit 346 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,720 Speaker 1: the film. At that point you have to develop the film, 347 00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,280 Speaker 1: create a negative image, and then transfer that over to 348 00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,640 Speaker 1: new film to get your positive image. But then you've 349 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,359 Speaker 1: got your cinematic masterpiece. Now Here in the States, film 350 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,439 Speaker 1: enthusiasts became familiar with eight millimeter sixteen millimeter and Super 351 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:39,120 Speaker 1: eight formats, So the millimeter refers to essentially the width 352 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,680 Speaker 1: of the film, the strip of film. So an eight 353 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,200 Speaker 1: millimeter film is shot on a strip of film that's 354 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:49,159 Speaker 1: approximately eight millimeters wide. Now it could be really really long, 355 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,640 Speaker 1: but it's eight millimeters wide. Super eight is also eight 356 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,959 Speaker 1: millimeters wide. But it allows the image to take up 357 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,800 Speaker 1: a little bit more of the space on that film, 358 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: a little more of the width of the film. And 359 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:05,280 Speaker 1: you might wonder, well, how is that even possible? What 360 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 1: has to do with the way that film gets pulled 361 00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:11,640 Speaker 1: through a camera or a projector. See, film has these 362 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:16,160 Speaker 1: little perforations, and eight millimeter has these perforations down one 363 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,400 Speaker 1: side of the film, and you you get these little 364 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,600 Speaker 1: perforations hooked into a sprocket in the camera or the projector, 365 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,520 Speaker 1: and it engages the perforations. So when the sprocket begins 366 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,600 Speaker 1: to turn, it pulls the film along and you can 367 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,680 Speaker 1: either record with a camera or playback with a projector. 368 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:40,000 Speaker 1: Super eight makes these perforations smaller than the older eight 369 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: millimeter film did. That means you don't need as much 370 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:45,879 Speaker 1: space around the perforations. You can actually dedicate more of 371 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:49,040 Speaker 1: that space to the image itself and get a bigger 372 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,280 Speaker 1: image out of super eight than you would out of 373 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: regular old eight millimeter film. Uh. Anyway, while you can 374 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:57,960 Speaker 1: still find super eight film and the occasional place to 375 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,880 Speaker 1: develop it, which is getting harder to do all the time, 376 00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,159 Speaker 1: there's another format that never really took off here in 377 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 1: the United States, but it was popular in other parts 378 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:09,920 Speaker 1: of the world, and that's nine point five millimeter film, 379 00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,640 Speaker 1: which first emerged in the nineteen twenties in Europe. So yeah, 380 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,360 Speaker 1: this film is a little bit wider than eight millimeter, 381 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,680 Speaker 1: and it also used a different approach to those perforations. 382 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,000 Speaker 1: So instead of having the perforations to the side of 383 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,119 Speaker 1: the image the way eight millimeter does, the nine point 384 00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: five millimeter film has perforations that are between the individual 385 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: frames the images themselves. So think of a film strip 386 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:39,119 Speaker 1: as really just a series of still photographs one after 387 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,359 Speaker 1: the other. When you play them back fast enough, you 388 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:45,200 Speaker 1: have the illusion of movement. Well, this means that between 389 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: say photo one and photo two, right in the middle 390 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:51,760 Speaker 1: between the two you have a perforation, and then below 391 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,720 Speaker 1: photo two and above photo three you've got another perforation. 392 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,520 Speaker 1: So instead of to the side it's above and below 393 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 1: the images. Now, the benefit of that is you can 394 00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:05,399 Speaker 1: dedicate even more of the width of your film to 395 00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: capturing an image. And the actual image area of nine 396 00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 1: point five five millimeters isn't that less, not much less 397 00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:18,000 Speaker 1: than what we get with a sixteen millimeter camera, So 398 00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,320 Speaker 1: in ways it was superior to eight millimeter. Now, the 399 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,800 Speaker 1: nine point five millimeter format technically still exists, but it 400 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,400 Speaker 1: caters to a pretty small group of hobbyists and enthusiasts. 401 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,639 Speaker 1: And in the world of film, you're looking at a 402 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:37,920 Speaker 1: world that's slowly dying or at least diminishing, and nine 403 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 1: point five millimeter occupies a special place in this overall 404 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: community that's slowly becoming more and more obscure. The format 405 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,240 Speaker 1: means you need a special projector to play it back 406 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:54,080 Speaker 1: where else you risk damaging the film itself. Uh And 407 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:59,879 Speaker 1: those centered perforations really are what caused the problems there. Okay, 408 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,359 Speaker 1: we've got some more obsolete forms of media to talk about, 409 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,720 Speaker 1: but before we jump into all that, let's take another break. 410 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,320 Speaker 1: You know, when I was looking into different types of 411 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:22,480 Speaker 1: obsolete formats, I came across the couple I had never 412 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,239 Speaker 1: heard of before, and that's always fun for me and 413 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,159 Speaker 1: one of the ones that I had never heard before, 414 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,440 Speaker 1: but it you know, some of my listeners y'all might 415 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:32,960 Speaker 1: have heard of it, especially if you come from or 416 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,280 Speaker 1: lived in Germany. Is the tef I phone, and that 417 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,400 Speaker 1: was developed in the mid nineteen thirties but really saw 418 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,720 Speaker 1: a limited success on the market in Germany in the 419 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 1: late forties and into the nineteen fifties. Uh. It gives 420 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,560 Speaker 1: me large nerd drunk Collider vibes. And if you don't 421 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,159 Speaker 1: know what large ner droun Collider is, it's a podcast 422 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,960 Speaker 1: that I co host with my friend Ariel, and one 423 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: of the things we do is we typically take two 424 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,199 Speaker 1: unrelated pop culture concepts and we mashed them together to 425 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,760 Speaker 1: find out what they make, usually for comedic effect. The 426 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,119 Speaker 1: taffy phone kind of mashes up two different media formats 427 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: and creates something of its own. So it's kind of 428 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,160 Speaker 1: like a cross between a vinyl record and an eight 429 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,800 Speaker 1: track tape, which is another mostly obscure piece of technology 430 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,159 Speaker 1: we could talk about, but I've talked about when plenty 431 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 1: of other episodes, so we won't cover it here. So 432 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: the teff E phone has uh the capacity to play 433 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:32,919 Speaker 1: special cartridges it's a cartridge playing media device. Now, the 434 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:38,640 Speaker 1: cartridge itself contains a reel of plastic tape, and it's 435 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:42,800 Speaker 1: it's an endless loop reel, meaning you don't have a 436 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,199 Speaker 1: point where the beginning of the real attaches or the 437 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:49,000 Speaker 1: beginning of the tape attaches to the real and the 438 00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:52,200 Speaker 1: end of the tape attaches to the reel. Uh. It's 439 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:55,879 Speaker 1: kind of like a rubber band. It's it's a long loop. 440 00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:58,840 Speaker 1: It does wrap around the reel several times, but it 441 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: allows you to just it all the way through. So, 442 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:09,480 Speaker 1: this plastic tape does not store audio in magnetic form. 443 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,199 Speaker 1: That's what audio cassettes and a tracks do. They have 444 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:17,399 Speaker 1: a plastic strip of tape that's coated with magnetic material 445 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:21,760 Speaker 1: or ferro magnetic material that when you apply a magnetic 446 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,880 Speaker 1: field to it, you can record audio. Right, That's not 447 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:32,040 Speaker 1: how these cartridges work. Instead, the plastic tape inside the 448 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:38,200 Speaker 1: taffy phone cartridge has grooves in it, just like a 449 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:43,520 Speaker 1: vinyl record. Right. So imagine that you lay out a 450 00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,480 Speaker 1: long length of tape horizontally. Let's say that you got 451 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:50,320 Speaker 1: one of these cartridges and for some reason you decided 452 00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,960 Speaker 1: to cut the tape out so that you just have 453 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,880 Speaker 1: one long strip that stretches out in front of you horizontally. 454 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: You would see that there is a there is a 455 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:06,719 Speaker 1: series of grooves across that tape on the horizontal plane, 456 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: so that if you were to put a stylus inside 457 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,640 Speaker 1: that groove, it would travel all the way down that length, 458 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:16,960 Speaker 1: and if you had not cut the tape, you would 459 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,520 Speaker 1: see that at the far right end of the tape. 460 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,440 Speaker 1: It would then move down on the left end, and 461 00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:26,160 Speaker 1: the groove would continue because it's spirals when it's a 462 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:29,200 Speaker 1: loop if you haven't cut the tape into one long strip, 463 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:35,160 Speaker 1: so this groove spirals across the entire length of this tape, 464 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,760 Speaker 1: and that means that you put a stylus into that 465 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,520 Speaker 1: groove and you push play, and it travels down the 466 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: groove just like a record player stylus would, and you 467 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: can listen to audio that's been recorded in that that 468 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: format and it'll play for as long as that tape lasts. 469 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,360 Speaker 1: The tape came in different lengths. You had some cartridges 470 00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,160 Speaker 1: that could hold fifteen minutes of audio, some that could 471 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: hold an hour worth of audio, and the large ones 472 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:07,840 Speaker 1: could hold up to four hours of audio. So, yeah, 473 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,360 Speaker 1: the players stylus settles onto the tape. Usually this is 474 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,800 Speaker 1: out of you. It's under a cover where you can't 475 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,200 Speaker 1: mess with stuff. Uh, though sometimes depending on the model, 476 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,360 Speaker 1: you could see what was happening, and the stylus vibrates 477 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,840 Speaker 1: as it travels to the groove. Those vibrations cause a 478 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 1: little electro magnet to produce a tiny electric charge, which, 479 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,760 Speaker 1: when amplified and sent to speakers, can play back the 480 00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,120 Speaker 1: recorded sound. Now, as I said, the tape is a 481 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,680 Speaker 1: closed loop. If you were to listen to a recording 482 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,920 Speaker 1: from the beginning, or at least as close as you 483 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,560 Speaker 1: could get to the beginning, you would start with the 484 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: stylus in the top position along the the width of 485 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,360 Speaker 1: this tape. Remember, if we were to lay it out horizontally, 486 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: we're looking at the the width of the tape, and 487 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,720 Speaker 1: you would want it at the top of that width, 488 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,560 Speaker 1: and the stylus would sell into a groove and it 489 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: would continue on until it got to the end. Once 490 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,640 Speaker 1: it got to the end, by the way, it would 491 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 1: enter a closed circle of tape where it would just 492 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,000 Speaker 1: play a chime over and over again rather than spiral. 493 00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:13,640 Speaker 1: So like the stylus would never come off the groove. 494 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,160 Speaker 1: It would just enter into a repeating circle that would 495 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,800 Speaker 1: play a chime that would alert you that you've reached 496 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,160 Speaker 1: the end of the recording and that you need to 497 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,480 Speaker 1: turn off the player or reset it to a higher 498 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,240 Speaker 1: uh part of the groove. You could adjust where the 499 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,200 Speaker 1: stylus was using a little control. The control would let 500 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: you adjust the height of where the stylus was along 501 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,360 Speaker 1: uh with respect to the tape. But you couldn't just 502 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:43,080 Speaker 1: choose a track to play, because again, it's recorded on 503 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,280 Speaker 1: this endless loop. You could get kind of close, but 504 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: you might hear like, oh, this is in the middle 505 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:51,080 Speaker 1: of the song I wanted to hear, So you would 506 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 1: actually have to move the stylus up a notch and 507 00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,280 Speaker 1: listen to the end of a previous bit of music 508 00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:58,880 Speaker 1: before it would get to whatever it was he wanted 509 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: to hear. It was not a super user friendly approach 510 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,520 Speaker 1: to listening to music, but it was incredibly clever and 511 00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 1: I had never seen this before. I didn't realize that 512 00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:12,480 Speaker 1: there were these devices that could record grooves onto tapes 513 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:16,720 Speaker 1: similar to what you would find with a record. So yeah, 514 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: pretty fascinating taffy phone. I I would love to get 515 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:25,120 Speaker 1: my hands on one, although there's very limited media available 516 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,000 Speaker 1: for taffy phone. One of the reasons why the teff 517 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:30,840 Speaker 1: e phone ultimately failed. Um, most of the media is 518 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:33,720 Speaker 1: in German. There are a lot of covers of songs 519 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:38,200 Speaker 1: sung by German singers, so like famous songs coming out 520 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:41,720 Speaker 1: of America would be covered by Germans, so you would 521 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: get a German speaking version of like two D Fruity, 522 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,800 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But the reason why there wasn't 523 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,960 Speaker 1: that much content for the taffy phone is that a 524 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:56,080 Speaker 1: lot of the established artists had signed exclusive deals with 525 00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:59,240 Speaker 1: music record labels and they weren't allowed to record for 526 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:05,120 Speaker 1: any other foreim factors, so that never really took off. 527 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:09,600 Speaker 1: And while you can still find old taffy phone players 528 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 1: and cassettes on like used markets and stuff. Um. Like 529 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:17,320 Speaker 1: I said, I never even encountered it before I did 530 00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:19,360 Speaker 1: my research for this, and then as as soon as 531 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:21,200 Speaker 1: I saw when I thought I really wish I had 532 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,560 Speaker 1: one of those, they look super neat. I would need 533 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:27,080 Speaker 1: so much extra equipment to be able to play them 534 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: because they have all the fittings for nineteen fifties era 535 00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:36,000 Speaker 1: German outlets and German sound systems, and I don't have 536 00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:37,960 Speaker 1: any of that, so it would be a heck of 537 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,360 Speaker 1: a lot of work to get one to a point 538 00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:42,880 Speaker 1: where I could listen to it. But it's a fascinating 539 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 1: variation of technology that I'm otherwise familiar with. Then let's 540 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:53,360 Speaker 1: talk really quickly about wire recorders, because these were the 541 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:59,000 Speaker 1: predecessors too real to real magnetic tape recorders, and then 542 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:04,840 Speaker 1: those of or sur predecessors to cassette recorders. These wire 543 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 1: recorders used stainless steel wire, and this idea originated out 544 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,480 Speaker 1: of the tail into the nineteenth century, but it actually 545 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,719 Speaker 1: take a few decades before enough improvements in technology made 546 00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:21,280 Speaker 1: it a viable option. Um it became a useful tool 547 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 1: during World War Two, and uh a consumer product that 548 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:31,239 Speaker 1: saw limited success. So the idea is pretty simple. You've 549 00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:34,359 Speaker 1: got a magnetic head that generates a magnetic field in 550 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,120 Speaker 1: response to an electric current, which could be coming from 551 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:41,680 Speaker 1: say a microphone. You run this magnetic wire or the 552 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:44,560 Speaker 1: steel wire pass this magnetic head at a good clip, 553 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:50,200 Speaker 1: and the magnetic head magnetizes the steel wire point by point. 554 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:56,360 Speaker 1: This magnetic field is fluctuating both in polarity and in intensity, 555 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,760 Speaker 1: so the wire carries all that right as the wire 556 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 1: passes by the polarity and intensity determines how that part 557 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:10,480 Speaker 1: of the wire is magnetized. And so this variation in 558 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:14,320 Speaker 1: the magnetic field, coupled with the speed of the wire 559 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:20,239 Speaker 1: passing below this this right head creates a record of 560 00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:24,719 Speaker 1: those fluctuations. When you run the wire back across a 561 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:28,160 Speaker 1: similar head that can pick up these magnetic fluctuations that 562 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:32,080 Speaker 1: are now held by the wire itself, the process can reverse. 563 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,759 Speaker 1: It will generate an electric signal that is a duplicate 564 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,400 Speaker 1: of the original electric signal that made the recording in 565 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,440 Speaker 1: the first place. And you feed that signal to an 566 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: amplifier and some speakers and viola, you got yourself playback sound. 567 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:49,960 Speaker 1: So to imagine what one of these looks like, you 568 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:51,759 Speaker 1: can think of kind of like the old real to 569 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,320 Speaker 1: real magnetic tape recorders, if you've seen one of those. 570 00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:57,879 Speaker 1: So you've got a device has got two spindles on it, 571 00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:00,640 Speaker 1: and this is where you can put two eels on 572 00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:05,239 Speaker 1: to these spindles, one reel per spindle. One of those 573 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:08,799 Speaker 1: reels is wound up with this magnetized wire that's got 574 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:12,319 Speaker 1: your recording on it. The other reel is empty, and 575 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:17,160 Speaker 1: you feed the free end of your magnetized wire through 576 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:23,000 Speaker 1: the wire playback machine, and then you secure that end 577 00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:26,600 Speaker 1: to the empty reel that's on the opposite side of 578 00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:30,000 Speaker 1: the machine. When you turn the machine on and you 579 00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: initiate playback, the empty spindle or the empty reel on 580 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,720 Speaker 1: the spindle begins to turn and pulls the wire through 581 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,560 Speaker 1: the machine, and the reed head picks up on the 582 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:46,520 Speaker 1: magnetic fluctuations and the wire and plays back the sounds. 583 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:51,320 Speaker 1: So yeah, exact same principle as real to reel tape machines, 584 00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:55,520 Speaker 1: except it was using a steel wire rather than plastic 585 00:36:55,600 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: tape coated with magnetic material on it. Tape recorders were 586 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 1: in development by the time the wire recorder tech was 587 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:05,640 Speaker 1: good enough to actually put on the market, and once 588 00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:10,120 Speaker 1: tape recorders became affordable, then the industry pretty much dumped 589 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,920 Speaker 1: wire recorders and switched strictly to tape. The use of 590 00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:19,040 Speaker 1: wire recorders still was something that some places would rely on, 591 00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 1: but it did fade over time, essentially becoming a curiosity 592 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: by the late nineteen sixties. Speaking of magnetic tape, let's 593 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,799 Speaker 1: talk about a couple of video cassette formats that predated 594 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:36,160 Speaker 1: both Beta max and VHS. This is where we'll wrap 595 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:41,080 Speaker 1: up for this episode. Now, before VHS and Beta Max 596 00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:44,960 Speaker 1: would wage format wars with each other, which was a 597 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,400 Speaker 1: big thing in the seventies and into the early eighties, 598 00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,719 Speaker 1: we had other formats. We had the u Matic cassette, 599 00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:54,680 Speaker 1: which came from Sony. The company had been working on 600 00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:58,240 Speaker 1: the technology in the late nineteen sixties and was ready 601 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:01,440 Speaker 1: to debut it in the nineteenes seventies, and this was 602 00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:05,879 Speaker 1: one of the first cassette formats for video tape. So 603 00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:08,680 Speaker 1: before the video cassette, the go to was the real 604 00:38:08,719 --> 00:38:11,320 Speaker 1: to real tapes, which worked on a very similar principle 605 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,560 Speaker 1: to the wire recorders I just talked about. You would 606 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,520 Speaker 1: attach a reel of tape to one spindle on a player, 607 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,160 Speaker 1: feed the tape through the device, connect that into the 608 00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:22,960 Speaker 1: tape to the empty reel on the other side. The 609 00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,440 Speaker 1: empty reel would rotate when you started to record or playback, 610 00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:30,560 Speaker 1: and the tape would be pulled past the rewrite head. 611 00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:33,200 Speaker 1: So same thing as the wire recorder, just using tape 612 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,880 Speaker 1: instead of wire, but reels meant that the tape was 613 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,840 Speaker 1: a little bit vulnerable to the environment. Plus it was 614 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:43,759 Speaker 1: possible for the tape to unspool off the reel, like 615 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,120 Speaker 1: if you held it the wrong way, you might start 616 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,840 Speaker 1: like dropping tape everywhere, and that was a heck of 617 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:52,120 Speaker 1: a mess to fix um. And the idea behind the 618 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 1: cassette was that the tape would be protected by the 619 00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:58,040 Speaker 1: cassette's body. It would be unable to come unspooled under 620 00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:01,560 Speaker 1: normal circumstances anyway, and it was protected from dust and 621 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,480 Speaker 1: other stuff, and it could be stored really easily and 622 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:10,120 Speaker 1: organized really easily, much easier than real to real tape. 623 00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:13,040 Speaker 1: When it took up less space, it was easy to find, 624 00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:17,440 Speaker 1: so it had a lot of pros going for it. Now, 625 00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:21,520 Speaker 1: the umatic was mostly used in broadcast stations. It was 626 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,480 Speaker 1: originally intended to be a consumer product. It just didn't 627 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:28,080 Speaker 1: quite make it, but it did make it within the 628 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:31,560 Speaker 1: TV industry. The cassettes came in two different sizes, but 629 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:35,080 Speaker 1: the full size measured eight and five eight inches by 630 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:38,480 Speaker 1: five and three eighth inches by one and a half inches, 631 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:42,520 Speaker 1: and that made them larger than VHS and beta cassettes 632 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:46,440 Speaker 1: that would come out later on. So these were big cassettes. 633 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,520 Speaker 1: They are kind of bulky. The machines that you needed 634 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:53,240 Speaker 1: to play them on were also big and heavy and bulky. 635 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,759 Speaker 1: And the Umatic was called the umatic because if you 636 00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,120 Speaker 1: could look through a machine while it cassette was being played, 637 00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,040 Speaker 1: you would see that the tape inside the cassette was 638 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,799 Speaker 1: being pulled out and moved through a U shape as 639 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:13,040 Speaker 1: it passed over the video head device. Also, oddly enough, 640 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:18,359 Speaker 1: unlike every other cassette that I'm aware of, the reels 641 00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:21,400 Speaker 1: would turn an opposite directions, Like if you look at 642 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:25,040 Speaker 1: an old audio cassette, if real on the left is 643 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:27,399 Speaker 1: turning counter clockwise, the reel on the right is also 644 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: turning counter clockwise. Not so much with the U matics. 645 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 1: If the reel on the left is turning counterclockwise, the 646 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,640 Speaker 1: reel on the right is turning clockwise. This is because 647 00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,520 Speaker 1: of how the tape was fed through the cassette and 648 00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:41,759 Speaker 1: looped around the video head. But yeah, the first time 649 00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:44,879 Speaker 1: I saw that in action, I thought, how the heck 650 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,520 Speaker 1: is this working? Because you would think it would reach 651 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:49,200 Speaker 1: a point where it's like a tug of war, But no, 652 00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:52,200 Speaker 1: it's because the way the tape is fed through Anyway. 653 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,360 Speaker 1: Sony reportedly wanted the you Matic to be a consumer product, 654 00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:58,160 Speaker 1: like I said, but the costom manufacturing was so high 655 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: that the sales price of the machines was just prohibitively 656 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:06,520 Speaker 1: expensive for the average consumer. But the broadcast industry adopted 657 00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: Umatic as a relatively inexpensive upgrade from real to real tapes, 658 00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:15,280 Speaker 1: and it would let them store these cassettes much more easily, 659 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:17,920 Speaker 1: and that was great for broadcast TV, where you might 660 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:20,760 Speaker 1: need to go back into the archives and pull something 661 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:23,759 Speaker 1: so that you can reference it in, say a new broadcast. 662 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,680 Speaker 1: So it really saw a lot of use in television stations, 663 00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:33,839 Speaker 1: even though it didn't really ever emerge in the consumer market. Ultimately, 664 00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,720 Speaker 1: even TV stations moved away from you matic over time, 665 00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,080 Speaker 1: though there's still a lot of stations I'm told that 666 00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:44,279 Speaker 1: have a Umatic player and still have Umatic tapes just 667 00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:46,840 Speaker 1: in the off chance that they ever need to play 668 00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:50,680 Speaker 1: archived footage and they just haven't transferred that over to 669 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 1: a newer medium. So that's interesting. And finally, the other 670 00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,560 Speaker 1: video cassette kind of precursor I want to talk about 671 00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:01,840 Speaker 1: is a format again. They came out three years I 672 00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:05,520 Speaker 1: think before VHS and Beta are really beta because VHS 673 00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:09,760 Speaker 1: came later. And I'm talking about the Cartra vision system. 674 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:14,200 Speaker 1: A guy called Frank Stanton created the Cartridge Television Incorporated 675 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:18,600 Speaker 1: company that produced the cart Re Vision Cartridge Television Incorporated 676 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:22,239 Speaker 1: was a subsidiary to a subsidiary. It gets down a 677 00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,200 Speaker 1: crazy rabbit hole. I tried to track it down, and 678 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:27,919 Speaker 1: ultimately I said, you know what, this doesn't matter as 679 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:31,560 Speaker 1: far as the actual format concerned, So I abandoned it. 680 00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:35,560 Speaker 1: But apparently it was part of like a aerospace company 681 00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:38,319 Speaker 1: at some point, which in itself was part of a 682 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:42,400 Speaker 1: former textile company. This has got crazy anyway. The idea 683 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:45,560 Speaker 1: behind cart revision was to create a system that included 684 00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:49,839 Speaker 1: both a television and a cartridge based playing system, with 685 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:55,680 Speaker 1: cartridges containing content like movies and shows, but also record 686 00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:58,680 Speaker 1: ability like you could get a blank cartridge and record 687 00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,919 Speaker 1: TV programs to your blank cartridge so you can watch 688 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:06,440 Speaker 1: them back later, all the basic function of later VCRs. 689 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:12,239 Speaker 1: So you might wonder why did the cart revision disappear 690 00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:19,320 Speaker 1: when later formats like Beta and VHS managed to succeed. Well, 691 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,640 Speaker 1: there are a few reasons. A big one was that 692 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,480 Speaker 1: because this was a combination television and player. Uh was 693 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:32,600 Speaker 1: that this was a big, bulky and expensive piece of technology. 694 00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:35,080 Speaker 1: Depending upon what source you look at, the cost was 695 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,960 Speaker 1: anywhere between thirteen hundred and sixteen hundred bucks. Way back 696 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:42,320 Speaker 1: in nineteen two, So that puts it somewhere between nine thousand, 697 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:46,920 Speaker 1: five hundred dollars and eleven thousand, three hundred fifty bucks today. 698 00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:52,879 Speaker 1: That's wicked price for a little bit of consumer home technology. 699 00:43:52,920 --> 00:43:57,600 Speaker 1: But the concept for cartrovision for saw some interesting stuff 700 00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:02,480 Speaker 1: like movie rentals. Cartridge tele Vision was renting out movies 701 00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:06,960 Speaker 1: to customers. They came in special red cartridges. Most cartridges 702 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,840 Speaker 1: were black with like a label on them that reflected 703 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:13,359 Speaker 1: whatever the content was. The rental ones were red, red 704 00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:17,640 Speaker 1: plastic cartridges, and they would send these cartridges via ups 705 00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:19,640 Speaker 1: to customers and then the customers would be able to 706 00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:21,520 Speaker 1: watch the movie and they were supposed to send it 707 00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:26,840 Speaker 1: back via ups. And interestingly, these rental cartridges were rigged 708 00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:30,640 Speaker 1: to only play once for a customer, So there'll be 709 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:33,520 Speaker 1: no reason for you to keep your rental, right because 710 00:44:33,560 --> 00:44:37,279 Speaker 1: you can only watch it once, you could not get 711 00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:38,799 Speaker 1: any more use of it, so you might as well 712 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:41,359 Speaker 1: send it back. That was the thinking, and the way 713 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:44,239 Speaker 1: it works was these cartridges had essentially what amounted to 714 00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:47,600 Speaker 1: a breaking system, like like pumping the brakes on a car, 715 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:53,360 Speaker 1: that would prevent customers from being able to rewind the cartridge. 716 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:58,000 Speaker 1: It would not rewind in a consumer card division system, 717 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:00,880 Speaker 1: so you'd be able to watch through the rental one time, 718 00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:03,640 Speaker 1: but you couldn't rewind it to watch it again, so 719 00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:06,120 Speaker 1: you would have to send the cartridge back. And then 720 00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:12,239 Speaker 1: the Cartridge Television Incorporated had devices that could actually rewind 721 00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:14,960 Speaker 1: the rented cartridges and then send them back out to 722 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:18,920 Speaker 1: the next rental customer, but the rental system wasn't convenient. 723 00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:21,399 Speaker 1: Folks were not crazy about the idea of not being 724 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,400 Speaker 1: able to watch something more than once, or even be 725 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:27,440 Speaker 1: able to rewind a cartridge briefly in case they missed 726 00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:30,600 Speaker 1: something while they were watching a film, so that was 727 00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:34,920 Speaker 1: another strike against the format. But a truly huge problem 728 00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:40,839 Speaker 1: was that the initial batch of cartridges went bad. They 729 00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:45,000 Speaker 1: had been stored in warehouses that had poor environmental controls, 730 00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:49,640 Speaker 1: and apparently as a result of humidity, there was massive 731 00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:55,279 Speaker 1: problems with the tape degrading inside the cartridges, which effectively 732 00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:59,200 Speaker 1: rotted out the cartridges. They were useless. They could even 733 00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:03,080 Speaker 1: you know, jam up a working system, so there was 734 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,879 Speaker 1: a recall on all those cartridges, and that meant that 735 00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:10,600 Speaker 1: now you had this playback device that had no content, 736 00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:13,760 Speaker 1: you could play back on it and by the time 737 00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:16,560 Speaker 1: the company was trying to get things back in the 738 00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:20,880 Speaker 1: right direction, it was already too late. The marketplace was unforgiving. 739 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:26,360 Speaker 1: Wall Street downgraded the company severely. The whole project folded. 740 00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:29,759 Speaker 1: Only a couple of thousand units were reportedly sold in 741 00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,840 Speaker 1: the first place. Collectors still seek out systems and cartridges 742 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,800 Speaker 1: to this day, but it is definitely an obsolete format. 743 00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:40,080 Speaker 1: It did not stand the test of time like VHS, 744 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:43,520 Speaker 1: which of course is also obsolete at this point, but 745 00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:47,279 Speaker 1: you know, it at least had a longer moment in 746 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:51,680 Speaker 1: the spotlight than cartridge Television managed with their car division 747 00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:56,680 Speaker 1: or cart revision. All right, that's enough for this episode. 748 00:46:56,680 --> 00:47:00,120 Speaker 1: There's obviously lots of other examples. My beloved Seat E 749 00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:03,719 Speaker 1: D is a great one. I have one sitting right 750 00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:07,279 Speaker 1: next to me, and that's an obsolete format, if ever 751 00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 1: there was one, But I've talked about it before. I'll 752 00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:13,120 Speaker 1: probably talk about it again. If you have suggestions for 753 00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:15,280 Speaker 1: topics I should cover in future episodes of Tech Stuff, 754 00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:19,319 Speaker 1: whether it's obsolete media or something entirely different, let me know. 755 00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:21,239 Speaker 1: One way to do that is to download the I 756 00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:24,040 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app. It's free to download, and news you 757 00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:26,560 Speaker 1: can navigate over to tech Stuff. Click on that little 758 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:29,759 Speaker 1: icon that has the microphone on it. You can leave 759 00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,080 Speaker 1: a voice message up to thirty seconds and links for me, 760 00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,040 Speaker 1: or you can drop me a message on Twitter. The 761 00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:37,840 Speaker 1: handle for the show is tech Stuff H s W 762 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:47,920 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 763 00:47:48,040 --> 00:47:51,160 Speaker 1: is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from 764 00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:55,000 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 765 00:47:55,080 --> 00:48:00,279 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Zero