Groundbreaking recording devices at The Smithsonian

It's dangerous to post these historic web sites around here since so many (especially our host) have already covered just about everything. I'm going to take a risk anyway and point you to this site, which has photos and brief explanations of some interesting relics from the past.

Most peculiar is #7, the "Mikiphone Pocket Phonograph" from 1917.

Interesting also is the "Fi-Cord", a little tape recorder that claimed an impressive response of "50-12,000 cps". Seems unlikely to be accurate, doesn't it?

Check out the first Fisher tuner and experimental turntables.

And (gasp!) the very first commercially available Sony CD player.

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/electrical.html

The rest of the site has cool stuff too:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/NMAH.html

Dan C

 

Very cool!

Thanks for posting, Dan.

 

That mini is so Dan. Thanks!

 

Totally groovy.

I often see that cows and horses always loved the phonogram, always being in the picture of many ads earliest on. Must have been a selling point to middle America at the turn of the century. Cows dig music and dancing at the porch!

 

Thanks for posting that!