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Max the Magnificent
WOW -- this is WONDERFUL -- I expect to spend a LOT of time roaming around your ...
Navelpluis
We run the www.cryptomuseum.com website. On our (physical) collection we have ...
A package just arrived on my desk…
Clive Maxfield
9/14/2012 1:37 PM EDT
Do you recall my blog from earlier this year when I was waffling on about magnetic wire recorders? In that column I mentioned that prior to magnetic tape recorders there were magnetic wire recorders. In the case of these little rascals, the recording medium was a spool of wire that was pulled rapidly across the recording or playback head at around 2 fps (feet per second) (Click Here to see my original blog).
Ever since I first heard of magnetic wire recorders I've been interested in these little beauties. The way I did hear about them was when a guy from England regaled me with the tale about how his grandfather had built his own wire recorder in the 1940s.
When this guy found a box of his grandfather's recordings, he acquired and adapted an old Webster-Chicago wire recorder to play back the spools, whereupon he heard all sorts of interesting things, including the voices of his great grandparents and also his mother as a little girl.
Of course these days we are all so used to having digital video cameras and audio recorders that we tend to forget how relatively new these things are in the scheme of things. As recently as the 1930s and 1940s, however, it was rare for non-professionals to have access to any form of recording medium.
I don’t know about you, but I would love to be able hear my mother's voice from when she was say 10 or 15 years old in 1940 and 1945, respectively (I don’t mean that you would want to hear my mother's voice … stop being so picky … you know what I mean!)
Anyway, the reason I am waffling on about this now is that, a few weeks ago as I pen these words, I received an email from Rick Curl – an engineer who lives in Birmingham, Alabama, which is a couple of hours' drive away from me. A reader of EE Times in general and my columns in particular (he is obviously a man of fine taste and discernment), Rick had only just discovered that I "hang my hat" in Huntsville, Alabama. Since Rick was coming up to Huntsville to pick up some circuit boards that were being manufactured for him, he asked if he might drop round to my office on the way.
Well, Rick is a man after my own heart (not the least that he shares my love of Dr. Who). We had a wide-ranging chat about all sorts of things. For example, Rick brought an interesting circuit to show me (and almost electrocute me … I have a video of the occasion I need to post on YouTube). In turn, I showed him some of the weird and wonderful things I have lurking in my office, including my real-world ENIGMA machine, which had Rick drooling with desire.
All of this leads us to the fact that, just a few minutes ago at the time of this writing, a package landed on my desk. In it was a letter from Rick and a small box. In the letter, Rick said that he and his wife Cynthia had been at a flea market near the end of the day when they saw a seller about to throw away a spool of magnetic recording wire because he didn’t know what it was. Knowing my love of this sort of thing, Rick kindly sent the spool to me, and I just took a picture of it as shown below:
Her ewe see the spool itself in the upper-right -- a small pamphlet in the lower-right, and the box for the spool in the lower-left. The re-boxed spool now sitting in pride of place on the bookshelves in my office.
Now, I'm not sure if this is a virgin reel, or if it contains some recording gem from the past. Eeeek! Do you remember that incredible Dr. Who episode Blink? This episode just popped into my mind. It has me wondering… what if I were to find myself an old Webster wire recorder and load this spool, would I hear an ethereal voice saying something like "Max, listen to this very carefully, because…"?
If you found this article to be interest, visit Microcontroller / MCU Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs on all sorts of "stuff" – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of designing and using microcontrollers.
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
Last but certainly not least, make sure you check out all of the discussions and other information resources at All Programmable Planet. For example, in addition to blogs by yours truly, microcontroller expert Duane Benson is learning how to use FPGAs to augment (sometimes replace) the MCUs in his robot (and other) projects.
Ever since I first heard of magnetic wire recorders I've been interested in these little beauties. The way I did hear about them was when a guy from England regaled me with the tale about how his grandfather had built his own wire recorder in the 1940s.
When this guy found a box of his grandfather's recordings, he acquired and adapted an old Webster-Chicago wire recorder to play back the spools, whereupon he heard all sorts of interesting things, including the voices of his great grandparents and also his mother as a little girl.
Of course these days we are all so used to having digital video cameras and audio recorders that we tend to forget how relatively new these things are in the scheme of things. As recently as the 1930s and 1940s, however, it was rare for non-professionals to have access to any form of recording medium.
I don’t know about you, but I would love to be able hear my mother's voice from when she was say 10 or 15 years old in 1940 and 1945, respectively (I don’t mean that you would want to hear my mother's voice … stop being so picky … you know what I mean!)
Anyway, the reason I am waffling on about this now is that, a few weeks ago as I pen these words, I received an email from Rick Curl – an engineer who lives in Birmingham, Alabama, which is a couple of hours' drive away from me. A reader of EE Times in general and my columns in particular (he is obviously a man of fine taste and discernment), Rick had only just discovered that I "hang my hat" in Huntsville, Alabama. Since Rick was coming up to Huntsville to pick up some circuit boards that were being manufactured for him, he asked if he might drop round to my office on the way.
Well, Rick is a man after my own heart (not the least that he shares my love of Dr. Who). We had a wide-ranging chat about all sorts of things. For example, Rick brought an interesting circuit to show me (and almost electrocute me … I have a video of the occasion I need to post on YouTube). In turn, I showed him some of the weird and wonderful things I have lurking in my office, including my real-world ENIGMA machine, which had Rick drooling with desire.
All of this leads us to the fact that, just a few minutes ago at the time of this writing, a package landed on my desk. In it was a letter from Rick and a small box. In the letter, Rick said that he and his wife Cynthia had been at a flea market near the end of the day when they saw a seller about to throw away a spool of magnetic recording wire because he didn’t know what it was. Knowing my love of this sort of thing, Rick kindly sent the spool to me, and I just took a picture of it as shown below:
Her ewe see the spool itself in the upper-right -- a small pamphlet in the lower-right, and the box for the spool in the lower-left. The re-boxed spool now sitting in pride of place on the bookshelves in my office.
Now, I'm not sure if this is a virgin reel, or if it contains some recording gem from the past. Eeeek! Do you remember that incredible Dr. Who episode Blink? This episode just popped into my mind. It has me wondering… what if I were to find myself an old Webster wire recorder and load this spool, would I hear an ethereal voice saying something like "Max, listen to this very carefully, because…"?
If you found this article to be interest, visit Microcontroller / MCU Designline where – in addition to my Max's Cool Beans blogs on all sorts of "stuff" – you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of designing and using microcontrollers.
Also, you can obtain a highlights update delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter – just Click Here to request this newsletter using the Manage Newsletters tab (if you aren't already a member you'll be asked to register, but it's free and painless so don't let that stop you [grin]).
Last but certainly not least, make sure you check out all of the discussions and other information resources at All Programmable Planet. For example, in addition to blogs by yours truly, microcontroller expert Duane Benson is learning how to use FPGAs to augment (sometimes replace) the MCUs in his robot (and other) projects.
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CalcFan
9/15/2012 11:27 AM EDT
Why is the photo so dark? Why not use a resolution suitable to reading the text?
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Max the Magnificent
9/17/2012 10:57 AM EDT
This was just a quick snap I took with my iPhone on the table in the kitchen area in my office building ... sorry (sad face)
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antedeluvian
9/15/2012 11:42 AM EDT
"Max, listen to this very carefully, because…"
whether or not you choose to accept this mission this tape will sef destruct in 10 seconds...
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David Ashton
9/15/2012 7:13 PM EDT
Be a bit more difficult to get wire to self-destruct though? Then again, just run a heavy current thru it and it will fuse. You can't do that with Mag Tape.
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Max the Magnificent
9/17/2012 10:59 AM EDT
Hi David ... you would obviously be an interesting man to hang out with :-)
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Max the Magnificent
9/17/2012 10:58 AM EDT
It's not often you see something "sef destruct" (grin)
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Nicholas.Lee
9/15/2012 3:24 PM EDT
Sadly you don't always get what you hoped for from old recordings. This is my sad tale.
I found some reel-to-reel tapes from the 1960's, which based on the label I thought contained a series of my grandfather's relativity physics lectures. When I paid to get them converted to CD I found they were just a series of old programmes record off the radio. No recording of my grandfather exists anywhere, so he is gone forever. I've never been so disappointed.
I need a time machine to fix this, but ironically he didn't leave me a recording of the relativity physics needed to make one. Of course if I could build a time machine from that information then one theory states that "cosmic censorship" may have occurred, which deleted the recordings to prevent a paradox!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_censorship_hypothesis
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Max the Magnificent
9/17/2012 11:01 AM EDT
Hi Nicholas -- I'm real sorry to hear that -- I can only imagine the disappointment -- but it was worth trying "just in case"
I wish I could hear my mom and dad talking from when they were young
Strange to think that folks today grow up with every expectation of being able to see videos of themselves throughout their lives...
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WKetel
9/16/2012 4:10 AM EDT
It is even a challenge to play back the old reel-to-reel tapes sometimes, since the cloth belts used as take-up reel clutches in some of those Webcor machines are hard to find replacements for. My 3-motor tape decks are much simpler, but they don't handle 1 7/8 IPS tapes.
I also found a stack of tapes, in an old house being demolished. One of them sounded a whole lot like Aretha Franklin singing at somebody's birthday party. Unfortunately there is nothing available to verify that.
Listening to a wire recording is more challenging because those magnetic heads have a tendency to wear out, and the wire is a bit of a challenge to work with. The "new type" plastic leader that should be on the reel in the picture did make threading the machines much easier. And a playback amplifier can be a simple 3-tube package, not hard to duplicate at all.
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Max the Magnificent
9/17/2012 11:02 AM EDT
Remember the old science fiction films -- there was always a bunch of tape drives (for computer data) running in the background...
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didymus7
9/17/2012 12:33 PM EDT
"....the angels have the phone box..."
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didymus7
9/17/2012 12:34 PM EDT
Opps! "...the angels have the police box..."
Got it mixed up with Inspector Spacetime....
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Max the Magnificent
9/17/2012 12:39 PM EDT
This was such a brilliant episode -- I've heard it said that if you want to introduce someone to Dr Who, this is the episode to show them ...
In fact I watched it again myself this weekend...
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Bellhop
9/19/2012 4:19 PM EDT
I see wire recorders from time to time in antique shops. I'm not sure that they're worth repairing. The sound quality is pretty bad, which is why the tape recorder blew them away almost overnight. If you have a supply of wire recordings that may be of value, I can't imagine that it would be difficult to build a player from modern parts. You could probably even compensate for the distortion caused by the wire twisting.
I've often thought of building a piano roll player since old piano rolls are everywhere and the pianos are hell to move and restore.
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Max the Magnificent
9/19/2012 4:24 PM EDT
"I can't imagine that it would be difficult to build a player from modern parts."
Cool beans -- let me know when you've finished and we'll try playing my spool of wire on it :-)
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ost
9/20/2012 2:53 AM EDT
Piano roll player? You mean a digital one? Maybe you can modify a flatbed scanner to scan the roll and then use sw to play it? :)
If you want more HW, add a robot that plays it on the piano :)
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Bellhop
9/20/2012 8:12 AM EDT
Great idea! The scanning bar could easily detect the holes. There's plenty of free and open source software to do the rest.
I was interested in hearing the music, but it might be fun to have a "Max" mannequin playing a piano - Hawaiian shirt and all!
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Max the Magnificent
9/20/2012 10:05 AM EDT
I'll be playing here all week :-)
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Rcurl
9/20/2012 10:28 AM EDT
I was thinking along the same lines...at least the part about scanning piano rolls. I did a quick search and found that it is already being done: http://www.trachtman.org/rollscans/
-Rick
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an_m
9/20/2012 6:36 AM EDT
it was 'only' in the late 90's that a company I was with was replacing wire recorders in a military system for a solid state version.
wire recordings were preferred over plastic tape, as thay were all but indestructible.
Oh do I remember the day when the take up spool 'broke loose' and the wire shot all over the office. health and safety had no procedures for wire recorders.... after that , it was kept behind a screen.
out of interest, if you have a wire to read, you "can" do it with a magnetic pick up and a computer. 'just' draw the wire at a constant speed, record, and correct for speed on the computer.
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ehat
9/20/2012 8:16 AM EDT
They are for sale on ebay
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ehat
9/20/2012 8:17 AM EDT
wire recorders that is
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Max the Magnificent
9/20/2012 11:02 AM EDT
LOL
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BrianMolex
9/20/2012 8:59 AM EDT
I think the use of magnetic wire lasted a lot longer than most people would think. At my previous employer, we purchased a state of the art CNC milling center from a European company (in the late 80’s early 90’s). It had magnetic wire programing. There was a spool in the control cabinet with what I assume was the default program settings.
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Max the Magnificent
9/20/2012 11:05 AM EDT
Wow -- I'd never even thought of using them for CNC machines -- but it makes sense -- about 15 years ago I went to a PCB manufacturing facility here in town to get a few boards made and they still used paper tape to control their CNC machines (like the drills and suchlike)
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Duane Benson
9/21/2012 1:55 AM EDT
My dad used wire recorders back in his military days. I've never personally seen one and your photo of the wore spool is the first I've seen of that. I do have some old reel to reel tapes that have voices of my parents when they were quite young and may have my grand parents on them.
I found an old tube reel to reel player but haven't gotten around to getting it up and running yet. I suppose I should soon or the tapes may disintegrate.
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Max the Magnificent
9/21/2012 9:30 AM EDT
You should copy the contents of those tapes onto CD before they fade away -- there are services that will do this for you if you are too busy
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Douglas442
9/21/2012 5:25 AM EDT
Out of curiosity, any idea of the typical range of strength of magnetic fields stored on the recording wire? Sufficient enough to deflect a compass needle? Activate a sensitive reed relay?
... and aren't certain types of insects sensitive to magnetic fields?
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Max the Magnificent
9/21/2012 9:31 AM EDT
Hi Douglas -- I love your new "AntHill Inside" icon/image -- did you create that yourself?
No idea of the strength of the magnetic field on the wire -- it cannot be too high I wouldn't have thought
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Douglas442
9/21/2012 4:22 PM EDT
Well, I personally loved Pratchett's idea for his Discword computer, "Hex". So an online search to see if I could find more details turned up this image, which appeared, briefly, in the "Hogfather" DVD. Apparently, there's also a guy online, who sells all sorts of Discworld paraphernalia, and provides these as stickers, etc.
After all, who knows... "ant colony optimization algorithms" and all that.
Anyway, for wire storage of audio frequencies I suppose I'd expect the physical extent of the magnetic domains to be rather small, sub-millimeter, even at two feet per second. And so accordingly, the field strengths as well.
But for useful non-electronic storage of binary data, as an alternative to punch-cards or paper-tape, it may not need to be so limited. Especially for several spools geared to run in parallel.
Then, if this type of wire is of an alloy *particularly* suitable for magnetization, then reading back your data might be accomplished with a set of compass needles ( mechanically interfaced through sensitive torque-amplifies ). Or electrically interfaced through the contacts elements of reed-relays.
And, perhaps, mechanically writing data might be accomplished with a device having a set of small hammers with magnetized heads.
A perfect project for folks who have the right tools and too much time on their hands!
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Navelpluis
9/27/2012 4:23 AM EDT
We run the www.cryptomuseum.com website. On our (physical) collection we have German and Russian wire recorders, the small ones. Really beatiful marvels of engineering from the past.
It might be a good idea to klick this link for the Protona wire recorder from Austria. This recorder was very widely used by all secret services, including the CIA. It had a secret microphone build inside a watch. The watch has no mechanics and is not running. The story goes that an agent was caught on an airport since he wore 2 watches: The one that worked and the one with the microphone. Anyway, enjoy this link:
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/minifon/mi51/index.htm
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Max the Magnificent
9/27/2012 9:25 AM EDT
WOW -- this is WONDERFUL -- I expect to spend a LOT of time roaming around your website -- thanks for sharing
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