I have some family recordings on wire and have a what I think is a 1947 Sears player.
Does anyone here have experience with such things?
Printable View
I have some family recordings on wire and have a what I think is a 1947 Sears player.
Does anyone here have experience with such things?
Tim, I'd never even heard of these kinds of recordings before I read your post. I hope this link will be of some help. With that said, I didn't find a lot out there about how to play them.
https://psap.library.illinois.edu/co...-id-guide/wire
That's cool! I never heard of it before either. I can see the issue of tangling. Hell, I can't get the wire of a standard spool without tangling. And it's much thicker. I will read up on this. Very Interesting.
Have heard of them, but never seen one. Quite fascinating and ingenious.
Interesting stuff.
Never heard of such a thing.
Very cool, that you still have it.!
There are 70 museums in the Cities. One of them might know or even have one.
You can try the U. Don't expect results on the first call.
I remember seeing one of these the middle of the last century
new to me too. Let us know how it works/
This is an extra long video and to long for some one not into these but it is the best instructions I have found. This is the model I have. The head on mine doesn't go up and down. At about 26 min it shows how it is suppose to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2VSUaij5Z0
This is the bottom of mine.
You can see the fine rust and maybe not see the old sticky lubricant. I have to finish cleaning and lubing this again and the mechanical part will be done.
The radio/control unit is the next problem. From what I read it is bad capacitors that make a hum. This is starting to get outside of my comfort zone.
Oh well we will give it a shot.
I can't wreck anything that is broken already!
It's really kind of a precursor to a tape recorder. The principle is similar, magnetic particles on a medium. Of course tape is far better than a wire.
This format has all kinds of issues because of the wire type used and physical and electrical limitations.
One could argue that tape is "far" better.
How many times have you see the mess of tape on the side of the road?
Tape also has the same limitations a it too uses magnetic particles and degrade to uselessness.Quote:
Originally Posted by 32t
Bob
Tape has much improved over the years starting with acetate that broke by looking at it too long to plastic and mylar and better methods to load up the tape with layers of iron oxide.
Don't forget even CDs have a lifespan once the aluminum or gold coating starts to deteriorate. The lifespan is very long of course but nothing is forever.
Yea, they all have limited lifespans with some better than others. Even electronic storage media is subject to failure from time to time.
Bob
WWII was the latest development of the wire recorder which Dad used for recording for audio visual advertising. and also "Tinsel" which was the original "Mylar" electrplated/ vapor deposited with chrome. War surplus Tinsel was sometimes available to 3M employees. We saved it for every year's Christmas tree. 3M developers made Mylar recording tape possible. "Webcore" made some of the first tape recorders.
Just my memories YMMV
geezer
Amazing! Never heard of this before today.
5+ minute video of one in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I65QSGpQJZE
Me neither.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johntoad57
After reading through the thread and watching video footage, I feel enlightened.
Very cool indeed.
Pete <:-}
I heard it was a multi-use medium too. DJs back in the day would moonlight as assassin garroters and part-time fencing contractors :)
James.
This is the part that is outside of my comfort zone. The back of the radio/control unit.
It took me a while of starting and stopping before I wrecked something to get it apart.
If I would have an instruction book it wouldn't have been to bad to do but it was a bear trying without breaking anything.
I am sure this would be simple for someone with experience but for me this will be a learning.
The capacitors are mostly the brown tubes for people that are at my level. I think there is at least one in the front view that is not in the picture.
That takes me back to my younger days when I used to build Hi Fi Equipment kits before printed circuits came to be.
That's a really simple circuit there. Just basic components.
That sounds great to me because at least in this instance I am simple. :D
There is much to learn about a simple circuit. I see now some Mica capacitors which I understand are pretty long life.
Gonna let those go for now.
I understand the idea behind and agree replacing all the paper beeswax ones just because of their age.
The what I think is a double capacitor under an aluminium housing is the next one I have to research!
Most of that stuff should have modern equivalents even though you don't see handwired stuff anymore. The tubes may be the harder part. They can be sourced but they can be very expensive.
You'll want to check all those wires for wear and tear especially what looks like some shielded cables.
Metal capacitors are often times electrolytic capacitors. Some of the larger ones could be the oil filled type but that's hard to tell by looking. The oil filled types are used more in components that need a lot of power.
Is it WRAD?
Wire recorder acquisition disorder?
I got another and I am waiting until tomorrow to let it warm up from shipping before I try it out.
So further on my journey into wire recording.:rofl2:
So the second one I got had a bad on/off volume switch. Along with a large humm. [Bad capacitors from what I understand.]
Looking for parts I found another that "worked" :D and took a gamble for parts.
A few extra spools that are not heirlooms for myself to experiment with but it doesn't have the hum of the other.
Does the low him mean it works or that it completely junk?
I hit a bad spot of the spool in the machine and am not in the mood to remove and splice it tonight.
If you saw in person the diameter of the wire you would understand!
Tomorrow is another day!
Often times hum comes from the tubes. They can be subject to all kinds of harmonics. After the tubes it gets complicated. A bad shielded cable can do the same and a bad solder connection too. Then all the semiconductors. You would need a schematic and a multimeter to start checking.
I goofed in stating that the on/ off volume control was bad.
It is the on/off tone control. OOps
Anyway the one i bought for parts is better than the one I wanted to fix in many ways. Not as pretty but it works.
I repaired a couple of bad spots in the wire and listened to some music recorded circa 1950, Grandma thanking someone for a card, and a girl telling about how proud she was with her high school play.