Technology : NPR

Lost And Found Sound: Restoration

June 25, 1999 • In another installment of our year-long series, "Lost and Found Sound," Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison takes us behind the scenes, to hear old recordings sent to us by listeners. We learn of the difficulties of finding equipment to play some rare audio formats, and how an expert, Steve Smolian, takes a defective item and tries to extract sounds from it. We hear some home recordings by relatives of listeners who have since passed away. Smolian warns laypeople against trying to listen to old formatted items themselves, for fear the original will be destroyed.

Lost And Found Sound: Restoration

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Real Media

Lost And Found Sound: The Twitching Finger Of The Telegraph

April 23, 1999 • As part of a year-long collaboration between NPR and independent producers called "Lost and Found Sound," we present two salutes to a nearly extinct communication medium: the telegraph. NPR's Jonathan Kern recalls how the device and Morse Code were an important part of his childhood -- a language that united him with his father. And, producer Gregory Whitehead presents an essay with sound about his grandfather who was a professional telegrapher.

Lost And Found Sound: The Twitching Finger Of The Telegraph

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Real Media

February 5, 1999 • Independent producers The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, continue their story about the man who invented the phonograph. This is part of the Friday feature called "Lost and Found Sound." After Edison invented the talking machine, other people experimented and advanced his ideas, and then competed to sell machines and recordings. Edison stuck with the cylinder, while others preferred the flat disc, which became the industry standard. Edison hated the disk. He didn''t like the two-sided ones, because he felt he could have sold TWO recordings if there was only one-song per disk. The Wizard of Menlo Park suffered from his judgments and his distractions. He spent eight critical years away from work on improving the phonograph to follow up on the electric light. When he returned, musical tastes had changed. The other companies had signed big artists. Edison preferred less flashy music and was notoriously cheap with payments to artists. For all these reasons, Edison failed at the record business.