MetaFilter posts tagged with ThomasEdison

Tom Edison's Diner

bardophile — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:11:24 -0800

Listening to the past, recorded on tin foil and glass, for the first time in over a century

filthy light thief — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:35:03 -0800

Towards the end of the 1800s, there were three primary American groups competing to invent technology to record and play back audio. Alexander Graham Bell worked with with Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell in at their Volta Laboratory in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., while Thomas A. Edison worked from his Menlo Park facilities, and Emile Berliner worked in his independent laboratory in his home. To secure the rights to their inventions, the three groups sent samples of their work to the Smithsonian. These recordings became part of the permanent collections, now consisting of 400 of the earliest audio recordings ever made. But knowledge of their contents was limited to old, short descriptions, as the rubber, beeswax, glass, tin foil and brass recording media are fragile, and playback devices might damage the recordings, if such working devices are even available. That is, until a collaborative project with the Library of Congress and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory came together to make 2D and 3D optical scanners, capable of visually recording the patterns marked on discs and cylinders, respectively. Six discs from Bell's Volta Laboratory have been scanned, and made available on Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's page for the project, as well as posted on YouTube, and high quality images have been posted to Flickr (Flash-based slideshow). The National Museum of American History blog has a two-part post on the audio recovery: Trilled R's and the dawn of recorded sound in America, and Forgotten early sound recordings given a voice. IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.), previously, in 2007 (Archive.org view of irene.lbl.gov), before work on these hundred-plus year old audio recordings were scanned. And Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory previously worked on audio recreation: the 1860 phonautogram, first thought to be a female voice, later determined to be the (male) inventor himself, and Edison's phonograph doll, the actual first recording of a woman's voice. All this work is different from the Digital Needle software written by Ofer Springer, a university student from Israel (previously, twice), which was more of a proof-of-concept project than an effort to archive broken or fragile media. One more prior post, this on Phonozoic, dedicated to the history of the phonograph and related media.

Predictions for Publishing, from Thomas Edison and some Minds of Today

filthy light thief — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:13:34 -0800

On June 23, 1911, The Miami Metropolis published predictions about the year 2011 from Thomas Edison, including his visions of transmuting metals, a world of light-weight steel products, and writings printed on leaves of nickel that would be "so light to hold that the reader can enjoy a small library in a single volume." In Edison's future of today, five authors and an editor/publisher envision the world of publishing in the year 2021. Spoiler: nickel is not mentioned once. Bonus: you can leaf through digital copies of various editions of The (Daily/Weekly) Miami Metropolis, though 1911 doesn't seem to be represented in any of these archives.

The East River Bridge

gman — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 08:53:36 -0800

Brooklyn to New York via the Brooklyn Bridge as shot by the Edison Manufacturing Co. in 1899. (SLYT) From the video description: Sept. 22, 1899. Edison Manufacturing Co. The B.M.T. train ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then an independent city), Manhattan and outlying areas. The opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 did for the city what railroad expansion and the Erie Canal did for the nation. The population was expanding due to immigration and commerce was booming. In less than five years the need for several more bridges would be apparent as Williamsburgh and the rest of Brooklyn also grew in population. On Manhattan "uptown" was moving quickly past 14th Street. Soon, people would be calling it "downtown." The subway system was already on its way. July 29, 1898 At six o'clock in the evening a traffic jam near the Brooklyn end of the Bridge ties up wagons and trolleys all the way back to the Manhattan entrance. Suddenly the Bridge sags a few inches at two points, approximately 250 feet on both sides of the Manhattan tower. On examination, engineers find that several trusses buckled under the roadbed, but they conclude that the damage is harmless, and make no attempt to straighten the kinks. For a few days after the incident the ferries running across the river (eleven now compared with the fourteen that had existed during the building of the Bridge) do a brisk business.* New York City in 1899: The newly formed 'City of Greater New York' splits Queens County, Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Oyster Bay from Nassau County / Sept. 9th, Henry H. Bliss steps off of a streetcar at 74th St. & Central Park West and gets struck by a vehicle becoming New York City's first automobile fatality / Dec. 2nd, trolleys begin running between Jamaica and Flushing in Queens

Find the enemy, attack him, invade his land, raise hell while you’re at it.

gman — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 10:41:20 -0800

Historically famous men and their use of pocket notebooks (spread over two pages).

The History of Nikola Tesla

homunculus — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:48:47 -0800

The History of Nikola Tesla - A Short Story. In celebration of the 154th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's birth. [Via]

Oscar Wilde's Voice

Fiasco da Gama — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:14:28 -0800

"What you are now going to hear is a recording of the actual voice of Oscar Wilde ..." Edison staff may have recorded Oscar Wilde reciting a portion of the Ballad of Reading Gaol at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900. Or was it forged in the 1960s for a radio programme hosted by Casper Citron?

She's not a brick house

klangklangston — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:06:24 -0800

Thomas Edison's Concrete Houses From 1902 to roughly 1917, Edison was in the concrete business, and concrete houses would be one of his biggest failures. Shown here and here as models, Edison promised that they would be the salvation of the slum-dweller, priced at $1000 each (a third the cost of a new home at the time). He even made concrete furniture. Many of the houses still stand on Ingersoll Terrace," Union, NJ.

How Edison Are You?

netbros — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:59:03 -0800

Thomas A. Edison did not simply invent; he created the invention industry. He not only inspired the American Industrial Revolution, he provided the model for modern R&D concepts. Perhaps his greatest success beyond his legacy of innovation and invention is the introduction of team-based research. The Edison Innovation Foundation is using Edison's Invention Factory to educate the next generation of inventors.

Edison: Your loving Father

tenseone — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 13:33:01 -0800

Edison spoke: "Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best..."

Auditory Antiquity as Anachronism.

Does One fancy the Sonic Cylinders and Spindled Spirals of Edison? are the Victorians' crackling gramophones what Ought to be? could it be the Transitory Teens for a treat in Tonality? perhaps One is enamored by the Resonance as Reasoned by the Roaring Decadence of Decade, the fret of Jitterbug Fears, and some Hopped-up Lindys instead?

Why not Then and Then to be found at Once?

( Fully formed Fondness recommends the abilities of a Reality Playfulness, the oddish Ogg, and an M.P.-third to boot. )

Edison electrocutes an elephant at Coney Island.

grumblebee — Mon, 23 Jul 2001 09:48:36 -0800

Edison electrocutes an elephant at Coney Island. I never knew this horrifying bit of history until I read about it via rscharm's MeFi post.