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Re: [ARSCLIST] National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) Study
Found this on the web,
...and by courtesy (to the original source) of Mr Bill Pratt of Antique Phonograph News, a condensed version of a speech given by CBC Corporate Archivist, Ernie Dick, and CBC Radio Archivist Gail Donald at a 1993 meeting of the Canadian Antique Phonograph Society (CAPS)... The first recording technology, used systematically by radio, was the Blattnerphone. This was an erasable magnetic sound recording technology developed by Louis Blattner in Britain in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The 33 minutes continuous recording capacity of the Blattnerphone represented a significant technological advancement for broadcasters, over the four minute recording/playback capacity of the discs of the period. The tape speed was 1.5 metres per second with single channel recording possible in either direction on metal tape of 3mm width. Only 2000 metal tapes were manufactured by a Swedish company with CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) purchasing 12 reels (as far as we know).
Each reel contained some three kilometres of metal tape, measuring 60.5 cm in diameter, and weighed 15 kilos. The 12 reels had no labels or identifiable markings and we had no way of knowing whether they contained any sound or not. Recently, I learned that Telecom Australia had restored a Blattnerphone and as I was travelling to Australia this past September, I proposed to Telecom Australia that we attempt to play back the CBC reels. They were perfectly willing and the results were most gratifying. The recordings on the Blattnerphone had been transmitted from Britain via shortwave and appeared to date from late 1943. Quality varied throughout because of the vagaries of the original CBC field or studio recordings and of the shortwave transmissions. We already held samples in CBC Radio Archives of most of the programs, although we are still sorting out the uniqueness of a speech by Charles de Gaulle. The last reel proved to be particularly stubborn because it was no
longer perfectly circular and would not fit on the machine. However my Australian colleagues persisted in sanding it until it would fit. We heard the BBC originated broadcast of the 1935 Silver Jubilee of King George V. Even the BBC did not hold this recording and the Corporation was delighted to receive it from Canada. Mr Bill Pratt, Ernie Dick, and Gail Donald also... a mail sequence on a user group... Source: http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/av/1999/06/msg00033.html Source: http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/av/1999/06/msg00045.html which mentions... If you need further information on the Blattnerphone please contact me directly. Ernest J. Dick
Consulting Archivist
Historian of Sound and the Moving Image
P.O.Box 95
Granville Ferry
Nova Scotia B0S 1K0
902 532-0969 eMail: ejdick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/BLATTNER_STILLE.html
"Copeland, Peter" <Peter.Copeland@xxxxx> wrote: Dear Bob,
I'm afraid I'm in London, away from my collection at home; but I do
have a BBC Archive disc (mastered and pressed by British Homophone) in
which the symptoms are like those allegedly obtained from welding
Blattnerphone steel tape. (A metallic clang at each edit point - the
machine used DC bias).
If this disc was used for a BBC Records compilation LP, that would
qualify as a commercially-issued recording.
Peter Copeland
Former Technical Manager
British Library Sound Archive
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Robert Hodge
Sent: 06 June 2006 20:46
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB)
Study
Hello All !
Just a thought, but was the Blattnerphone ever used to master a
commercially issued recording ? If so , what is it ?
Thanks !
Bob Hodge
Robert Hodge,
Senior Engineer
Belfer Audio Archive
Syracuse University
222 Waverly Ave .
Syracuse N.Y. 13244-2010
315-443- 7971
FAX-315-443-4866
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