Re: [ARSCLIST] Manhattan street-noise recordings, 1906 to 1908 - any leads?

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James R. Chiles" <j.chiles@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Greetings:
> By way of background, I’m finishing up a book for Random House that will be a
social history of helicopters (the book is due out in October, and entitled "The
God Machine"). It's my second book.  I've been a writer in the fields of history
and technology since 1979, mostly for Smithsonian, and Air&Space.
<snip>
> - Could typical machines be heard in a hall with 100 people? Might this
indicate the use of a Higham reproducer, such as on the Graphophone model BM?
>
Although I have no idea if the technology was used (or usable) for the
playback of cylinders, mechanical amplification of recordings DID exist
in that early era. See under "auxetophone" (I assume data exists on the
web...?!) for details.

Also, remember that folks in that early era didn't enter adulthood having
already been partially-deafened by high-powered audio devices...so the
contemporary definition of "loud" was probably considerably below ours...?!

Steven C. Barr
(Remember that singers, like John McCormack, used to perform unamplified
in quite large venues...)