[78-L] Tinfoil (was: Sound for early silent films Was: what awhiner!)

[Steven C. Barr]

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From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> David Lewis <uncledavelewis at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Probably not, and no record is worth $150K.
> From: david_breneman at yahoo.com
>>> Well, if one were to discover the original "Marry had a
>>> Little Lamb" crumpled up in a corner of Edison's lab at
>>> Greenfield Village...  :-)
> There is a framed tinfoil in the Edison Museum in Ft. Myers, Florida,
> which for many years they claimed was exactly that, but finally they
> were convinced to stop claiming that.  Edison signed it and noted that
> it was recorded on the MODEL of the original phonograph.  I wouldn't be
> surprised if this is the foil recorded at the Aug 12, 1927 ceremony.
> The foil is in perfect condition except where Edison signed it.
>> There's a hunk of tinfoil on display at the Belfer Lab, Syracuse 
>> University..
>> looks as if it once had a bunch of grapes wrapped in it, but you never 
>> know.   dl
>>> Only half in jest - if a "dawn tinfoil" was found, I'd
>>> imagine that all sorts of resources could and would be
>>> pressed into service to try to glean some recognizable
>>> audio off it. Does anyone know if any audio has been
>>> recovered from a "demounted" tinfoil record?
> As far as I know there have not yet been any successful transfers from a
> tinfoil but the FirstSounds folks are considering tackling this next.
> New tinfoils can easily be recorded to give them examples to practice
> on. I've already recommended the Ft. Myers tinfoil to them, and we
> assume the writing can be optically removed. Additionally there is an
> early tinfoil from the late 1870s or early 1880s at the Schenectady
> Museum that they are attempting to get a grant to allow recovery
> efforts.  This foil was folded into a printed envelope as a souvenir of
> an early phonograph exhibit.  Peter Dilg has declared this envelope to
> be the first record sleeve!!!
>
Note that "tinfoil" (tin foil!) is NOT the thin aluminum material we now
call "tinfoil!" It seems to have been thin (but NOT paper-thin!) sheets
of actual tin...something similar to the metal we find wrapped around
the corks of expensive wine...!

Steven C. Barr