[78-L] The Fading Sounds of Analog Technology

[David Lennick]

I'm thinking that repeated clicking on the telephone switch might have been a 
way to reach the operator (remember "operators") at one time..anyone confirm?

The sound of a tape being run backwards with high speed audio when re-cuing a 
videotape is something present in every cop drama, but I don't know of any 
non-professional machine that would do that.

"Slating" is still present..some people also refer to it as a doing a "slug", 
which came from type setting if I'm not mistaken.

Here are a few more lost sounds, from the radio-tv list where this thread first 
turned up:

gas station air-lines that 'ding' a bell

the 'busy' tone, as mentioned in the article, but add the 'trunk line' fast 
busy tone as well

the static noise of a TV tuned off-channel

the sounds of other AM/FM stations heard between dialing from one to another

short wave radio 'sounds'

the weird thing CB/Ham radio 'SSB' (Single Sideband) does to a human voice

teletype machine / newsroom noises

typewriter key clacks and return carriage dings

..to which I added having the radio dial "off the station"..sometimes you'd do 
this on purpose, to favour the treble.

dl

On 3/4/2011 4:19 PM, DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> What an interesting thread dl opened up here!
>
> How often do you hear: "You sound like a broken record!", generally meaning
> you're saying the same thing over and over again, like a locked groove.
>
> Unless you witness the rare visit of an antique locomotive, nobody under 50 has
> heard a train say, "Choo Choo!", but kids today still call them that, (of
> course, no dog I've ever seen says "Bow wow!".  It has been many years since the
> Lone Ranger has ridden again, but every kid still associates the finale of the
> William Tell Overture with him.
>
> As David alluded to, movies always show a caller banging on the hook trying to
> reconnect with someone who has hung up, I don't recall that such an action ever
> accomplished that.
>
> While we're on the subject of movies, has anyone ever seen a pair of binoculars
> which show an image with two side by side round fields of vision?
>
> When I'm doing a recording, I always say "I'm spinning", rather than "I'm
> rolling", since I haven't rolled anything for many years.  And a common term for
> identifying a take is "Slating", even though an actual slate hasn't been around
> for eons.
>
> When I was in school, we always called the large panels at the front of the room
> "blackboards", years after they had turned green, (I don't know what they are
> now).
>
> I'm also sure the term "Honking your horn" refers back to the '20s when a horn
> had a goose like sound.
>
> I'd love to hear the sound of an old fashioned push mower again.  I know there
> are still push mowers around but they don't sound like the old ones.  I'd also
> love to experience the smell of burning leaves again.
>
> I think I've digressed enough for the moment.
>
> db