🚀 go-pugleaf

Geln Pringle writes about Queen Victoria's voice having been recovered from
an old wax cylinder recording.

I heard about this on BBC Radio 4's Science Programme.  They had to
construct a cylinder player specially for it.  They didn't use a laser or
anything like that; they started with a very soft stylus (wooden) and moved
up to harder ones to see what improvement they could get without damaging
the wax.  There were lots of problems including not knowing what speed to
turn the cylinder at!  They then used some DSP "magic" to remove some of the
noise (they were very vague about exactly what they were doing).  The final
result is still totally incomprehensible.  There is lots of crackling and
perhaps a couple of words; "We are.." or something like that.  They seem to
have put in a lot of effort so I doubt there is any way of getting more out
of it.

 -- Phil.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Philip Endecott                      email : pendecot@armltd.co.uk
Advanced RISC Machines Ltd           Phone : +44 223 813000
Swaffham Bulbeck                     Fax   : +44 223 812800
CAMBRIDGE
CB5 0NA UK