Thomas Edison-invented phonograph played - Recorded in St. Louis in 1878

This antique is as far from digital recordings of today as the Model T is from the Space Shuttle.

Cool stuff - voice recordings from 1878 - wow.

Oldest known voice, music recording restored

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. It's scratchy, lasts only 78 seconds and features the world's first recorded blooper.

The modern masses can now listen to what experts say is the oldest playable recording of an American voice and the first-ever capturing of a musical performance, thanks to digital advances that allowed the sound to be transferred from flimsy tinfoil to computer.

The recording was originally made on a Thomas Edison-invented phonograph in St. Louis in 1878.

At a time when music lovers can carry thousands of digital songs on a player the size of a pack of gum, Edison's tinfoil playback seems prehistoric. But that dinosaur opens a key window into the development of recorded sound.

"In the history of recorded sound that's still playable, this is about as far back as we can go," said John Schneiter, a trustee at the Museum of Innovation and Science, where it will be played Thursday night in the city where Edison helped found the General Electric Co.

The recording opens with a 23-second cornet solo of an unidentified song, followed by a man's voice reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Old Mother Hubbard." The man laughs at two spots during the recording, including at the end, when he recites the wrong words in the second nursery rhyme.

"Look at me; I don't know the song," he says.

When the recording is played using modern technology during a presentation Thursday at a nearby theater, it likely will be the first time it has been played at a public event since it was created during an Edison phonograph demonstration held June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, museum officials said.

The recording was made on a sheet of tinfoil, 5 inches wide by 15 inches long, and placed on the cylinder of the phonograph Edison invented in 1877 and began selling the following year.

A hand crank turned the cylinder under a stylus that would move up and down over the foil, recording the sound waves created by the operator's voice. The stylus would eventually tear the foil after just a few playbacks, and the person demonstrating the technology would typically tear up the tinfoil and hand the pieces out as souvenirs, according to museum curator Chris Hunter.

Popping noises heard on this recording are likely from scars left from where the foil was folded up for more than a century.

"Realistically, once you played it a couple of times, the stylus would tear through it and destroy it," he said.

Only a handful of the tinfoil recording sheets are known to known to survive, and of those, only two are playable: the Schenectady museum's and an 1880 recording owned by The Henry Ford museum in Michigan.

Hunter said he was able to determine just this week that the man's voice on the museum's 1878 tinfoil recording is believed to be that of Thomas Mason, a St. Louis newspaper political writer who also went by the pen name I.X. Peck.

Edison company records show that one of his newly invented tinfoil phonographs, serial No. 8, was sold to Mason for $95.50 in April 1878, and a search of old newspapers revealed a listing for a public phonograph program being offered by Peck on June 22, 1878, in St. Louis, the curator said.

A woman's voice says the words "Old Mother Hubbard," but her identity remains a mystery, he said. Three weeks after making the recording, Mason died of sunstroke, Hunter said.

A Connecticut woman donated the tinfoil to the Schenectady museum in 1978 for an exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Edison company that later merged with another to form GE. The woman's father had been an antiques dealer in the Midwest and counted the item among his favorites, Hunter said.

In July, Hunter brought the Edison tinfoil recording to California's Berkeley Lab, where researchers such as Carl Haber have had success in recent years restoring some of the earliest audio recordings.

Haber's projects include recovering a snippet of a folk song recorded a capella in 1860 on paper by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, a French printer credited with inventing the earliest known sound recording device.

Haber and his team used optical scanning technology to replicate the action of the phonograph's stylus, reading the grooves in the foil and creating a 3D image, which was then analyzed by a computer program that recovered the original recorded sound.

The achievement restores a vital link in the evolution of recorded sound, Haber said. The artifact represents Edison's first step in his efforts to record sound and have the capability to play it back, even if it was just once or twice, he said.

"It really completes a technology story," Haber said. "He was on the right track from the get-go to record and play it back."

© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Cars & Copters 2011 at the Plymouth, MA Airport

A great day despite the cool Canadian air that has leaked into SE Massachusetts. Proceeds from the show benefit the Jimmy Fund. Since its founding in 1948, the Jimmy Fund has supported the fight against cancer in children and adults at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, helping to raise the chances of survival for cancer patients around the world.

An eclectic mix of old cars, new cars and some stuff in between....Well worth the time spent on a Sunday morning.

New Three Wheeled Morgan Flier built by the British revives the days of open cockpit motoring

As previously stated, I am a bit of a "gearhead" and also a fan of all things British, so when you put them together in the correct venue, it is a huge " win-win"....Take a look at this little beauty.....I could definitely get into one of these hotties for a spin down the road....Brilliant, just Brilliant.




Chocks away! The three-wheeled Morgan flier that zips along at 115mph
By Ray Massey
UK Mail - 5th March 2011

It is the car that could have persuaded those magnificent men in their flying machines to take up motoring instead.

Inspired by classic planes of old, this Morgan 3-Wheeler – from the last truly British-owned car company – took off at the Geneva Motor Show yesterday.
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On the road, the trike resembles a First World War Sopwith Camel fighter plane only shorn of its wings and propeller

Its brand of British eccentricity stole the show from the multinational supercars and hi-tech electric and hybrid vehicles on display.

The little trike harks back to the first car Morgan ever built in 1909.

That three-wheeler stayed in production for decades until the last rolled out of the company’s factory in Malvern, Worcestershire in 1951.

The new version is powered by a 1.9 litre engine which allows it to accelerate from rest to 60mph in 4.5 seconds.

Yet it still manages a frugal 50 miles to the gallon and has a range of 400 miles on just one tank of petrol.

At £30,000, it is hardly a budget drive. But already more than 300 enthusiasts have put down £7,000 deposits.

On the road, the trike resembles a First World War Sopwith Camel fighter plane only shorn of its wings and propeller.

Keeping up the aerial theme, owners can customise their Morgan 3-Wheeler with stick-on graphics including combat bullet holes, RAF roundels or a shark’s nose and teeth.
Customised clothing and goggles are planned.

Officially the vehicle is not classed as a car but as a motor trike which means the owner pays a mere £17 a year road tax.

Designer Matthew Humphries said: ‘This is a completely new vehicle for the 21st century. But it harks back to the vintage three-wheeler which started this company.

'It does take its cues from classic aeroplanes. But it has modern aeronautical touches too.
‘The start button is actually the bomb-release button on the new Eurofighter,’ Mr Humphries said.

‘We tracked down the company that makes them and bought a batch to put on to the dashboard.’

Bullitt and Pink Floyd.....Combined

Two Icons of the 1960s together....The car chase scene from the movie " Bullitt " (starring the coolest of cool guys Steve McQueen) and music from Pink Floyd specifically the song, " One of these days"......awesome. This works well.....

Paying Homage to " Bullitt " and Steve McQueen, the coolest dude ever.....

Cool.....the very essence of cool.....they did not come cooler than Steve McQueen.

Hands down. Coolest Dude ever. The Duke was "the Man" and Elvis was " the King" but Steve McQueen was *cool* even before we knew what cool really meant....His understated style and ability to make you want to be just like him was unmatched.

Who didn't want to be him in " The Great Escape?" He walked into that German jail cell with his ball & glove and basically said to the Huns, " Bring it on.." without ever saying a word.

1968 was an awesome year for autos, yielding my personal favorite, the 1968 Impala....love it. Wide, Long and Full of All American HP.

It also provided Ford Lovers with an exceptional new model of the Mustang, making it also larger, stronger and meaner.

IN Bullitt, Steve McQueen took us for a rip-roaring ride around San Francisco. Dirty Harry might had the big gun, but Steve McQueen had the wheels....pay homage to the legend...it is an awesome film with likely the best car chase ever filmed....

Usually, I would espouse that " Friends don't let Friends drive Fords" but in the case of Mr. McQueen, I will make an exception.

JANUARY 26, 2011
Chasing the Ghosts of 'Bullitt'
By MARC MYERS - WSJ.com
San Francisco

At the very top of Taylor and Vallejo streets here on Sunday morning, I stopped to take in the view. Idling in a 2011 Ford Mustang V6, I looked down through the windshield at the impossibly steep hill below, immortalized in the 1968 film "Bullitt" starring Steve McQueen.

Seated next to me was Loren Janes, 79, McQueen's longtime stunt double and the last surviving member of the "Bullitt" car crew. Mr. Janes drove the green Mustang in the movie's most daring and riveting scenes—the one down Taylor Street and the other along Guadalupe Canyon Parkway. I even brought along a CD of the "Bullitt" soundtrack for the ride.

Two weeks after the death of "Bullitt" director Peter Yates, Mr. Janes and I set out to honor him by driving the movie's chase route—cautiously. "Peter wanted everything about the chase to feel risky and rough," said Mr. Janes, whose stuntman credits include more than 500 movies and 2,100 TV episodes. "Peter never got cold feet about any of the stunts that coordinator Carey Loftin lined up. He knew that a memorable film needed to be on the edge."

"Bullitt" still ranks high among car-chase enthusiasts. Several websites are devoted to information and trivia about the 10-minute chase sequence. Others have posted "then and now" images of chase locations. In fact, fans can even retrace the routes thanks to an online Google map that a fellow afficionado has marked up.
On YouTube, the "Bullitt" chase remains chilling. The green Mustang and black Dodge Charger tear through urban residential neighborhoods, bouncing off hills like Hot Wheels cars and banging into each other along the way. Yates raised the stakes even further by placing cameras in the cars, creating a new genre in which the viewer becomes a queasy passenger.

As Mr. Janes and I drove around the city, three myths were shattered. First, despite the hype, McQueen did not do his own driving in the movie's most dangerous scenes. "Steve was a great driver, but he was only behind the wheel for about 10% of what you see on screen," said Mr. Janes, who was McQueen's stunt double from 1959 to 1980. "He drove in scenes that required closeups—but not in the ones that could kill him. Steve always asked me first whether a stunt was too dangerous for him to take on."

The second revelation was that Mr. Janes was the stuntman who hurtled down Taylor Street in the Mustang and repeatedly sideswiped the Charger on the Guadalupe Canyon Parkway at 90 miles per hour. For years, Bud Ekins was assumed to have been that driver. "I was working on another film at the time, so Bud drove the early scenes before I arrived on the set," Mr. Janes said. "Many assumed he had driven them all, which wasn't the case."

And the third revelation? The chase's most breathtaking driving scenes are terrifying in real life, even for someone who grew up in 1970s muscle cars. As we began to descend Taylor Street's first sheer hill, Mr. Janes offered a warning: "Don't even try going down here the way I did. Our cars were heavily modified with racing shocks, special overinflated tires and skid bars on the underside. A factory car would come apart on impact if you sent it into the air here."

Point well taken. The pitched angle and approaching stop sign at Green Street forced me to inch down the hill's first leg at 15 mph. In the film, Mr. Janes hurtled down these hills at 60 mph in pursuit of the Charger, using each level intersection as an asphalt ski jump. "Traffic was cleared for us then," Mr. Janes noted. "We didn't have to worry about trucks and pedestrians—the way you do."

Fine, but how did he send the Mustang into the air? "I gunned the engine just as the back wheels leveled off at the cross streets," Mr. Janes said, not noticing that I had rolled gingerly through the stop sign to gain momentum.

As my rear wheels leveled off at the intersection, I hit the gas moderately. The Mustang surged forward, and I could feel the car trying to take flight where the flat surface ended abruptly and the hill resumed. "Feel it?" Mr. Janes asked coolly. "Any faster, though, and this car will take off, leaving the underside damaged when we come down."

At Union Street, the next intersection, I gunned the engine lightly again. This time the Mustang lifted a little more and settled back down harder. I asked Mr. Janes how he managed to avoid being tossed around in the cockpit like a marble. "When I left the hill, I pushed back into my seat using the wheel. That held me stable," he said.
In the movie, the Taylor Street sequence ends with the Charger hooking a hard left on Filbert Street and the Mustang following. As we near Filbert, I asked Mr. Janes how he made the turn while traveling so fast. "I started turning the wheel about three-quarters of the way down and fishtailed off to the right," he said. "Otherwise I would have overshot the turn or flipped."

Born in Sierra Madre, Calif,, Mr. Janes was a high-school calculus teacher when he was discovered by one of his students, whose father worked at MGM. The student knew Mr. Janes was a gymnast, former Marine and skilled swimmer. He suggested that Mr. Janes offer his skills for a 90-foot stunt dive off a cliff on Catalina Island for an Esther Williams film. Mr. Janes's stunt career was launched with that perfect dive in 1954.

In 1959, Mr. Janes met McQueen on the set of TV's "Wanted Dead or Alive." His first stunt as the actor's double required him to dive through a barn window, roll to his feet, vault over two horses, land on McQueen's animal and ride off. "It went flawlessly," Mr. Janes said. "From then on, Steve wanted me on all of his pictures."
After driving down Taylor Street, Mr. Janes and I toured the other chase locations. In the Mission section, we re-created McQueen's U-turn and zoom up York Street. Next came Potrero Hill, where the two cars tear down Kansas Street starting at 20th Street. I peeled out there.

We even drove out to Guadalupe Canyon Parkway, about 20 minutes from San Francisco. In the movie, Mr. Janes sideswiped the side of the Charger multiple times in an attempt to drive it off the road. "Bill Hickman, the great stuntman, drove the Charger," he said. "Bill and I spent a long time working out those bangs in advance."
When the filming of "Bullitt" ended, McQueen offered Mr. Janes one of the three tricked-out Mustangs used in the film. Mr. Janes passed, fearful he would always want to drive it too fast. "Besides, I already had this," he said, removing a 1964 Rolex Submariner from his wrist. On the back was an inscription: "To the best damn stuntman in the world. Steve."

Mr. Myers writes about jazz, film and the 1960s at JazzWax.com.

Vintage VW Advertisements...pretty cool stuff

Some Pretty Cool Old VW Advertisements...Hippies would like to get you to believe they were the only ones who used VW Vans but they had pretty wide appeal in their day.....OLD STEEL VW style....gotta love it.