strangest format ever

Stuff not covered by the other...Forii? whatever. General goofiness. (You should not post here unless you've been contributing elsewhere on this site.)

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tape
Posts: 272
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:52 pm

strangest format ever

Post: # 7248Unread post tape
Sat Jan 09, 2010 4:10 pm

this patent http://www.wikipatents.com/6512727.html-3
describes a talking drinking straw with record grooves:-)
suppoesed to be played back by a pickup inside a soda can.

very very strange.

Does anybody knows if this was ever produced?

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emorritt
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Location: Tennessee

Post: # 7251Unread post emorritt
Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:29 pm

I want some of what this guy was taking... 8)

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mossboss
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Location: Australia.

Straws

Post: # 7259Unread post mossboss
Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:09 pm

Eric
I want some as well Cheers
Last edited by mossboss on Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chris

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blacknwhite
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Location: US

Post: # 7262Unread post blacknwhite
Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:26 pm

Nice find, Tape!

There is some AWESOME wieeeerd stuff you can find in US Patent searches for phonograph-related stuff; some are very entertaining! You always wonder which ever made it to production.

including the patents for stereo vertical-and-lateral acoustic grammophone recordings from the 1910's... One even proposed using the top side of the disc for one channel, and the bottom side for the other, with two pickups, one spring-loaded on the underside...

DANG, I need more time for "My Experiments" (said in a Dr. Frankenstein voice)... seems like the harder I try to find time, the more sh*t happens to get in the way

- Bob

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tape
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Post: # 7264Unread post tape
Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:23 pm

maybe it's a good thing that not all patents get's realised:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0282765.html

!:-)

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drdub
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Post: # 7270Unread post drdub
Mon Jan 11, 2010 8:34 am

this could be flo's new projekt... :)
satan spins vinyl

*** www.drdub.com ***

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mossboss
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Location: Australia.

Patents

Post: # 7283Unread post mossboss
Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:00 pm

Hey all
Would this be "Fuzzy Logic" by the way
It sounds like a lot of the 1 or 2 time posters right here
Or another project He He
Cheers
Chris

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Jesus H Chrysler
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Location: Asheville, NC

Post: # 7714Unread post Jesus H Chrysler
Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:18 pm

here's another strange one:
I have a tin toy service station made by marx in the 40's called "happi time talking service station". it has a strip that runs across the base in front of the gas pumps and originally came with a car that had a needle that would play`the sound when pushed across it. I've never heard it since I don't have the car but it was supposed to say "gas and oil, please"

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emorritt
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Post: # 7722Unread post emorritt
Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:34 pm

That sounds like the "Hey Fatso" board game from the late 60's. It came with the typical board, player pieces, cards, etc. but also had a plastic molded strip with grooves (vertically modulated) and a plastic needle/diaphragm reproducer that players would sit on the strip and various messages would play as it was dragged along, instructing players to move somewhere, pick a card, etc. Didn't know it had been done in the 40's.

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diamone
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Re:

Post: # 27602Unread post diamone
Tue Nov 05, 2013 1:32 pm

blacknwhite wrote:including the patents for stereo vertical-and-lateral acoustic grammophone recordings from the 1910's...
They made a couple hundred of those. I've seen `em in like antique amusements museums and other sorts of attractions.
blacknwhite wrote:One even proposed using the top side of the disc for one channel, and the bottom side for the other, with two pickups, one spring-loaded on the underside...
You must have been reading some of my old research for my masters on strange formats.

That one got made, too, about ten or fifteen years later but it became left and right instead of top and bottom, and BOTH sides were spring loaded. The disc was loaded vertically as if in a later-model jukebox and the left channel was played by a right-facing head and the right was played by a left-facing head, both spring loaded by a pedal. The operator depressed the pedal, loaded the disc and then attempted to avoid cracking or breaking the fragile shellacque disc by releasing the pedal in order to play.

Misalignment of the gramophone heads, misadjustment of the spring-loading mechanism and all manner of other problems caused the heads to crash into the record upon release of the pedal, breaking the disc - one reason so few discs survive into the modern era.

Playback was of course outside-in on both the left and right sides, so that meant that the master for the right side had to be spun counterclockwise and it's recording stylus reversed in the cutting head - and the second lathe had to be synchronized with the first in a process that would later come to be known as gen-lock.

Reports also convey that the pressing process was also a project and a half as well, because whether the resulting disc was inline or offset, the two stampers had to be meticulously aligned in the press in order to achieve stereo sync.

Research varies as to whether the inline or the offset version was the first to be produced, the start grooves for the latter being 180 degrees apart from one another. Discs for the offset version are said to have had difficulties staying clamped in the mechanism, as the heavy gramophone heads were pressing in not only on on opposite FACES of the disc, but on opposite SIDES as well while the inline version - while the inline version - while having difficulties of its' own - did not have THAT particular issue.

Just goes to show you what kinds of relationships, re-calculations and re-use one technology had with the next.

If you're curious - you may want to look up my other research - under my handle - either with or without the leading N - on all manner of odd and strange formats of the 20th Century.
2 Kinds of Men/Records: Low Noise & Wide Range. LN is mod. fidelity, cheap, & easy. WR is High Fidelity & Abrasive to its' Environment. Remember that when you encounter a Grumpy Engineer. (:-D)

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