Phone pioneer speaks for first time in 128 years

Phone pioneer speaks for first time in 128 years

It is a source of constant amazement to me how technological advancements at the turn of the last century have allowed sounds and images that would previously have been lost or unseen to be recorded and documented for future generations - us - to uncover and experience.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than in this recent story from the Smithsonian Institute (via the B.B.C.), featuring the inventor of one piece of modern electrical equipment being recorded for posterity by another piece of modern electrical equipment(!).

We Had No Idea What Alexander Graham Bell Sounded Like. Until Now.

In this 1885 recording we can [just about] hear the voice of Alexander Graham Bell, de facto inventor of the telephone, as picked up on a wax cylinder made at his Washington laboratory.  Only now able to be played back using incredible, modern computerised techniques (I find the incongruity of a late 19th/early 20th century turntable mounted on a high-tech 21st century computer system most amusing) this short excerpt of speech is the first time Bell's voice has been heard and identified.  One can just imagine it uttering the immortal words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you” and it is, as the accompanying article states, a landmark discovery in the history of not only Bell but of the era too.

The Smithsonian is without doubt one of the foremost museums in the world and this story is a remarkable testament to their collections, their preservation & restoration abilities and their obvious love and enthusiasm for all aspects of history.  Thanks to them (and also researchers at the US Library of Congress and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) this fantastic recording can be heard for the first time in nearly 130 years and, more importantly, saved for future generations to appreciate.

America the airship: the first transatlantic crossing

America the airship: the first transatlantic crossing

Airship America's landmark crossing attempt recalled

This is a great example of the kind of account I (and, I hope, you my readers) find so amazing and edifying. I have to say that, student of aviation though I am, I had really known very little about the airship America before reading this article. Now, with the 100th anniversary of its attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean fast approaching, the full story has quite rightly been published.

And what a story! Like so many of the pioneering flights of the early 20th Century this effort is chock-full of thrills, hope and imagination but which in the end sadly resulted in failure and consequently historical oblivion. The story, and more importantly the significance of the flight, is right to be remembered now though and I'm glad to see the Smithsonian Institute creating a permanent display in memory. How different might things have been if the America has succeeded in crossing the Atlantic 9 years before Alcock and Brown in their Vickers Vimy aeroplane? Could it have speeded up the development of the airship to the point that it might have become the predominant form of air travel, usurping the aeroplane and enjoying a success greater than it did even in the 1920s and 1930s; maybe even lasting until the present day? Sadly we will never know and can only wonder at a future that never was.

As it is we are left with a fantastic testament to the adventurous, somewhat eccentric nature of the early flyers (I must remember to take a cat with me next time I cross the Atlantic!) and the enlightenment that comes from long forgotten escapades that are often stranger than fiction.