Saturday, October 17, 2009

An 1888 Recording



WE ARE IN AN AGE OF SUCH RAPID TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS that new discoveries are met, in large part, by a ho-hum reponse by the public. In this age of iPods and gigabytes, check out this 1888 recording of a speech made by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert & Sullivan) after a dinner party introducing Thomas Edison’s “new” phonograph, in which Arthur Sullivan makes a phonographic recording to Edison. This was big. This was amazing stuff in 1888.

As a kid, I was mesmerized at every space flight. While I admit the Space Shuttle is a bit boring, young people are largely uninterested. Now, I just want to live long enough to see man set foot on the planet Mars. For some reason deep inside me, I just want to witness it.

One hundred and twenty-one years ago, the ability to record sound was akin to magic. This was unheard of! No way!

I believe that if you can imagine it, it will someday be possible. Travel back in time? Why not.
Become invisible? Sure. Zap yourself from one location to another in seconds? It’s just a matter of time, if we don’t kill ourselves first.

2 comments:

nashashibi said...

Loved this post, Specially when you said "if we don't kill ourselves first" ... you you come to think about it, we all witnessed interesting things, such as internet, mobile phones and hybrid cars!

thank yo for posting this one :)

Kym said...

Wow...I love when Sullivan said that it terrified him that bad music would be recorded for all time! How true was that thought! Thanks for posting this!

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