I need Ray Wile's "E-mail" address. I've been re-reading his articles on the phonograph's earliest years & notice that he, like virtually all writers on the subject, is ignorant of or has chosen to ignore Charles Sumner Tainter's 1880 Home Notes on deposit at the Smithsonian Institution which were the subject of an article a few years ago in "For the Record," the journal of the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society Ltd. If Tainter's 1880 Home Notes are actually what they claim to be then Tainter is the inventor of lateral-cut wax disc recording in 1880! I want to submit scans of the relevant pages of 1880 Home Notes & Tainter's drawings for Mr. Wile's thoughts since he is probably the leading expert on this earliest period of sound recording. (I sent scans of relevant pages from the "For the Record" article to Mr. Fabrizio,Mr. Paul & Mr. Sutton some months ago but have not received any comments from them other than Mr. Paul saying he'd need to know when the were deposited at the Smithsonian. ) If Tainters 1880 Home Notes are authentic, then Tainter should be given credit for the origination of lateral-cut wax disc recording in 1880. (This may parallel a situation where for years the true inventor of electronic television, Philo Farnsworth, was denied credit which was then attributed to RCA corporate scientists.) If the 1880 Home Notes were actually written years later & pre-dated (something the drawings which seem to show an elaborate constant surface speed disc device nothing like later disc equipment (until the British constant surface speed gramophone of the 1920s) then they want exposure as a hoax. Either way, it ought to be of much intere st to us antique phonograph buffs & Mr. Wile is probably best equipped because of his past research to explore this question.
Jim Cartwright Immortal Performances, Inc. [email protected] _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
