[thx Jeff Kopp] Now possible to recover oldest recordings

[David Robertson]

Jeff Kopp sent along amazing news that something we'd hoped for has become 
possible.  Some scientists have succeeded in recovering the sound from old 
wax cylinder recordings using optical scanning.  Nothing touches the disk 
(which would wear it out, ruining valuable information).  The recordings 
at the following links are impressive.  I think they've managed to clean 
up so much surface noise that we now hear versions better than a wax 
cylinder player ever delivered.  The potential for recovering detailed 
phonetic and other linguistic data from old recordings of NW languages is 
huge.  For example, there's quite a bit of recorded Chinook Jargon waiting 
for this treatment, when it becomes available and easy to use.  Thanks, 
Jeff.

--Dave R


"...they're working on optical recovery. This sounds pretty complicated 
(it's done with a particle accelerator at the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley 
National Laboratory), but besides being totally non-destructive (every 
play of a wax cylinder can damage it a little), it gets more of the sound 
out. http://www.newsobserver.com/303/story/234530.html

Here's another: 
http://playlistmag.com/features/2005/08/preserve3/index.php"

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