Optical Imaging Study of the 1878 St. Louis Edison Tinfoil Recording

from the

miSci (museum of innovation and science)

Schenectady, New York

Last Update 24-October-2012

This site provides information about the digital restoration of an Edison tinfoil record which dates from 1878. The restoration was done as part of a larger project to restore, preserve, and create digital access to sound recordings using non-invasive optical methods. This project is a collaboration between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Library of Congress.

· General reference to the Berkeley Optical Sound Restoration Project is at http://irene.lbl.gov/ ·

· Link to miSci www.miSci.org

· Additional details on the methods can be found in 3D-Scanning.pdf

· A description of the project to restore the 1878 tinfoil is Tinfoil_files\Restoring the 1878 St. Louis Foil.pdf

· A short video clip of the scan Tinfoil_files\MVI_3097.MOV

· A close-up clip Tinfoil_files\MVI_3096.MOV

· A image of the scanning system Tinfoil_files\IMG_3089.JPG

· A close-up image Tinfoil_files\IMG_3091.JPG

Audio files in WAV format

>>Recommended playback version: Full length filtered playback of the tinfoil Tinfoil_files\foil_top_ewc-DC-FIRFoil1CH.wav

The foil is easier to listen to if broken into distinct sections. The sections are from the filtered version.

Section 1: Quiet lead-in with only the sound of the folds (see image above) Tinfoil_files\Leadin-filter.wav