GE's early 20th century pallophotophone recorder decoded, Thomas Edison speech uncovered
By Laura June 
posted June 20th 2010 7:04PM
posted June 20th 2010 7:04PM
In 1922, General Electric developed a machine for recording audio called the pallophotophone, which recorded sound on 35mm film. It is thought to be the world's first multitrack recording system (and it predated magnetic tape multitrack recording by about 20 years). The device never really made it to the big time, however, and until very recently, almost no one bothered to think about it anymore. Then Chris Hunter, curator of the Schenectady Museum in Schenectady, New York discovered 12 canisters of the film in his archives. Though none of GE's original pallophotophone machines seem to have survived, current GE engineer Russ DeMuth became involved in the project, and spent two years building a modern pallophotophone based on GE's original sketches, out of modern materials, dubbing the new one the Gizmotron. The modern device plays the original films just fine, and included in their canisters were a couple of real gems -- what's thought to be the earliest recording of the NBC chimes, and a speech given by Thomas Edison commemorating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the incandescent lightbulb. A photo of the modern Gizmotron and its inventors is below -- hit up the source for the full story and hear the Edison audio.
Happy "Father's" Day ndeed! ;P
Nice work but I wish they would have picked a better name than 'Gizmotron' - it's irresponsibly bad.
@meeku,
Engadget: Why you dont call it Engadgetron? Why???
From left to right: Your cool, your cool, Android...really?!
Gizmotron sounds like a followup to the orgazmarator.
Remember if a prostitute has a happy customer, they blew it!
@tjrchka
No, you're confusing this device with the Jizzmotron.
Rarely do I read something that gives me goosebumps like that source article.
pretty terrific! and ya, gizmotron sounds old-fashioned, but it is designed to play old-fashioned clips/films, right? maybe it does lend an old and authentic (coz all old gizmos were named like that) feel to it
If you click on the Video: Hear the audio link on the left at the source, you can listen to the actual recording.
Wow, this is really cool.
I wonder if/when the recordings will be released to the public.
@Apple Fan At the source link, on the left, there's a link to hear Edison's speech. Very epic stuff.
@Teerim This link here:-
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1407952373?bctid=96943642001
Wow.. absolutely amazing.
Who knows what other "lost" gems are hiding in other places all over the world.
He looks like the original DJ.
Edison MultiTrack Dj MIX ReMastered, he is going to upload it to TPB, to avoid GE copyrights
You'll never see any innovation at GE with Jeff 'spin off, sell or dump the divisions' Immelt. Since he took over the helm GE is 1/10 the share price it was!! Only division he cares about is GE financial, the one division that brought em down. Just a buy here pay here scheme with immelt.
It's amazing that the films are still playable.
It's interesting to hear the actual voice of Thomas Edison, but I hope that a transcript of that speech is produced. The ailing Edison sounds like a cross between Ozzy Osbourne and Donald Duck.
But he ripped off Tesla and delayed the roll out of AC power and the Niagara falls power plant. Screw Edison...
@SiXiam I agree that Edison did many things that he should not have. In particular, I agree with what you said about Tesla.
However, judging him only for his mistakes is far too harsh. Imperfect as he was, he did many wonderful things. He created many excellent inventions. Is that not worthy of respect?
@SiXiam Why the hell do people hate on Edison so much ? He was the first to build a phonograph for God's sake. Although that Cros guy conceived it around the same time, and Leon Scott had invented the way to record the sound. Edison came up with the playing back idea independently of Cros (who was in France) and was the first to actually build a device that can play back sound that had been recorded!!
Yeah my boy Tommy Ed using audio messages.
"I am told my voice will reach out to the four corners of the world."
And now across the years, Mr. Edison. I do hope they preserve the audio content on more modern media and release it publicly.
They should be careful... I'm pretty sure Apple patented this already. Is that a lawsuit I hear coming?
Well, that's great. He may have been the greatest inventor america has ever seen, but he still treated one of the smartest men in the world like crap. Tesla was far more brilliant and forward thinking than Edison, he just wasn't driven by the need for money.
Hopefully we can learn a lesson from this about preserving important data for future generations. But on another not that is SWEET!
@Chewy71
I meant hand instead of not my bad
Nice gloves.
Now all he needs is a microphone.
This is pretty awesome, period. How many people would actually go through the time and trouble to re-invent a machine that's been obsolete for 100 years?
He looks like a DJ on the pic.
This is crazy. Had it not been for technology we would never have seen or heard Thomas Edison's face or voice. He would have just been a name in a book and we would be left to imagine his looks and voice from our imagination. Really nice find! How he truly lived his life is another topic though.