Making the Perfect Record: From Inscription to Impression in Early Magnetic RecordingMain MenuAboutAbstract for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U PIntroductionIntroduction to Making the Perfect Record: From Inscription to Impression in Early Magnetic RecordingNotesNotes for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U PMediaMedia for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U PAcknowledgmentsAcknowledgments for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U PTechnical InformationTechnical Information for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U PReferencesReferences for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U PJentery Sayersbecbfb529bffcfafdfad6920ed57b30ccdca5339This essay is part of the “New Media” special issue of American Literature (volume 85, number 4, December 2013). See http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2370230. Version 1 of the site is (c) 2013 by Duke University Press.
Shouting into the Transmitter
12013-10-14T10:37:30-07:00Jentery Sayersbecbfb529bffcfafdfad6920ed57b30ccdca53392497Poulsen Tests His Recording Device by Speaking “Yakob” into the Microphoneplain2014-01-01T12:54:53-08:00Jentery Sayersbecbfb529bffcfafdfad6920ed57b30ccdca5339According to Camras (1985), Poulsen also conducted these experiments outside the Copenhagen lab: “In August 1898, Poulsen went on vacation in the country. He did not get much rest or fresh air, for he stayed shut in his room, and repeated ‘Yakob, Yakob’ into a microphone all day. Poulsen’s host and the guests had their doubts about the peculiar young man who was talking to himself. In later years Poulsen explained why he had chosen the word Yacob, which is the Danish equivalent of Jacob or Jake in English. This word has two vowels and a very distinctive sound that Poulsen could recognize when it came back faintly through his crude apparatus” (1-2). Put differently, Poulsen had to negotiate with the microphone. The clear-cut recordings it enabled corresponded with the vocal clarity (or discreteness) of the syllables spoken into it.
12013-11-16T22:12:19-08:00Jentery Sayersbecbfb529bffcfafdfad6920ed57b30ccdca5339NotesJentery Sayers7Notes for “Making the Perfect Record,” American Literature 85.4 (December 2013), http://10.1215/00029831-2370230, Duke U Pplain84242013-12-27T07:16:10-08:00Jentery Sayersbecbfb529bffcfafdfad6920ed57b30ccdca5339
This page references:
12013-10-18T10:46:13-07:00A Rewritable Medium8Valdemar Poulsen developed a recording mechanism in 1898 using piano wireplain2013-12-19T11:30:52-08:00