Recording Wire

rob · Post by **rob** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:44 am

I recently purchased at a garage sale a spool of recording wire. For those of you, like myself, who don't know much about this, recording wire supposedly pre-dates the tape found in cassettes and 8-track tapes. Of course, I have never seen one of these machines to play these spools of wire on, so I am very curious. I quickly looked on Ebay, but couldn't find much since I only know to look up "Recording Wire" and not much else. Here's a couple of pics:

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:05 pm

Try "Wire Recorder". Webster Chicago became "WEBCOR".

jps · Post by **jps** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:06 pm

A friend of mine has a wire recorder.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:35 pm

Those were used mainly in offices for speech before tape was used, it predates all tape not just 8 track and cassettes, don't think they are exactly hifi sounding. I think that stuff is probably from the 40's.
I had a Webcor Hifi when I was a kid, thing sounded good.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:40 pm

Webcor did change with the times and moved on into tape technology. Died in the early-to-mid '60s...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:45 pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-1950s-Webster-Chicago-Wire-Recorder-w-Books_W0QQitemZ7410449390

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Webster-Wire-Recorder-w-Mic-and-3-Wire-Reels_W0QQitemZ9720368320

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:45 pm

Are they steam-driven? Interesting gizmos......

scott_s · Post by **scott_s** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:32 pm

Very cool. I believe some of the early echo devices used wire as well...

rob · Post by **rob** » Mon May 01, 2006 7:39 pm

Very interesting. At least I know what these look like, so when I'm rummiging around someone's old basement or attic during an estate sale.......I love estate sales. You'll never know what you can find.