Re: Ancient recordings

["Dennis W. Leas" <dennis@mdbs.com>]

Gareth Whittock wrote:
> 
> Fascinating but how is this a recording.

I'd say it's a recording with a very short self life. :)

> Incidentally I've heard of someone trying to extract audio from Roman
> pottery.
> The theory is that as the potter's wheel turned, the hand of the potter
> slid down the outside of the pot acting as an acoustic pickup. Similar
> to a wax cylinder. This would harden to produce a recording of the room
> assuming the more or less constant speed of the potter's wheel ;)

Yes, definitely this idea earns a smiley.  By the same principle, wouldn't 
a Roman aquaduct 
record the sounds of the countryside (with the bricklayer's hand acting as 
an acoustic 
pickup)?  ;)

> 
> > THE Mayans may have made the world's first audio recording a thousand 
>years ago. This is the claim of an acoustics engineer who says
> > the properties of echoes produced by Mayan pyramids suggest they were 
>built to copy the cry of sacred birds.

- Dennis Leas
-- 
dennis@mdbs.com