Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (
More info?)
"Scott Dorsey" <kludge@panix.com> wrote in message
news:cfvo9o$mu1$1@panix2.panix.com...
> In article <10i6nifc8g0onff@corp.supernews.com>,
> Richard Crowley <rcrowley7@xprt.net> wrote:
> >"Mike Rivers" wrote ...
> >> I've really wanted to go, but I just could never justify it and nobody
> >> will pay me to cover a conference like that (or any other conference,
> >> for that matter). I really miss the section of the AES show exhibits
> >> where they had all the tape duplicators - stuff that clicks and whirs.
> >
> >Nothing in the digital world compares to...
> >* Big, shiny Scully or Neumann lathe,
> >* Ampex VR-1000 2-inch video tape recorder (w/ 3 racks of tube chassis),
> >* Gas-fired Merganthaler Linotype machine.
> >Those are the prime exhibits in my virtual museum of communiation.
>
> I'd put an Otari duplicator in there too. Not as complex or intricate as
> any of your choices, but absolutely fascinating to watch all those loops
of
> tape moving.
>
> In the digital world, though, a Jacquard loom and a plug-programmed card
> sorter definitely need space in the hall.
And speaking of communication and "clicks and whirs"; the sight,
sounds (and even scents) of a big telephone central office implemented
in "Strowger switches" is another phenomenon lost to the digital
generation. [A "Strowger switch" is a kind of 2-dimensional relay.
Sort of a 1-pole, 100-throw switch/relay.]