Phonograph Answering Machine using Vinyl Discs

This Peatrophone phonograph answering machine from 1953 directly recorded telephone messages to a blank disc and could store 140 messages, each limited to 23 seconds of recording time... however the catch was that the recording was permanent. Yes, that would be permanent. Forever and ever. No recording over the old messages! A brand new disk was required every single time the old disc was full of messages. Haha! Anyhow it was the only answering machine available at the time and apparently it worked.

These pictures are from the Popular Science magazine of May 1953.

Well that was one use of vinyl recording that I didn't know about before! ;-)

Top Ten Crazy Turntable Designs! (yes, but can they play records?)

There are some crazy turntable designs out there to suit every crazy taste under the sun. So if you are not happy with your old traditional boring looking player here are some examples that may tickle your fancy instead.

VPI HR-X turntable

This "painting" was sold for $43,845,000

I think this is a deeply thought out piece of critique on the social imbalances prevailing in our modern society which lingers between threats of war and a Utopian vision of peace that seems so elusive to us all in the short term.

The skilled strokes of the artist are resplendent in metaphors of righteous indignation steeled by cold hard reality as the faint chant of the disappointed mass of humanity cries for the right to a new and brave world of integrity amongst the political elite whose subversion of basic human rights and mores is anathema to the objectives we all yearn and long for like a fish longs for the cool refreshing waters unpolluted by man!

The uneven shades and streaky brush strokes hail to an incompleteness in every human heart as we bemoan the fact that indeed our own lives are severely lacking in the sort of spiritual completeness that used to define us as a species many years hence. Will we find joy in our meaningless existence once more or are we doomed to a life of increasing frailty, overshadowed by the dark side of our incomplete and unloved psyche?

"How long?", cries the artists voice from the deep empty darkness that defines the world of modern art, "How long before I can cash my cheque?"