The Audible Past Jonathan Sterne DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS Durham & London 2003 The Audible Past CULTURAL ORIGINS OF SOUND REPRODUCTION ©2003 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ᭺ϱ Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Garamond 3 by G&S Typesetters, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. For Carrie Contents List of Figures ix List of Abbreviations for Archival and Other Historical Materials Cited xi Acknowledgments xiii Hello! 1 1. Machines to Hear for Them 31 2. Techniques of Listening 87 3. Audile Technique and Media 137 4. Plastic Aurality: Technologies into Media 179 5. The Social Genesis of Sound Fidelity 215 6. A Resonant Tomb 287 Conclusion: Audible Futures 335 Notes 353 Bibliography 415 Index 437 List of Figures 1. Bell and Blake’s ear phonautograph 32 2. Leon Scott’s phonautograph 36 3. Drawing of sound refraction from S. Morland, Tuba Stentoro-Phonica 43 4. Edison’s tinfoil phonograph 47 5. Berliner’s gramophone 47 6. Early gramophone record 48 7. Early Reis telephone 78 8. The human telephone, 1897 82 9. “You Need a Headset”—1925 advertisement for Brandes headphones 88 10. “How Far Can I Hear with the mr-6?”—DeForest advertisement from the early 1920s 89 11. Diagram of Laennec’s stethoscope 104 12. Monaural stethoscopes 105 13. Cammann’s stethoscope 112 14. Binaural stethoscopes 113 15a-b. Telegraphy—ancient and modern 139 16. Diagram of printing telegraph 145 17. Train telegraph operator, 1890 159 18. Hearing tubes in Edison catalog, ca. 1902 162 19. Advertisement for the Berliner gramophone 164 20. Students at the Marconi Wireless School 165 21. Cartoon of frustrated housewife, 1923 166 22. “The Instantaneous Answer”—an N. W. Ayer advertisement for at&t’s phone service, 1910 169 23. “The Man in the Multitude”—another N. W. Ayer advertisement for at&t’s phone service, 1915 170 24. “Her Voice Alluring Draws Him On”—cover of the July 1913 Telephone Review (New York) 171 25. “Tuning In”—cartoon from the 6 September 1923 Syracuse Telegram 173 26. “Ecstatic Interference”—artist’s drawing, 1922 175 27. Victorian woman with headset and radio 175 28. Cartoons from the April 1923 Wireless Age 176 29. “Which Is Which?”—Victor Talking Machine advertisement, 1908 217 30. “The Human Voice Is Human”—Victor Victrola advertisement, 1927 224 31. “How Radio Broadcasting Travels”—rca diagram, 1920s 226 32a-c. Advertising cards that depict telephone networks, ca. 1881 227 33. Artist’s illustration of Elisha Gray’s telephone, 1890 228 34. Drawing from the home notebook of Charles Sumner Tainter, 3 April 1881 229 35. Drawing from the home notebook of Charles Sumner Tainter, 19 November 1882 229 36. Dictating and listening to the graphophone, 1888 230 37. Patent drawing for photophonic receiver, 1881 231 38. Another patent drawing for photophonic receiver, 1881 232 39. Speaking to the photophone, 1884 233 40. Listening to the photophone, 1884 233 41. Telephone drawings from Alexander Graham Bell’s notebooks, 1876 234 42a-b. Posters for telephone concerts 252–53 43. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Telephone”— at&t advertisement 265 44a-b. “Ye Telephonists of 1877”—cartoon 271 45. “Winnie Winkle, Breadwinner”—1924 cartoon 273 46. “The Indestructible Records”—ca. 1908 advertisement for the Indestructible Phonographic Record Co. 300 47. “Indestructible Phonographic Records—Do Not Wear Out”— 1908 advertisement 301 48. His Master’s Voice 302 x LIST OF FIGURES List of Abbreviations for Archival and Other Historical Materials Cited agb Alexander Graham Bell Collection, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress cst Charles Sumner Tainter Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History eb Emile Berliner Collection, Recorded Sound Reference Center, Library of Congress ebm Emile Berliner Collection, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress eg Elisha Gray Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History ghc George H. Clark Radioana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History nwa N. W. Ayer Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History wba Warshaw Business Americana Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History Phonogram I Periodical published by the National Phonograph Company, 1891–93 Phonogram II Periodical published by the Edison Phonograph Company, 1900 –1902 Acknowledgments Although a single name appears on the cover, no one ever writes a book alone. There are many people I want to thank for their support and cama- raderie as I have journeyed through this project. There was always someone around to share in my feelings of enchantment, confusion, exhilaration, and occasional despondence. This long book requires many acknowledg- ments: I have a lot of pent-up gratitude. I would like to start by thanking all my teachers, although there are a few who warrant special distinction. Several teachers at the University of Illinois made the intellectual and institutional space for me to do this kind of work. Many of my teachers have also gone on to become trusted friends and confidants. Larry Grossberg helped me develop an interest in cultural theory and cultural studies into a facility, and he encouraged my intellec- tual eclecticism and scholarly imagination in a world that too often values disciplinarity over creativity. John Nerone almost single-handedly taught me the craft of historiography and has been a model of intellectual gen- erosity and pluralism. James Hay taught me to see themes in my writing that I would not have otherwise seen and always pushed me to take the next step in interpreting my material. Tom Turino helped me rethink my approach to the study of sound and music from the ground up and helped me integrate my experiential knowledge as a musician into my academic research. Many other teachers have made essential contributions to my devel- opment as a scholar. John Archer, Cliff Christians, Richard Leppert, John Lie, Steve Macek, Lauren Marsh, Cameron McCarthy, Roger Miller, Cary Nelson, Gary Thomas, and Paula Treichler have all nurtured my writing and thinking. Mark Rubel helped me remember why I undertook this proj- ect in the first place. Andrea Press and Bruce Williams have offered some indispensable professional mentorship. I am grateful to the University of Pittsburgh, the Richard D. and Mary Jane Edwards Endowed Publication Fund, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Graduate College of the University of Illinois for financial support while researching and writing this book. Some of the material in chapter 6 appears in different form as “Sound Out of Time/Modernity’s Echo,” in Turning the Century: Essays in Cultural Studies, ed. Carol Stabile (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 2000), 9–32. Part of an earlier version of chapter 2 ap- pears as “Mediate Auscultation, the Stethoscope, and the ‘Autopsy of the Living’: Medicine’s Acoustic Culture,” Journal of Medical Humanities 22, no. 2 (summer 2001): 115 –36. An earlier version of chapter 1 appears as “A Machine to Hear for Them: On the Very Possibility of Sound’s Repro- duction,” Cultural Studies 15, no. 2 (spring 2001): 259–94. While I was a fellow at the Smithsonian, my intern, Keith Bryson, helped me track down interesting leads in the archives and in periodicals. Steve Lubar and Charles McGovern provided ample intellectual and prac- tical support as my advisers and guides while I was there. Katherine Ott, Carlene Stephens, and Elliott Sivowich helped me sort through materials and pointed me in promising directions. Other fellows provided crucial conversation and support: Atsushi Akera, Adrienne Berney, John Harti- gan, Rebecca Lyle, Scott Sandage, and Scott Trafton are all great company if you get the chance. I would also like to thank the many librarians, archi- vists, and reference staff who have helped me throughout the research pro- cess. Sam Brylawski at the Library of Congress and Deborra Richardson at the Smithsonian have been particularly helpful. I have been blessed with a remarkable group of colleagues, friends, and students in Pittsburgh. Carol Stabile defies categorization: she is a remark- able teacher, a wise mentor, a trusted colleague, an intellectual coconspir- ator, a confidante, and most of all, a wonderful friend. More than anyone else, she has taught me the value of bringing humor and joy to scholarship and to politics. Melissa Butler, Danae Clark, Zack Furness, Bill Fusfield, Mark Harrison, Bridget Kilroy, Gordon Mitchell, Jessica Mudry, Lester Olson, John Poulakos, Michelle Silva, Pete Simonson, and Vanda Rakova Thorne have also been cherished conversation partners, colleagues, and friends. They challenge me to stay true to my intellectual commitments, but they never let me take them for granted. John Lyne has been a sup- xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS portive chair. John Erlen has been a helpful and graceful colleague in mak- ing Pitt’s history-of-medicine collections available to me. My graduate students have been incredibly supportive and (when needed) understanding as well. I want to thank all of them, especially the many students in my seminars these past three years for their engagement and camaraderie: you have taught me well. Additional thanks to Maxwell Schnurer and Elena Cattaneo for adopting me shortly after my arrival and to Regina Renk and Janet McCarthy (and Diane Tipps at the University of Illinois) for their help in the many mundane tasks involved in finishing a book manuscript. Other friends and colleagues have offered essential help along the way. John Durham Peters and Will Straw provided careful, challenging, and immensely stimulating comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. Without their help, this would be a different book. Jennifer Daryl Slack, M. Medhi Semati, and Patty Sotirin helped me rethink some crucial ideas about nature and culture over a long weekend in the Upper Peninsula. Kevin Carollo, Greg Dimitriadis, Jayson Harsin, Anahid Kassabian, Pete Simonson, and Carol Stabile gave me careful readings when I needed them most.