Making Records with no Electricity

[WetRat]

Hello! I am new here! I just finished falling down an internet rabbit hole on how records are made, and subsequently found this forum. I am a big fan of preservation when it comes to media, and often feel like media is fragile and temporary. Once we run out of fossil fuels, or if an EMP hit, a lot of great art would be lost. I know books, plays, and paintings would do just fine, but I wondered if it was possible to record music even if there was no electricity nor computers to work with. I started googling how old phonographs and gramophones work, and wondered if anyone here could help me in my strange project.

What materials would work best to make records from if vinyl was inaccessible?
What materials would work best for recording the sound onto the record, and afterwards playing it?

So far, I wondered if ceramic records would work. Apparently glass ones, at one time, to be used. Other materials I have heard worked in the past are rubber, wax, and tin foil. However, rubber and tin foil might be too difficult without a chem lab or factory.

I've heard that you guys are the experts when it comes to records. I'd love to hear what you think!

[dmills]

Wax for the cutting blank, then shellac disks were traditional for acoustic gramophones in the pre electric machines era, and yea purely mechanical recording and replay was a thing. It **MIGHT** be possible to do a old school standard groove cut on a clay tablet, but I expect controlling the moisture content would be a pig of a problem.

Shellac as a replay medium has the virtue of being HARD, which given the tracking forces required to make acceptable acoustic volume from the horn was very much a virtue.

[emorritt]

This article covers a lot about mechanical recording:

http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-03/the-art-and-science-of-acoustic-recording/

[WetRat]

Thank you both so much!

[MEGAMIKE]

wow thats was an amazing article emorritt..

now I would like to change the subject a bit..
when the Alexandria library was destroyed by fire ,christians and then muslims, and to the later some books were saved...the books at Alexandria library that were described by plato,strabo and some sultan clerics were, (all missing)book of flight from egypt, chemical and biology from Persia and the book of speech that was described as having no words(so its either audio etched or braille)..these books were saved and went to Morocco and when the safadi ladino(Spanish jews) were kicked out of Spain the moors helped them exile to Genoa and later Thessaloniki..the books ended up in the vaticain hence the "age of enlightenment".
jump 400years later and a French inventor name Charles cross invents the paleo phone the first cylinder cutter that mr Edison acquired a papercopy and made his version as we know today..

my point is that Charles crosses brother(very rich individual) had full access to the Vatican library and allowed a young Charles access to it..

please don't quote me on this Iam still in research stage

[emorritt]

The correct spelling is Charles Cros (one s). He did design the Paleophone, but never made a working model. Edison had a similar idea inspired by Bell's telephone - he basically turned Bell's "gallows" transmitter on its side and added a moving medium (foil) to actually put down sound so it could be reproduced. Bell even commented that it was such a brilliant innovation he was surprised he didn't think of it himself.

[MEGAMIKE]

I believe you
,but to much of a coincidence/timing .Cros sends the papers to a Paris science fair in 1876 then it is made by Edison in 1877

[dmills]

Take a look at the actual number of people who invented powered flight within a very small window sometime, there were at least two or three with a reasonable claim.
Or the telephone (Two were in a process of being patented at the same time).
Or radio, Marconi won the marketing (And Patent) war but there were multiple people with a reasonable claim to having invented it.

Sometimes a combination of technical progress and scientific understanding suddenly makes an idea a goer.

[WetRat]

Additional questions:
Is there a specific kind of wax that you know of?
Thoughts on needles? I heard in the 50's ceramic ones were used. Or would it be better to try and blacksmith a metal one?

Thirdly, I've seen videos on how phonographs record sound onto tin foil. Could a similar process be used for records? If so, what would you make the diaphragm from? Also, the phonograph seems relatively easy to record on. The needle just moves down the roll of tin foil. But how in the world would one design one to work with discs? Do I need to read further in that big article?

Thanks again!

[MEGAMIKE]

awesome dmills
...........................

and the wax cutting tip back then was stealite or glass

[farmersplow]

Look at this boy. He manages it with household items (pin, mug, wood...)
https://fb.watch/bC_QVp9ZkG/

[farmersplow]

And violins can also be recorded via funnels. You only need a straw violin. The same technique can be used for recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqN7njsGgOg