“How the screen became speaking”: the story of the shorinofon
Earlier we talked about the history of the German audio players of the 50s and the reasons for their popularity. Today we will talk about the Soviet invention, the predecessor of the tape recorder and one of the first portable recording devices - Shorinofone.
Pxhere PD Photos
Shorinofon, less often “shorifon” (named after the inventor Alexander Fedorovich Shorin ) is a recording and reproducing sound device popular in the USSR in the 30s and 40s of the last century. The recording method was similar to that used in the manufacture of conventional gramophone records: mechanical sound recording, in which the sound groove was cut on the surface of the film with a solid corundum or ruby cutter. The device consisted of a mechanism driving the film, and a recorder, the cutter could be replaced with a needle and listen to the recordings (you will find the image of the phone on the image).
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It was possible to connect a microphone or a tube receiver to a portable shorinofon - this allowed recording radio broadcasts, re-recording records, or simply writing a voice from a microphone (the schemes of shorinofon's work during playback and recording of sound can be seen on page 125 of the Broadcasting: Past, Present, Future) ). For this reason, the chorinophon was distributed among radio amateurs and was used at home: music and voice programs were recorded on it.
The usual 35 mm film for recording could be cut lengthwise into two parts using a special cutting device. The finished film was packed in special cassettes, similar to reels from movie cameras. If you twist the Mobius strip tape , it was possible to record the sound on both sides.
This recording method had three main advantages:
"Amateur" Shorinofon actively used by radio professionals. The ability to transmit recordings without preliminary processing led to an increase in the number of radio concerts, operas and performances in the broadcasting schedule - it was not necessary to broadcast live, as was done before.
However, the connection between the telephone and television broadcasting is not limited to this - the “professional” (stationary) version of this device has a rich “media” history.
The predecessor of portable devices for mass production (the serial production of the shorinofon started in 1940 and lasted only a year) was the stationary shorinofon, also developed under the leadership of Shorin and named after him. This type of camera phone was actively used in the early 1930s at film studios and radio centers - one of the first was the Leningrad radio center. The principle of operation of the device is also electromechanical.
In the stationary version, a 35 mm wide film was used with 50 tracks on it. This made it possible to record for 8 hours with a length of 300 meters. The recording speed on the film was 465 mm per second, as well as on other sound film devices of the time. Since the model was designed for long-term operation, its design was more cumbersome (compared to a portable phone), but reliable.
The film was placed on two friction drums, the process of winding and winding controlled the guides of the fork. The recorder cutter was used to cut sound grooves along the motion of the film. “To move the recorder in the transverse direction, a special support with a screw feed by hand was used,” which allowed the cutter or needle of the adapter to be transferred from one track to another, and the numerator automatically indicated the number of the groove. The kit included a powerful amplifier that allows you to record high-quality (at the time) sound from a microphone.
For recording operas and long concerts, the constancy of the revolutions was important, at the Shorinofon it was provided with a launch from a three-phase synchronous motor with asynchronous launch. The number of revolutions was 1500 per minute.
See how the device looked in 1935, you can on the pages 21 of the popular science magazine "Radio Front". The magazine has been published in Moscow since the mid-1920s (in the 1920s, it was called “Radio to all”), introduced the reader to new radio equipment, electronic devices, features of mechanical sound recording, and also published reference materials for radio amateurs. Since 1946 and until now the magazine has been published under the name "Radio" .
Shorinofon more than once became a topic for a column. In issue 7–8 of 1940, a note entitled “Amateur Shorinofon - as a Record Moving Note” is published. It tells about the improved version of the portable shore phone. The tape drive mechanism in the reportage briefing phone was improved, the device was actively used by radio editorial offices.
The serial production of shorinofonov stopped in the war years and after not resumed. They were replaced by tape recorders. Easy copying and replication, as well as ease of operation made tape recorders more convenient devices for recording and playing sound.
Pxhere PD Photos
A. F. Shorin worked on his invention with Sovkino , and after its liquidation, with Lenfilm. The first time it was presented in 1929, when the first cinema with sound opened in Leningrad. The inventor lists in his memoirs the questions that were solved in his laboratory while working with the recording: “What is this strange phenomenon -“ photogenic sound? ”Why do the sounds of the guitar and balalaika always go out well and sound natural, and the piano almost always sounds bad? Why is speech sometimes clear and clear, and sometimes it mumbles and mumbles? ”
Initially, when Shorin only received the task of creating sound films, it was actively discussed among experts what the voice or sound should prevail in the film, many thought that it was not the dialogue of people, but industrial noise that should be central to the movie. However, this idea did not receive its continuation.
One of the first directors with whom the laboratory of A. F. Shorin worked was A. M. Roh , who used the device in the documentary film “Five Year Plan”. The technology was used in the Dziga Vertov full-length film “Enthusiasm: Symphony of Donbass” , filmed “natural sounds” when shooting: noises from workshops, telegraph machines, noise of a typewriter, sounds of squares and streets, hoots of factories and cars. With the help of a shorinofona, the sounds for the film by Alexander Dovzhenko "Ivan" were recorded. The system of A.F. Shorin was also used when recording the music of Dmitry Shostakovich to the film “Alone” , shot by Grigory Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg.
Samples of rare Shorinofon and now you can see in the Central Museum of Communications named after A. Popov, and the exhibits stored in the closed fund of the Museum of Cinema, sometimes exhibited during cultural events .
For his inventions in the field of sound recording in 1941, A. F. Shorin received the Stalin Prize.
Materials for additional reading from our “Hi-Fi World”:
Pxhere PD Photos
How did amateur shorinofon
Shorinofon, less often “shorifon” (named after the inventor Alexander Fedorovich Shorin ) is a recording and reproducing sound device popular in the USSR in the 30s and 40s of the last century. The recording method was similar to that used in the manufacture of conventional gramophone records: mechanical sound recording, in which the sound groove was cut on the surface of the film with a solid corundum or ruby cutter. The device consisted of a mechanism driving the film, and a recorder, the cutter could be replaced with a needle and listen to the recordings (you will find the image of the phone on the image).
')
It was possible to connect a microphone or a tube receiver to a portable shorinofon - this allowed recording radio broadcasts, re-recording records, or simply writing a voice from a microphone (the schemes of shorinofon's work during playback and recording of sound can be seen on page 125 of the Broadcasting: Past, Present, Future) ). For this reason, the chorinophon was distributed among radio amateurs and was used at home: music and voice programs were recorded on it.
The usual 35 mm film for recording could be cut lengthwise into two parts using a special cutting device. The finished film was packed in special cassettes, similar to reels from movie cameras. If you twist the Mobius strip tape , it was possible to record the sound on both sides.
This recording method had three main advantages:
- The convenience of use. The recording could be heard immediately, without further development and processing of the film.
- Simplicity and relative ease of construction. Amateur shorinofon weighed about 12 kg.
- Low cost of material - Shorinifon allowed to use the marriage of film studios at recording.
"Amateur" Shorinofon actively used by radio professionals. The ability to transmit recordings without preliminary processing led to an increase in the number of radio concerts, operas and performances in the broadcasting schedule - it was not necessary to broadcast live, as was done before.
However, the connection between the telephone and television broadcasting is not limited to this - the “professional” (stationary) version of this device has a rich “media” history.
"The sound is recorded according to the method of Professor Shorin"
The predecessor of portable devices for mass production (the serial production of the shorinofon started in 1940 and lasted only a year) was the stationary shorinofon, also developed under the leadership of Shorin and named after him. This type of camera phone was actively used in the early 1930s at film studios and radio centers - one of the first was the Leningrad radio center. The principle of operation of the device is also electromechanical.
In the stationary version, a 35 mm wide film was used with 50 tracks on it. This made it possible to record for 8 hours with a length of 300 meters. The recording speed on the film was 465 mm per second, as well as on other sound film devices of the time. Since the model was designed for long-term operation, its design was more cumbersome (compared to a portable phone), but reliable.
The film was placed on two friction drums, the process of winding and winding controlled the guides of the fork. The recorder cutter was used to cut sound grooves along the motion of the film. “To move the recorder in the transverse direction, a special support with a screw feed by hand was used,” which allowed the cutter or needle of the adapter to be transferred from one track to another, and the numerator automatically indicated the number of the groove. The kit included a powerful amplifier that allows you to record high-quality (at the time) sound from a microphone.
For recording operas and long concerts, the constancy of the revolutions was important, at the Shorinofon it was provided with a launch from a three-phase synchronous motor with asynchronous launch. The number of revolutions was 1500 per minute.
See how the device looked in 1935, you can on the pages 21 of the popular science magazine "Radio Front". The magazine has been published in Moscow since the mid-1920s (in the 1920s, it was called “Radio to all”), introduced the reader to new radio equipment, electronic devices, features of mechanical sound recording, and also published reference materials for radio amateurs. Since 1946 and until now the magazine has been published under the name "Radio" .
Shorinofon more than once became a topic for a column. In issue 7–8 of 1940, a note entitled “Amateur Shorinofon - as a Record Moving Note” is published. It tells about the improved version of the portable shore phone. The tape drive mechanism in the reportage briefing phone was improved, the device was actively used by radio editorial offices.
The serial production of shorinofonov stopped in the war years and after not resumed. They were replaced by tape recorders. Easy copying and replication, as well as ease of operation made tape recorders more convenient devices for recording and playing sound.
Pxhere PD Photos
Shorinofon and cinema: the great dumb must speak
A. F. Shorin worked on his invention with Sovkino , and after its liquidation, with Lenfilm. The first time it was presented in 1929, when the first cinema with sound opened in Leningrad. The inventor lists in his memoirs the questions that were solved in his laboratory while working with the recording: “What is this strange phenomenon -“ photogenic sound? ”Why do the sounds of the guitar and balalaika always go out well and sound natural, and the piano almost always sounds bad? Why is speech sometimes clear and clear, and sometimes it mumbles and mumbles? ”
Initially, when Shorin only received the task of creating sound films, it was actively discussed among experts what the voice or sound should prevail in the film, many thought that it was not the dialogue of people, but industrial noise that should be central to the movie. However, this idea did not receive its continuation.
One of the first directors with whom the laboratory of A. F. Shorin worked was A. M. Roh , who used the device in the documentary film “Five Year Plan”. The technology was used in the Dziga Vertov full-length film “Enthusiasm: Symphony of Donbass” , filmed “natural sounds” when shooting: noises from workshops, telegraph machines, noise of a typewriter, sounds of squares and streets, hoots of factories and cars. With the help of a shorinofona, the sounds for the film by Alexander Dovzhenko "Ivan" were recorded. The system of A.F. Shorin was also used when recording the music of Dmitry Shostakovich to the film “Alone” , shot by Grigory Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg.
Samples of rare Shorinofon and now you can see in the Central Museum of Communications named after A. Popov, and the exhibits stored in the closed fund of the Museum of Cinema, sometimes exhibited during cultural events .
For his inventions in the field of sound recording in 1941, A. F. Shorin received the Stalin Prize.
Materials for additional reading from our “Hi-Fi World”:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/374499/
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