May 14, 2018 at 20:46“How the screen became talking”: the story of the shorinophone
Earlier we talked about the history of German audio players of the 50s and the reasons for their popularity. Today we’ll talk about the Soviet invention, the predecessor of the tape recorder and one of the first portable sound recorders - the shorinophone. Pxhere PD Photos
Shorinophone, less often “shorifon” (named after the inventor Alexander Fedorovich Shorin ) is a sound recording and reproducing 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 a sound groove was cut out on the surface of the film with a hard corundum or ruby cutter. The device consisted of a mechanism moving the film and a recorder, the cutter could be replaced with a needle and listen to the recordings (you can find the image of the chorophon here ).
It was possible to connect a microphone or a tube receiver to a portable shorinophone - this allowed you to record radio broadcasts, dub records, or simply record a voice from a microphone (for how to play the chorinophone when playing and recording sound, see page 125 of the collection “Broadcasting: past, present, future” ) For this reason, the shorinophone was distributed among radio amateurs and was used at home: music and voice transmissions were recorded on it.
An ordinary 35 mm film for recording could be cut lengthwise into two parts using a special cutting device. The finished film fit into special cassettes, similar to reels from movie cameras. If you twist the film in the form of a Mobius strip , it was possible to record sound on both sides.
This recording method had three main advantages:
The "amateur" shorinophone was also actively used by professional radio operators. The ability to transfer recordings without pre-processing led to an increase in the number of radio concerts, operas and performances in the broadcasting network - it was not necessary to broadcast live, as was done before.
However, the connection of the chorinophone with television and radio 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 (serial production of a chorophon started in 1940 and lasted only a year) was a stationary chorophon, also developed under the direction of Shorin and named after him. This type of shorinofon 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. It allowedkeep a record of 8 hours with a track length of 300 meters. The recording speed on the film was 465 mm per second, as well as on other sound movie devices of that time. Since the model was designed for long-term operation, its design was more bulky (compared to a portable shorinophone), but reliable.
The film was placed on two friction drums, the process of winding and reeling was controlledguide forks. The recorder cutter was used to cut the sound grooves along the motion of the film. “To move the recorder in the transverse direction, a special support with a screw feed was used by hand”, which allowed you to transfer the cutter or needle of the adapter from one track to another, and the numerator automatically indicated the groove number. The kit included a powerful amplifier that allows you to record high-quality (at that time) sound from a microphone.
For recording operas and long concerts, the constancy of speed was important, for a chorophon it was provided by starting from a three-phase synchronous motor with asynchronous starting. The number of revolutions was 1500 per minute.
Lookhow the device looked in 1935 can be found on pages 21 of the issue 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 Everything”), introduced the reader to the latest radio equipment, electronic devices, and features of mechanical sound recording, as well as published reference materials for radio enthusiasts. Since 1946 and until now the magazine has been published under the name Radio .
Shorinophone more than once became the topic for the column. In issue 7–8 of 1940, an article was published titled “An Amateur Shorinophone - Like a Recording Movement”. It talks about an improved version of a portable shorinophone. Tape drive mechanism in the “reportage shorinophone”was improved, the device was actively used by radio editions.
Serial production of chorinophones ceased during the war years and after that did not resume. They were replaced by tape recorders. Ease of copying and replication, as well as ease of use, made tape recorders more convenient devices for recording and reproducing sound. Pxhere PD
Photos
A.F. Shorin worked on his invention together with Sovkino , and after its liquidation, with Lenfilm. The first time it was presented in 1929, when the first movie theater with sound opened in Leningrad. The inventor lists in his memoirs the questions that were solved in his laboratory when working with the recording: “What is this strange phenomenon -“ photogenicity of sound? ”Why do the sounds of the guitar and balalaika always come out well and sound natural, and the piano almost always sounds bad? Why is speech sometimes understandable and clear, and sometimes it is mumbling and mumbling? ”
Initially, when Shorin only got the task of creating sound films, it was actively discussed among experts what should prevail in the film - voice or sound, it was believed by many that not human dialogues, but industrial noises should be central to the movie. However, this idea was not continued.
One of the first directors with whom A. F. Shorin’s lab worked was A. M. Room , who used the device in the documentary “Five Year Plan”. The technology was used in the full-length film “Enthusiasm: The Symphony of Donbass” by Dzigi Vertov, while filming “natural sounds” were shot: the noises of workshops, telegraphs, the noise of a typewriter, the sounds of squares and streets, the sounds of plants and machines. With the help of a chorinophone, sounds were recorded for the film of Alexander Dovzhenko"Ivan . " A. F. Shorin’s system was also used to record Dmitry Shostakovich’s music for the film “One,” filmed by Grigory Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg.
Samples of rare chorinophones can still be seen in the Central Museum of Communications named after A.S. Popov, and exhibits stored in the closed fund of the Museum of Cinema are sometimes exhibited during cultural events .
In 1941, A.F. Shorin received the Stalin Prize for his inventions in the field of sound recording.
Additional reading materials from our Hi-Fi World:
What an amateur shorinophone looked like
Shorinophone, less often “shorifon” (named after the inventor Alexander Fedorovich Shorin ) is a sound recording and reproducing 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 a sound groove was cut out on the surface of the film with a hard corundum or ruby cutter. The device consisted of a mechanism moving the film and a recorder, the cutter could be replaced with a needle and listen to the recordings (you can find the image of the chorophon here ).
It was possible to connect a microphone or a tube receiver to a portable shorinophone - this allowed you to record radio broadcasts, dub records, or simply record a voice from a microphone (for how to play the chorinophone when playing and recording sound, see page 125 of the collection “Broadcasting: past, present, future” ) For this reason, the shorinophone was distributed among radio amateurs and was used at home: music and voice transmissions were recorded on it.
An ordinary 35 mm film for recording could be cut lengthwise into two parts using a special cutting device. The finished film fit into special cassettes, similar to reels from movie cameras. If you twist the film in the form of a Mobius strip , it was possible to record sound on both sides.
This recording method had three main advantages:
- Ease of use. The recording could be heard immediately, without further development and processing of the film.
- Simplicity and relative ease of construction. An amateur shorinophone weighed about 12 kg.
- The low cost of the material - the choriniphone allowed the use of filming film studios when recording.
The "amateur" shorinophone was also actively used by professional radio operators. The ability to transfer recordings without pre-processing led to an increase in the number of radio concerts, operas and performances in the broadcasting network - it was not necessary to broadcast live, as was done before.
However, the connection of the chorinophone with television and radio broadcasting is not limited to this - the “professional” (stationary) version of this device has a rich “media” history.
“The sound was recorded according to the method of Professor Shorin”
The predecessor of portable devices for mass production (serial production of a chorophon started in 1940 and lasted only a year) was a stationary chorophon, also developed under the direction of Shorin and named after him. This type of shorinofon 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. It allowedkeep a record of 8 hours with a track length of 300 meters. The recording speed on the film was 465 mm per second, as well as on other sound movie devices of that time. Since the model was designed for long-term operation, its design was more bulky (compared to a portable shorinophone), but reliable.
The film was placed on two friction drums, the process of winding and reeling was controlledguide forks. The recorder cutter was used to cut the sound grooves along the motion of the film. “To move the recorder in the transverse direction, a special support with a screw feed was used by hand”, which allowed you to transfer the cutter or needle of the adapter from one track to another, and the numerator automatically indicated the groove number. The kit included a powerful amplifier that allows you to record high-quality (at that time) sound from a microphone.
For recording operas and long concerts, the constancy of speed was important, for a chorophon it was provided by starting from a three-phase synchronous motor with asynchronous starting. The number of revolutions was 1500 per minute.
Lookhow the device looked in 1935 can be found on pages 21 of the issue 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 Everything”), introduced the reader to the latest radio equipment, electronic devices, and features of mechanical sound recording, as well as published reference materials for radio enthusiasts. Since 1946 and until now the magazine has been published under the name Radio .
Shorinophone more than once became the topic for the column. In issue 7–8 of 1940, an article was published titled “An Amateur Shorinophone - Like a Recording Movement”. It talks about an improved version of a portable shorinophone. Tape drive mechanism in the “reportage shorinophone”was improved, the device was actively used by radio editions.
Serial production of chorinophones ceased during the war years and after that did not resume. They were replaced by tape recorders. Ease of copying and replication, as well as ease of use, made tape recorders more convenient devices for recording and reproducing sound. Pxhere PD
Photos
Shorinofon and cinema: the great dumb must speak
A.F. Shorin worked on his invention together with Sovkino , and after its liquidation, with Lenfilm. The first time it was presented in 1929, when the first movie theater with sound opened in Leningrad. The inventor lists in his memoirs the questions that were solved in his laboratory when working with the recording: “What is this strange phenomenon -“ photogenicity of sound? ”Why do the sounds of the guitar and balalaika always come out well and sound natural, and the piano almost always sounds bad? Why is speech sometimes understandable and clear, and sometimes it is mumbling and mumbling? ”
Initially, when Shorin only got the task of creating sound films, it was actively discussed among experts what should prevail in the film - voice or sound, it was believed by many that not human dialogues, but industrial noises should be central to the movie. However, this idea was not continued.
One of the first directors with whom A. F. Shorin’s lab worked was A. M. Room , who used the device in the documentary “Five Year Plan”. The technology was used in the full-length film “Enthusiasm: The Symphony of Donbass” by Dzigi Vertov, while filming “natural sounds” were shot: the noises of workshops, telegraphs, the noise of a typewriter, the sounds of squares and streets, the sounds of plants and machines. With the help of a chorinophone, sounds were recorded for the film of Alexander Dovzhenko"Ivan . " A. F. Shorin’s system was also used to record Dmitry Shostakovich’s music for the film “One,” filmed by Grigory Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg.
Samples of rare chorinophones can still be seen in the Central Museum of Communications named after A.S. Popov, and exhibits stored in the closed fund of the Museum of Cinema are sometimes exhibited during cultural events .
In 1941, A.F. Shorin received the Stalin Prize for his inventions in the field of sound recording.
Additional reading materials from our Hi-Fi World:
