Just about all of us have had the sounds of our
childhood recorded and preserved.

These sounds are sitting somewhere in a box that
is gathering dust.

This box contains DVDs, MiniDiscs, Digital Audio
Tape, VHS and/or Betamax Tapes.

Those who grew up in the 1950s may still have
the original reel to reel magnetic tapes that captured
the sounds of their childhood.

But what about those of us who grew up in the first
half of the 20th century?

If not magnetic tape, what recording medium held,
and may still hold, their childhood hoots and hollers?

The most likely candidate is steel wire; 7,200 feet
of hair-thin wire wound on a reel that looks like this -




For more on this extinct and almost forgotten recording
medium, check out the video below; its audio track is an
excerpt from a WNYC The Next Big Thing Podcast.