Voice Files : Ethel Jane Cain

[6v6gt-duino]

Do you have these ? Actually any audio format would do and I would prepare them myself.
Many thanks.
6V6GT (at) bluewin.ch

[paulseward]

Unfortunately we don't have a complete set of Ethel Cain recordings yet. We only know of one complete, working, GPO Mk1 speaking clock in existence. We're in the process of negotiating with the owners to make a recording of it, but it's slow going for many reasons (pandemic included)

I do have a partial set of recordings which I've collected from various publicly available films, stock footage etc, but we're missing recordings of her saying "2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 and o'clock"

If you think you can fill those gaps, I've stuck a copy of the collected source material here: http://paulseward.com/downloads/Incomming/partial-ethel-cain.tar.gz

[6v6gt-duino]

Hello Paul, Many thanks for getting back so quickly and thanks very much for the files. I should, perhaps, have given a bit more detail. Although the sound files would be more or less the same, I would actually be using these for a speaking clock of my own design. I published it here: https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=559652.0 . So I would not use these directly in an Asterisk exchange. I did have some discussion with Sam Hallas (http://www.samhallas.co.uk/telecomms.htm), some time ago now, because I came across a mention of such files in the context of some documentation for a project he had described and we left it that he would contact me if he found anything, which hasn't happened (yet). As for the gaps, I've quickly looked through the files you supplied: '2' can be found a 3:13 in cain02.mp3 (but I guess from the name of the file, you'd already found that one). A patchwork from different recordings is unlikely, though, to match the quality obtained from the original audio system. I found a detailed technical description of the original clock at https://www.britishtelephones.com/clocks/tim/ipoeej.pdf . It looks like the sound data is represented by six 11 inch diameter glass disks with 2mm tracks. A good quality, high resolution photo of each would be good if you get that opportunity. Best regards, Douglas ----Original Message---- From : [email protected] Date : 27/01/2021 - 10:19 (CEST) To : [email protected] Cc : [email protected], [email protected] Subject : Re: [paulseward/asterisk-tim] Voice Files : Ethel Jane Cain (#3) Unfortunately we don't have a complete set of Ethel Cain recordings yet. We only know of one complete, working, GPO Mk1 speaking clock in existence. We're in the process of negotiating with the owners to make a recording of it, but it's slow going for many reasons (pandemic included) I do have a partial set of recordings which I've collected from various publicly available films, stock footage etc, but we're missing recordings of her saying "2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 and o'clock" If you think you can fill those gaps, I've stuck a copy of the collected source material here: http://paulseward.com/downloads/Incomming/partial-ethel-cain.tar.gz — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[paulseward]

That looks like an interesting project!

All known existing photographs of the clock show the disks mounted on the machine, so there's always a section of the disk that's obscured. As far as I've been able to determine from the files held at BT Archives (and the Science Museum in London) spare sets of disks weren't produced, they only produced as many as they needed for the machines that were built.

I know of two existing Mk1 clocks in museums (one in the national museum of scotland, which is not in a working condition) and one in the National Horological Institute (which is capable of running, but is fragile and some parts are not possible to replace if they fail)

In both cases the disks are mounted to the machine, and it's not possible to photograph them face on. Understandably the curators are unwilling to dismantle the machines, because the reassembly process makes it extremely difficult to align the disks again. As you can hear in the Gordon Gow recordings, if they're even lightly off-centre you get bleed over between tracks.

I'm still confident that we will one day be able to capture all the audio (including the 24hr recordings, which are on the disks but unused, and which haven't been heard since they were manufactured!) but it's very much a long term project, as negotiating the access required to such rare artefacts isn't at all easy!

So, while I would suggest following this github repo "just in case" - I wouldn't recommend holding your breath!

Although if you happen to find some recordings from another source, I would be extremely excited to hear about it!