Steve GannThomas Edison Lives
June 22nd 2010 04:37
Hunter grew curious about 13 undocumented film canisters tucked away on a bottom shelf among 5 million items in the basement archives of the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium.
Hunter had no idea what they contained, aside from a few vague jottings that indicated they involved radio programs from the 1920s.
There was an even bigger obstacle to solving the mystery. He had no machine that could play them.
He might as well have been looking at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The canisters were not going to give up easily their mute secrets.
Enter John Schneiter, a former GE engineer and holder of 16 patents, who was taking a tour of the museum and its archives while being wooed as a trustee.
Hunter shared with Schneiter his interest in the long-forgotten film canisters and dilemma in trying to crack the code. It had already stumped sound engineers and technology experts Hunter had contacted.
Schneiter knew who to draft for the assignment, his old co-worker, Russ DeMuth, an engineer at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna and a technology expert some have likened to a latter-day " wizard of Menlo Park." DeMuth is no slouch in the patent department himself, with seven patents and four pending. The two worked together in the control systems lab at GE for many years and had their hands in everything from research on jet engine and wind turbine blades to charging stations for electric hybrid vehicles.
DeMuth accepted the challenge to try to unlock the film canister mystery. Using modern digital equipment and tinkering for hundreds of hours spread out across two years of nights and weekends, he created what is believed to be the only functional pallophotophone in the world.
With that, the trio magically loosed Edison's voice, which had essentially been frozen in time for more than 80 years.
They lost their way plenty of times during the project, but never their faith.
Thanks to the incredible dedication of these men, the world is rewarded with a gift of Edison from beyond the grave.
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