For "The End of the World As We Know It"

[removed account4]

Well, that's surprising -- I doubt it was one play per record, of these wouldn't have been commercially packaged:

https://picclick.com/Original-cactus-thorn-gramophone-phonograph-victrola-needles-274797285497.html

I'm just the messenger, the guy trying to sell me the victrola was some big time guru collector and he tried to sell me a cactus too...
who knows, the more people claim to know stuff the less I think they actually know. ...

 

[DREW WILEY]

Red ochre handprints in caves and rock shelters have never gone out of style, at least not in the last 40,000 years.

 

[revdoc]

On the subject of fixer: sodium thiosulfate can be made, if required. The inputs are sodium hydroxide, sulfur, water and heat. None are especially hard to find in bulk quantities. I guess it would be somewhat hazardous to do it, but hey, it's the end times!

 

[BAC1967]

I have done the salt fix a few times and it does seem to work but it is slow. Not something I do on a regular basis but I did want to test it to see if it works. Super saturated solution of iodized salt for 24 to 48 hours agitating every now and then. If I remember right you do have to be careful with the emulsion until it dries. This one was done in 2015 and still looks the same but it has been stored in a binder since I did it. Developed in Caffenol C-L/S and Salt fix for 48 hours.

Clematis in Caffenol by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

I think as long as there is a market for it we will have access to the chemistry so I'm not too worried about it. I don't rely on Kodak for much chemistry, I mostly get it from Photographers Formulary. They are a small business and seem to do all right supporting the remaining film community.

We can always make chlorophyll prints if we can't get paper anymore. https://www.alternativephotography.com/the-chlorophyll-process/

 

[nosmok]

There used to be a British 78rpm reissue record label that would remaster stuff by playing pristine copies of acoustically recorded 78's only, on an excellent tricked-out gramophone with a specific type of cactus needle and a concrete exit horn, situated in an excellent sounding church or other medium-large room, and recording THAT setup with a stereo microphone at 24-bit, 192kHz sampling. Don't remember the name or know if they're still in business, but some 78-heads certainly think cactus is the way to go.

 

[Sirius Glass]

There used to be a British 78rpm reissue record label that would remaster stuff by playing pristine copies of acoustically recorded 78's only, on an excellent tricked-out gramophone with a specific type of cactus needle and a concrete exit horn, situated in an excellent sounding church or other medium-large room, and recording THAT setup with a stereo microphone at 24-bit, 192kHz sampling. Don't remember the name or know if they're still in business, but some 78-heads certainly think cactus is the way to go.

I will stick to diamond or if necessary sapphire needles, thank you.

 

[drmoss_ca]

I was given a wind-up 78 player when I was a kid. It had steel needles, but the best trick was to pick and dry the thorns off a hawthorn. Made it sound soft and mellow.

 

[abruzzi]

Won't last long (steel needles used to wear out in a few tens of playing hours, as I recall), but there are postcard phonographs available online -- fold it up, put a pin or sewing needle in the right place, and spin the disk by hand. Audible without amplification, at least with old 45 and 78 records.

well, its not like cactus needles aren't plentiful. I have probably ten thousand in my yard (and frequently a few in my a**)

 

[DREW WILEY]

I wonder how aliens will play that Chuck Berry recording launched into space on the Pioneer probe nearly half a century ago, and now past the Solar System itself? Did they include a needle, assuming aliens kept their own old phonographs?

 

[Bronson Dugnutt]

Say what you will about vinyl, it's pretty groovy.

Spot the skip.

That damage is likely the result of someone playing a 33 at 45rpm with a ceramic or other over-hardened synthetic stylus.

 

[mshchem]

Just stocked up; think I'm good for a few weeks...

View attachment 291396 View attachment 291397 View attachment 291398

Very nice! Better to have it and not need it..........

 

[faberryman]

I wonder how aliens will play that Chuck Berry recording launched into space on the Pioneer probe nearly half a century ago, and now past the Solar System itself? Did they include a needle, assuming aliens kept their own old phonographs?

There were some hieroglyphics etched into the record so if the aliens are smart enough they can figure out how to play the sounds of the whale and decide if we are worth fooling around with.

 

[mehguy]

As long as the machinery to manufacture film and paper is saved from being scrapped, then we'd be in the clear. Chemistry is trivial to make.

 

[cmacd123]

Sure, and in the Brave New World, chemicals like that may not be permitted to be sold to consumers (in favor of requiring that pools be managed by professionals, or drained, for the safety of all). .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_thiosulfate says "
On an industrial scale, sodium thiosulfate is produced chiefly from liquid waste products of sodium sulfide or sulfur dye manufacture.[9]

In the laboratory, this salt can be prepared by heating an aqueous solution of sodium sulfite with sulfur or by boiling aqueous sodium hydroxide and sulfur according to this equation:[10][11]

""
6 NaOH + 4 S → 2 Na
2S + Na
2S
2O
3 + 3 H
2O
"
so I guess it is posible to make it from scratch.

 

[cmacd123]

as Far a steel needles and 78 records. the 78s often used a technology where the shellac had an abrasive in it, which would grind the needle to match the groove. Hence the replaceable needles. later geneations used plain plastics, and so the needles (which were also smaller) lasted longer.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Oh, that's interesting, Faberryman. I was getting distinctly worried that a later faster probe would reach the aliens first, bearing disco music, and that the aliens would conclude that all intelligent life on earth was already extinct.

 

[cmacd123]

There were some hieroglyphics etched into the record so if the aliens are smart enough they can figure out how to play the sounds of the whale and decide if we are worth fooling around with.

I believe that they even provided a top of the line at the time SHURE cartridge, although I suspect that the plastics in that would out gas rather quickly.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Oh, that's interesting, Faberryman. I was getting distinctly worried that a later faster probe would reach the aliens first, bearing disco music, and that the aliens would conclude that all intelligent life on earth was already extinct.

Is there intelligent life on earth? Has there ever been intelligent life on earth?

 

[Jay Schrotenboer]

Is there intelligent life on earth? Has there ever been intelligent life on earth?

There are dolphins!

 

[Sirius Glass]

There are dolphins!

Oh right and whales.

 

[MattKing]

The only appropriate response to the thread title:
"I feel fine!"

 

[cmacd123]

The only appropriate response to the thread title:
"I feel fine!"

+1000

 

[Sirius Glass]

We will all be killed!
We will all be killed!
We will all be killed!
We will all be killed!
We will all be killed!
We will all be killed!
We will all be killed!​

 

[BradS]

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

 

[gone]

There's only one solution Donald. You'll have to stop reading.

I've had to drastically wean down my media time, and photography news is still media news. Of course, very little of it is really news. It's like everything else: press releases, rumors and editorial decisions. I agree, anyone can get the stuff to make a photograph, or what might be classified as one. You can make your own paper easily. Maybe fixer would be hard to DIY, I have no experience w/ that.