**update 07.09.21 – audio clip added! see below! you can now HEAR this monstrosity!**
Download a 4PP article (+advert) from the June 1951 RADIO ELECTRONICS on the subject of a novel (+fairly creepy) electro-mechanical speech-synthesizer designed by Bell Labs.
This has got to be one of the wildest electro-mechanical synths every created. I wonder what New Jersey basement it ended up in. I’m preeeeetty sure that this abomination provided the historical-basis for the device that Tony Shaloub’s character was developing in the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Anyhow. It’s weird and far-out and I think you will enjoy reading about it.
T.F. provided us with this audio clip so that you can hear this device in action. it’s pretty remarkable TBH…
One reply on “Bell Labs’ Electro-Mechanical ‘Speech Synthesizer’ circa 1951”
Were Kubrick and Clarke referencing this demonstration when HAL sang the same song as it was being dismantled in 2001: A Space Odyssey?