The Mvsevm of Extinct Sovnds

Reliquary

Nothing here is recorded. Everything here can still be heard.

Founded MMXXVIHall I of IVAdmission: one gesture

On the resurrection of sound

The Reliquary holds no recordings. No tape, no wax, no files — the archive burned nothing, because there was never anything to burn. Each exhibit is kept instead as a score: fundamental frequencies, pulse rates, filter curves and decay times, transcribed from the machines while they could still speak.

Press listen and the sound is performed, not played — raised from its score by your own browser, live, at the moment you ask. Because the performance is synthesized, no two are perfectly identical; the typewriter in Hall I has never typed the same line twice.

A sound is only extinct while nobody is asking.

Hall I — Telephony, Type & Light

Four working exhibits. One may sound at a time.

Hall volume

Specimen under glass · do not tap

The Rotary Dial

Cat. RLQ-001 · Western Electric 500 · 1919–1986

Ten holes, ten distances. You pulled each digit to the finger stop and the governor carried it home, ticking, while the exchange counted clicks. A number was not typed; it was wound. The zero — ten pulses — took longest, which is why the busiest exchanges gave low digits to the people they liked.

Programmedial tone — three digits wound and released — ringback

0:08

An oscilloscope draws the waveform while the synthesized dialling sequence plays.

Specimen under glass · carrier detected

The Dial-Up Handshake

Cat. RLQ-002 · V.90 negotiation, 56 kbit/s · 1958–2009

Two machines introducing themselves at the top of their voices: answer tone, carrier probe, the warble of terms being agreed — then the long hiss of an open line, which meant the world was on its way. Children raised on this sound still hear it as a door opening.

Programmetouch-tones — answer tone — carrier negotiation — connection

0:11

An oscilloscope draws the waveform while the synthesized modem handshake plays.

Specimen under glass · ribbon dry

The Typewriter

Cat. RLQ-003 · Royal Quiet De Luxe · 1874–1985

Every letter arrived with a blow — hammer, ribbon, platen, done. The bell was not a flourish: it warned you the line was about to end, and the carriage return was how you disagreed. Nothing since has made a sentence sound so much like carpentry.

Programmepaper wound in — a line typed — margin bell — carriage return

0:09

An oscilloscope draws the waveform while the synthesized typing sequence plays.

Specimen under glass · lamp cold

The Film Projector

Cat. RLQ-004 · Bell & Howell Filmosound, 16 mm · 1895–1999

Twenty-four frames a second, each one dragged into the gate by a claw and slapped by the shutter. The flutter you hear is light being rationed. At the end of a reel the film ran free and applauded itself until the operator woke.

Programmemotor start — shutter at speed — reel out — flap and stop

0:10

An oscilloscope draws the waveform while the synthesized projector sound plays.

The Deaccession Ledger

Sounds the museum could not save. Scores incomplete; performance impossible.

The CRT Degauss1954–2008thunk-and-shimmer; no schematic of the shimmer survives
The Cassette Rewind1963–2005pitch curve lost with the last belt drive
The Coin Return1889–2006brass on brass; the museum's namesake
The Flashbulb1929–c. 1970one use per specimen; none remain
The Television Sign-Off1969–1998tone held until morning; morning no longer comes
The Pneumatic Message Tube1853–1984survives only as staff description: “a swallowed breath”
The Rotary Dial1919–1986score recovered — restored to Hall I, above

Visitor Information

Hours: Whenever you are awake. The exhibits do not sleep; they merely wait.
Admission: One gesture. Browsers will not speak until touched — the Listen button is the turnstile.
Rules of the hall: One exhibit may sound at a time. The vitrines are glass; the glass is code. Please do not tap it.
Cloakroom: Headphones are recommended and will not be confiscated. Please silence your telephones — they have been silenced quite enough.