Editing Wire recording (section)

== Notable uses ==
[[File:SEACComputer 030.jpg|thumb|[[SEAC (computer)|SEAC]] magnetic wire drives and cartridges]]

In 1944–1945, the 3132 Signal Service Company Special of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]'s top secret [[Ghost Army]] used wire recorders to create [[sonic deception]] on the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]] in the [[World War II|Second World War]]. Multiple battlefield scenarios were recreated using military sounds recorded at [[Fort Knox]], [[Kentucky]]. The wire-recorded audio, which was played back through powerful amplifiers and speakers mounted on vehicles, was used to conceal real [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] deployments, locations and operations.<ref>''The Washington Post'' (newspaper), 2006 July 08.</ref>

In 1944 at the Middle East Radio Station of Cairo, Egyptian composer [[Halim El-Dabh]] used wire recorders as a tool to compose music.<ref>Gluck, Bob. [http://www.emfinstitute.emf.org/articles/gluck.eldabh.html Conversation with Halim El-Dabh], [[EMF Institute]]</ref>

In 1946, [[David P. Boder|David Boder]], a professor of psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, traveled to Europe to record long interviews with "displaced persons"—most of them [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] survivors. Using an early wire recorder from the Armour Research Foundation, Boder came back with the first recorded Holocaust testimonials and in all likelihood the first recorded oral histories of significant length.<ref>Marziali, Carl (2001-10-26). [https://www.thisamericanlife.org/197/before-it-had-a-name "Mr. Boder Vanishes"]. ''[[This American Life]]''.</ref>

In 1946, [[Norman Corwin]] and his technical assistant, Lee Bland, took a wire recorder on their One World Flight, a round-the-world trip subsidized by friends of [[Wendell Willkie]] and patterned after Willkie's own 1942 trip. Corwin documented the post-war world and used his recordings in a series of 13 broadcast documentaries on CBS—which were also among the first broadcast uses of recorded sound allowed by the radio networks.<ref>Bannerman (1986) (book).</ref><ref>Ehrlich (2006) (journal article).</ref>

In 1947, [[Maya Deren]], an American experimental filmmaker, purchased a wire recorder from her [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] funds to record [[Haitian Vodou]] ceremonies for her documentary: ''Meditation on Violence''.<ref>[http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2003/01-24/connections.htm  A woman for all seasons for the filmic avant-garde], By David J. Craig, Week of 24 January 2003· Vol. VI, No. 18, B.U. Bridge: Boston University community's weekly newspaper</ref>

In 1949 at Fuld Hall in [[Rutgers University]], Paul Braverman made a 75-minute recording of a [[Woody Guthrie]] concert using a wire recorder. The recording only came to light in 2001, and appears to be the only surviving live recording of Woody Guthrie; it was restored over several years and released on CD in 2007. The CD, ''[[The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949]]'', subsequently won the 2008 [[Grammy Award for Best Historical Album]].<ref>[http://www.woodyguthrie.org/livewirepressrelease.htm THE LIVE WIRE: WOODY GUTHRIE IN PERFORMANCE 1949 has WON the 2008 GRAMMY for Best Historical Album], [[Woody Guthrie Foundation]] news release, 2008-02-10.</ref>

One of the world's first stored-program computers, [[SEAC (computer)|SEAC]], built in 1950 at the U.S. [[National Bureau of Standards]], used wire recorders to store digital data.

In 1952, the [[Harvard University]] physics department's musical variety show ''The Physical Revue'', written by [[Tom Lehrer]] and performed by a cast including Lehrer, [[Lewis M. Branscomb]] and others, was recorded on wire by a later winner of the [[Nobel Prize]], [[Norman Foster Ramsey Jr.]] This recording was recently rediscovered and made available online.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ww3.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/lehrer/physrev.htm|title=The Physical Revue, by Tom Lehrer}}</ref>

=== Fictional uses ===
Wire recorders sometimes appear in motion pictures made during the time of their widest use. For example, in office scenes in the original 1951 version of ''[[The Thing from Another World|The Thing]]'', a typical [[Webster-Chicago]] unit is plainly visible on a small table by the window. In some shots (e.g., at 0:11:40 on the 2003 DVD release), its detached lid, carrying two extra spools of wire, is also visible. In this instance the recorder is simply ''set dressing'' and is not shown in operation.  [[Ann Robinson]]'s character in the 1954 ''[[Dragnet (1954 film)|Dragnet]]'' feature film carried and used a Protona Minifon wire recorder to gather evidence in a pivotal scene.<ref>[[Jack Webb]] (1954). [[Dragnet (1954 film)]]. Los Angeles: Warner Bros.</ref>  The 1958 spy thriller ''Spy in the Sky!'' uses a wire recording as a plot device. In the episode "The Relaxed Informer" (S1E24) of ''[[Danger Man]]'' the spy courier is smuggling a recording made on wire secreted inside the handle holding a puppet's strings. The recording wire is later shown being played in an office using a wire player. In episode 2.18 of ''[[Adventures of Superman (TV series)|Adventures of Superman]]'', "Semi-Private Eye", PI Homer Garrity has a wire recorder he uses to surreptitiously record his clients.

The fictional Allied officers of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' used a wire recorder to record a meeting in Kommandant Klink's office on a device that was disguised as a sewing box made of wooden thread spools. In 1965, The Case of the Tell-Tale Tap episode of ''[[Perry Mason]]'', the judge upheld Mason's objection to the introduction of a wire recording when his client was tried for murder. A wire recording was the subject of a 1966 ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' episode titled "[[A Spool There Was]]". The ''[[Department S (TV series)|Department S]]'' episode "A Cellar Full of Silence" revolves around a blackmail recording on a wire disguised as part of another object. A wire recorder is also used as a plot device in [[Arthur Miller]]'s 1949 play, ''[[Death of a Salesman]]''.

Similarly, in the 1990 film ''[[Dick Tracy (1990 film)|Dick Tracy]]'', set in the 1930s, Warren Beatty, in the title role, is shown manipulating a wire on which the voice of Mumbles (played by Dustin Hoffman) is recorded, in order to decipher the otherwise unintelligible speech of the fictitious criminal.

In the 1990 film ''[[The Two Jakes]]'', set in 1948, the plot centers around a wire recording made in a divorce-case-turned-homicide.

In the TV series [[Bones_(TV_series)|''Bones'']], Series 10, Episode 2, "The Lance to the Heart", an old wire recording of [[JFK]] is found in the house of a former agent of [[J. Edgar Hoover]].

More recently in a UK [[Sky UK|Sky]] History TV series "U-boat Wargamers", in the last episode [[Gilbert Roberts (Royal Navy officer)|Captain Gilbert Roberts]] [[CBE]] debriefs the German U-boat [[Eberhard Godt|Admiral Eberhard Godt]] using a Wirex Electronics Ltd of Edgware, London model B1 wire recorder to record the debrief (the machine is shown running). He secretly uses a second machine, hidden in an attache case, to record the more casual conversation after the main unit is switched off. The main machine depicted was actually not manufactured until 1951.