Poster advertising the launch of the first National Lottery draw on the 19th Novemeber 1994. Image by Jonathan Player

This November we’re celebrating the National Lottery’s 30th Birthday! For three decades now the National Lottery has been a driving force behind countless heritage projects across the UK. With the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s generous support the sound archive have been able to preserve, catalogue and share many collections for the nation to enjoy now and in the future.

The Lottery have supported multiple National Life Stories projects over the years, helping to both record and archive interviews to add to the sound archive collections. In particular, with their support, the sound archive have preserved a cluster of collections documenting the experiences of people living with, or personally impacted by, HIV. These include powerful testimonies of those living with HIV and oral histories of healthcare workers who cared for people with HIV at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.

The impact of these oral histories has been far-reaching. For example, two collections[i] have been used as evidence in the ongoing Infected Blood enquiry. Selected recordings have also been used in a BBC documentary series entitled AIDS: The Unheard Tapes, which tells the story of the HIV epidemic in the UK from the early 1980s until the mid 1990s as experienced by the UK’s gay community. The documentary uses the audio from the archived interviews with each narrator's voice lip-synched for television by an actor. You can read more about this process and the collections in this blog post: Putting AIDS the Unheard Tapes in context. 

Another unique collection to highlight is the Pinnacle Club for Women Climbers collection. The Pinnacle Club is a national women’s climbing club founded in 1921 – and to commemorate the club’s centenary year, and with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, they recorded oral history interviews with 24 past and present members. These have all now been archived here at the British Library. The oral histories reach back to memories from the 1940s and 50s, recalling a time when opportunities for, and expectations of, women were restricted. Many spoke of being frustrated by the limitations of girls’ education at the time, and low expectations of women’s athletic performance. When the club was established climbing was a very male dominated activity, but clubs like the Pinnacle Club allowed women to find like-minded female climbing partners and climb unhindered by the stereotypes of the day.

We cannot celebrate the National Lottery’s birthday without mentioning a major project that they made possible: Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH), a UK-wide initiative to preserve, digitise, catalogue, and copyright clear the most vulnerable recordings across the United Kingdom. It is widely acknowledged that the formats in which sounds have been stored throughout history – such as wax cylinders, vinyl, reel-to-reel, and cassette – will one day become inaccessible as they age, making them inaudible and inaccessible. By acquiring cutting edge technology, and setting up centres of expertise across the country, the project digitally preserved at-risk collections, ensuring the voices and sounds they hold are not lost forever.  It garnered wide support, not least from the nation’s favourite conservationist, David Attenborough.

The project digitised over 115,000 physical items, generating over 368,000 recordings, which were then catalogued. These recordings and collections ranged widely in their content and format. One exciting example is the Glastonbury New Bands Collection, consisting of more than 4600 demo tapes. In the early 2000’s Glastonbury ran a competition for unsigned acts, with the prize being the chance to perform on one of the festival’s main stages. The Emerging Talent Competition, launched in 2004 as the Glastonbury Festival Unsigned Performers Competition, is still part of the annual festival today. From 2010 onwards applications were processed online but up until 2009 emerging acts had to physically compile an application bundle consisting of an entry form, a biography and a demo CD. Thousands of demos found their way to Glastonbury; offering a contemporary witness of the music created at the beginning of the 21st century by unsigned bands and musicians in Britain and beyond. They also provide a valuable representation of youth and DIY culture at the turn of the century, captured through the demo designs and song lyrics.

Listening desk by Emily Peasgood

If you’re interested in hearing some of the recordings digitised by the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project – why not visit the Listening Desk at our St Pancras site? A cross between a gramophone horn, a desk, and a touch screen, the sound sculpture allow users to engage with sound in a fun and playful way. It’s located on the upper ground floor, outside of the King’s Library. Or if you’d like to explore some of our digitised recordings from the comfort of your own home, then download our podcast All About Sound. Hosted by author and poet Lemn Sissay, with a range of special guests including Shami Chakrabarti and Kae Tempest, it explores a variety of contemporary issues through archival sound recordings.

[i] ‘Haemophilia and HIV Life History Project’ and ‘HIV in the Family: an oral history of parents, partners and children of those with haemophilia’.

 

We’re delighted to announce that the sound archive now has the privilege of housing one of only two Endpoint cylinder replay machines in Europe, expanding our capabilities for preserving historical audio recordings in the UK.

This exciting development was made possible by the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project, generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Endpoint cylinder machine is a state-of-the-art device designed to preserve historical audio recordings stored on phonograph ‘wax’ cylinders, using non-contact optical reading of the cylinder surface. It represents a significant milestone in the field of preservation, offering new possibilities for safeguarding historical sound recordings for the future.

What are wax cylinders?

The earliest way to record and play back sounds was by using a cylinder phonograph, perfected by American inventor Thomas Edison, in June 1888. Phonograph cylinders were a hollow tubes made of beeswax and other wax-like substances. Sound was recorded by using a stylus to cut grooves into the surface, creating a physical representation of the sound waves. Wax cylinders were used to record a variety of sounds, including music, speeches and field recordings. They were also popular for home entertainment and for capturing historical events. However, wax cylinders are prone to damage and deterioration, and they were eventually replaced by more durable and convenient recording formats like shellac and vinyl discs and magnetic tapes.

Wax cylinder recordings are unique artefacts of historical documentation, providing an invaluable window into the past, capturing sounds and voices, that would otherwise be lost to history. And as one of the very first vehicles for sound recording, they also hold unparalleled technological significance: they represent a significant milestone in the development of technology, providing insights into early methods and limitations.

Our earliest collections in the sound archive date back to the very first years of sound recording, and they’re incredibly fragile artefacts. Because early wax cylinders needed to be soft enough to be inscribed by a cutting stylus, they are now prone to cracks and deformation. This makes handling and contact replay for preservation difficult, and sometimes impossible.

How the Endpoint cylinder transfer machine works

With this new technology fragile wax cylinders can now be digitised safely and accurately. The Endpoint machine uses a specially designed mandrel to hold the cylinder securely in place, ensuring accurate playback and minimising damage. A laser system centres the cylinder on the mandrel, optimising playback quality and reducing distortion. The recorded signal is then read – either optically or with a stylus – and captured as a high-resolution digital audio file, for preservation and analysis. This minimises the risk of further damage to these important historical documents, ensuring their long-term preservation. It also allows us to digitise damaged cylinders that would be previously inaccessible by traditional playback methods.

Watch our Audio Engineer Karl Jenkins describe how this invaluable tool is helping to safeguard our cultural heritage and ensure that the sounds of the past can be enjoyed for generations to come: