Phonovision

The Recovered Images

Contents: [ Sep 1927 "Stookie Bill", | Jan 1928 "Wally", | Mar 1928 "Miss Pounsford" ]

SWT515-4 20th September 1927 - "Stookie Bill"

©DFMcLean 1984

The September 1927 disc starts with a horizontal white bar followed by one of Baird's ventriloquist's dummy heads. A hand moves in to support the back of the head. After sweeping his other hand over the face, the operator moves the dummy head from side to side. The end half of the disc shows almost no movement with the exception of a hand in the lower part of the picture.

Baird had several different "Stookie Bill"s. He used them in his experimental days as test objects. The lighting was sometimes too intense for his assistants to stay under for any length of time. This is where Stookie Bill came into his own. It didn't matter if he melted! (The frame sequence below should be viewed from right to left)

Hand-over-face Sequence

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RWT620-4, -6, -11 10th January 1928 - "Wally"

The first of the January 1928 discs is very poor in picture quality. The lighting arrangement for all the recordings is demonstrated well on this disc. As the head moves towards the 'camera', the subject appears to move from total darkness into a pool of strong light.

Showing none of the faults of their partner, the second and third January 1928 discs show quite agile head movement of the same subject. Detail is good enough to show the eyes opening and closing. The subject, possibly "Wally" Fowlkes (The name Wally is scratched on the disc surface) turns and rocks his head from side to side, and looks up and down.

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RWT115-3 28th March 1928 - "Miss Pounsford"

©Pitman 1931

The name 'Miss Pounsford' appeared scratched on the surface of the March 1928 disc. This (so the label reads) 'shows lady moving head and smoking cigarette'. Although she does not smoke a cigarette on the recording, she appears quite extrovert (compared with "Wally") making this in my opinion the best of all the Phonovision discs. Throughout the recording she appears to be talking and generally enjoying herself.

Turning head sequence - 'Miss Pounsford'

A Tricky Recovery

Unlike the other discs, the 'Miss Pounsford' disc shows all the signs of being physically linked to the Nipkow disc 'camera'. Every frame is perfectly aligned with the rotation of the disc. This therefore should be the easiest of the discs to restore. In fact it is the most difficult. The lines making up each frame are offset in a pattern as shown on the left. This is most likely some mechanical resonance which causes the disc speed to vary whilst it is being recorded. Gearing back-lash or a universal-joint might be the cause of this problem.

Before Processing
before ©DFMcLean 1989

After Processing
after ©DFMcLean 1989

To get to the processed result on the right was a major challenge. But the time spent was worthwhile. It reveals now to us a lady full of life and clearly excited by the prospect of being televised. This is in sharp contrast to the other recordings. The recording of "Wally" is staid with slow movements and posed positions. And one can hardly call Stookie Bill's performance entertaining.

We think we know who "Wally" was. Unfortunately the "Stookie Bill" on the disc is one of the other dummys that Baird used and not one that that appears in photographs. But who was "Miss Pounsford"?

'Miss Pounsford' found!

Channel 4 television in the UK, as part of their "The Long Summer" series transmitted in 1993, put out a plea for information on "Miss Pounsford". Her great-niece responded and kindly provided some photographs. These photographs both confirm that Mabel Pounsford is the subject matter and, most usefully, confirm the scanning direction of the camera as left to right (the opposite of the Baird standard).

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Last updated by Don McLean on 22 March 2006