The very latest thing in libraries, I am told, is a result of the film industry's activity in meeting the demand for all kinds of noises in connection with sound-picture production.
Included in the equipment of the General Electric Company at Schenectady is a film sound recorder upon which hundreds of different records are made, after which they are indexed and stored away for use.
When the director of a radio drama needs the agonised scream, the revolver shot or the roar of a train, he sends to the sound library for the appropriate film to give the desired realism to his programme. Gently lapping waves, the splash of a waterfall or the thunder of the surf are as easily available as the noises of street traffic or the applause of an audience.
Recently a commercial lecturer on poultry wanted to add to the realism of his remarks by a sound background. Hens, chickens and a lively rooster were brought to the studio, a plentiful supply of corn scattered round the microphone, and now the clamour of those satisfied birds will long outlive their own passing away in an inevitable dietetic "fade-out."
The Irish Times, April 7th, 1931