http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2008/06/29/news/top_story/1aaa01_dic=
taphone.txt
Expert helps refine JFK recording
By Steve Lathrop ... Albany Democrat-Herald
It has been 45 years since Bill McWilliams first became immersed in
the continuing investigation of the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.
=93I was right in the middle of it all,=94 he says.
He still is, in his own way.
=46rom his home in North Albany, McWilliams works with engineers at the
Lawrence Livermore National Loboratory in California, trying to
determine the exact number of shots fired in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22,
1963.
Widely considered an expert Dictaphone technician, McWilliams was
recruited by researchers who are using advanced techniques in sound
reproduction to provide them with first-hand information on the
machine and the assassination as they search for additional evidence.
It was McWilliams who serviced the now-famous Dictabelt #10 at the
Dallas police station the day of the assassination. It is the machine
that recorded events as they crackled forth from a motorcycle
policeman=92s open microphone.
=93I heard it all as it happened,=94 McWilliams says.
The research, which has been going on since 2005, was authorized by
Leslie Waffin of the National Archives, who released the machine to
the lab to apply the latest techniques in sound reproduction.
Dr. Carl Haber and Dr. Vitaliy Fadeyev have led the research using a
digital optical camera called a Smartscope to scan the grooves of the
belt and create a digital image of sound patterns.
It is fed into computers programmed to clean up the sound removing
excess noise, static and voices.
=93The sound is reproduced without the stylus riding on the grooves,=94
said McWilliams. =93And the computer can eliminate any unnecessary
noise.=94
Already involved for more than a year, McWilliams supplies equipment,
specifications and mechanical data for the dictabelt recordings.
=93It=92s a slow process. They are still working on it,=94 he said.
=93Ultimately they are trying to find out if there were more shots
fired.=94
The day of the assassination, McWilliams not only heard the event, he
witnessed the transfer of the mortally wounded president from the
ambulance to the hospital, which was located directly behind the
Dallas Police Station.
=93I believe there were more shots fired,=94 he says. =93Maybe this will
answer that question.=94
In addition to his work on the assassination investigation, McWilliams
never is far from a Dictaphone, which were in wide use between the
late 19th- and early 20th century. Dictabelts that had grooves cut
into a plastic belt, rather than onto a wax cylinder, were introduced
in 1947. Then the tape recorder gained popularity, and Dictaphones
fell out of favor.
McWilliams may be the world=92s largest provider and repairer of vintage
machines. His shelves are lined with wax cylinders, vacuum tubes,
cassettes and magnetic tape analog recording and dictating equipment =97
technological relics that predated tape recorders and cell phones.
=93He=92s known all over the country,=94 said his wife Dorothy.
Working from a large shop behind his home, McWilliams and his son Doak
have created a website and also sell parts on eBay.
=93I don=92t deal much with the computers,=94 he admits. =93I don=92t
reall=
y
trust them.=94 He doesn=92t ignore them, either; he simply prefers being
able to use his hands. His entire inventory has been indexed by hand
to back up the computer log.
McWilliams spent 33 years with Dictaphone after his graduation from
Texas Institute of Technology. He eventually becoming a regional
service director.
The Korean War veteran retired in 1989 and moved to Albany in 2000.
He now owns about 200 machines dating back to 1889, a year after
Dictaphone =97 then Columbia Graphophone =97 was created.
=93I=92ve always collected,=94 he says. =93Some are pretty unique.=94
His largest is 6 feet tall, and 300 pounds and the smallest is a hand-
held device that fits into a ****rt pocket. Also included is a 1953
model that was the world=92s first audio machine to announce the time.
=93There are probably no more than two or three of them in the world,=94
he said.
The collection evolved into repair work, parts sales and consultation.
It also has star quality.
=93I get a lot of calls to rent or loan machines to movie prop
companies,=94 he said.
The Kevin Costner movie =93Thirteen Days=94 and the PBS series =93Meaning
o=
f
Grace=94 both used vintage Dictaphones from McWilliams=92 inventory.
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