# Urban legends? (listening to Mona Lisa; Pres. Garfield's bedsprings) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 3, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422 "2003-10-03T20:19:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/21 "2003-10-04T14:31:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > **If I ever develop a time machine, I’d go back to Europe about the time the first spring-wound clocks were appearing and build a version of Bell’s original phonograph.** Do you mean Edison’s? > [@](#): > > \*\*Could Bell’s electromagnetic device have responded very well to a lead round? I misdoubt lead to be very ferrous, and that’s how I thought those devices worked. \*\* Er, “misdoubt”? 😕 Bell’s metal detector could indeed detect bullets, to a depth of five inches. See the entires of July 31 and August 1, 1881 in this [timeline](http://www.scitechantiques.com/belldiscovery/Belltime%20linever6.htm). A [diagram](http://www.scitechantiques.com/belldiscovery/BULLET/nextpage6.html) of the scientific principle. Bell and his associates did [field tests](http://www.historybuff.com/library/refgarfield.html) of their device: > [@](#): > > As a final test, before using it on the president, they went to the Old Soldiers Home in Washington, D.C. where they solicited Civil War veterans and lined them up in open fields. They passed the wand over each volunteer’s body. As some still had bullets in their body from doing battle in the war, this provided a very close approximation of what they hoped their invention would accomplish — locate a bullet inside a human body. In each case, the soldiers with bullets still in them, and where the bullets were, were identified. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Dickerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Scott\_Dickerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Dickerson)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/22 "2003-10-05T00:57:23Z")
Thanks, Walloon et al, for the very thorough coverage of the Garfield incident. Re: Mona… I was already pretty clear that the thing didn’t happen, and why it was unlikely. It probably DID originate in the cited article. I would still like to know a bit about the story as reported, how it happened to get circulated and in what exact form. I’m fairly sure the “Finito” detail was in the story–can someone confirm? ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/23 "2003-10-05T01:03:31Z")
Given today’s technology, I imagine you wouldn’t have to use a photo stylus to search for inadvertant recordings. You could probably devise an optical scanner to do the job. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/24 "2003-10-05T01:24:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Given today’s technology, I imagine you wouldn’t have to use a photo stylus to search for inadvertant recordings. You could probably devise an optical scanner to do the job. IIRC someone commentig on Clarke or on the original article suggested that, quite a while ago. But don’t think anyone’s ever followed up on it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/25 "2003-10-05T01:31:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Given today’s technology, I imagine you wouldn’t have to use a photo stylus to search for inadvertant recordings. You could probably devise an optical scanner to do the job. IIRC someone commentig on Clarke or on the original article suggested that, quite a while ago. But don’t think anyone’s ever followed up on it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/26 "2003-10-05T01:40:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Given today’s technology, I imagine you wouldn’t have to use a photo stylus to search for inadvertant recordings. You could probably devise an optical scanner to do the job. IIRC someone commentig on Clarke or on the original article suggested that, quite a while ago. But don’t think anyone’s ever followed up on it. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/27 "2003-10-05T04:06:56Z")
Do you remember someone commenting on Clarke? Don’t be shy about it… ---
**Author:** ![markdiscordia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@markdiscordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdiscordia)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/28 "2003-10-05T06:52:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stockton \* > \*\*Do you remember someone commenting on Clarke? Don’t be shy about it… \*\* Maybe we could retrieve the sound from the paintings with a 1920s style “death ray”? ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422/29 "2003-10-05T23:41:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*“Dr. Woodbridge first explored the surface of a clay pot with simple phonograph pickup and succeeded indetecting the sounds produced by a rather noisy potter’s wheel. Then he played loud music to a canvas while it was being painted, and found that short snatches of melody could be identified after th paint had dried. The fina step – achieved only after a ‘long and tedious search’ – was to find a spoken word in an oil painting. To quote from Dr. Woobridg’s letter: ‘The word was ‘blue’ and was located in a blue paint stroke – as if the artist was talking to himelf or t the subject.’” \*\* And I bet the Dr. Woodbridge would also be able to see canals on Mars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/urban-legends-listening-to-mona-lisa-pres-garfields-bedsprings/205422.md?page=1)