The Cave Tapes
In 1993 Barry Kawa began a quest to interview and record all the great telescope makers across the country. The research he was doing was for a book that, well, just never happened. In 2013 Barry revisited the work he did back then and began writing many short articles from these tapes for the Astromart.com Members area and for an article here on this site (Barry Kawa, An Interview with Thomas Cave).
I acquired the Cave interview tapes from Barry and began the work of digitizing them for this website. The quality varied a lot and in some circumstances were very hard to hear at all. I digitized them and then used software to remove the noise and improve on the dynamic range. They are not perfect, but are very listenable.
I have over 5 hours of conversations with Thomas Cave. I will try to clip and edit the most interesting parts for you to hear. Tom certainly was not shy when in front of a microphone. I hope these snippets of audio will help uncover some insight into the man, his life, and his telescopes.
Tom Terleski
I acquired the Cave interview tapes from Barry and began the work of digitizing them for this website. The quality varied a lot and in some circumstances were very hard to hear at all. I digitized them and then used software to remove the noise and improve on the dynamic range. They are not perfect, but are very listenable.
I have over 5 hours of conversations with Thomas Cave. I will try to clip and edit the most interesting parts for you to hear. Tom certainly was not shy when in front of a microphone. I hope these snippets of audio will help uncover some insight into the man, his life, and his telescopes.
Tom Terleski
The early years. Tom's father and the new optical business he and his father started.
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Los Angeles
Astronomical Society
Tom Cave's first telescope built with the help of his father. Also his first real job with Herron Optical.
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Tom Talks about getting a job offer from Lowell Observatory. He also talked about Questar.
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Tom talks about Mars.
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Thomas Cave and heath concerns. Selling the company and going to work for Hughes.
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Listen to the full set of Barry Kawa Tapes Here!
After learning that Barry Kawa had recorded over 4 hours of an interview with Thomas Cave, I called Barry and he sent me the tapes. The quality of the tapes were very bad. Not Barry's fault, but I think it was from a faulty microphone or tape recorder. I downloaded a copy of Audacity recording software and set out to work on the tape recordings. I've got many hours both learning the program and in repairing the audio from the tapes. I believe I've got them repaired the best that they can get.
The first three A, B and C are Tom talking about the his early life, his father, hollywood and the war. Tapes D, E, and F are all telescopes. There are some very interesting comment within these recordings like Tom's insistence that Alika Herring was NOT his best optician.
If anyone would like to help document the tapes by noting "Tape" . "subject" and "time mark" I would appreciate it and I will include the reference under each tape designation on this page.
Thanks
Tom T
After learning that Barry Kawa had recorded over 4 hours of an interview with Thomas Cave, I called Barry and he sent me the tapes. The quality of the tapes were very bad. Not Barry's fault, but I think it was from a faulty microphone or tape recorder. I downloaded a copy of Audacity recording software and set out to work on the tape recordings. I've got many hours both learning the program and in repairing the audio from the tapes. I believe I've got them repaired the best that they can get.
The first three A, B and C are Tom talking about the his early life, his father, hollywood and the war. Tapes D, E, and F are all telescopes. There are some very interesting comment within these recordings like Tom's insistence that Alika Herring was NOT his best optician.
If anyone would like to help document the tapes by noting "Tape" . "subject" and "time mark" I would appreciate it and I will include the reference under each tape designation on this page.
Thanks
Tom T
Tape A
Tape B
Tape C
Tape D
Tape E
Tape F