Once upon a time… (001)

… the Cracklebox (1975, original Dutch name Kraakdoos).

This ingenious instrument, born from Michael Waiswisz's obsession with sticking his fingers into shortwave radio circuits and powered only by a 9V battery, used the electrical conduction properties of the skin to connect the various parts of a relatively simple circuit, but capable of emitting whistles, hums, and various moans.
The human body thus became part of the circuitry, and the skin acted as a cable, potentiometer, and capacitor.

It was produced by the STEIM laboratories in Amsterdam, which sold around 4,000 units in the 1970s. Production resumed a few years ago, but has now been halted again due to the lack of some obsolete components.

I have one. My favorite pastime was walking into a department store with a cracklebox in my pocket and turning it on for a few seconds, looking around, along with everyone else, to try to figure out where those crazy sounds were coming from. And these were the sounds:

Example 1 793k
Example 2 563k
Example 3 490k
Example 4 504k
Example 5 712

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