Throwback Technology Thursdays: the Headphone Splitter!

 

Next in our Throwback Technology series:  the Headphone Splitter!  

Now, you may have used a headphone splitter before, just a Y-shaped cable that has its single end lead into a phone and its forked end lead to two spots to plug earbuds or headphones into for a shared musical or audio experience.  But in a library or a school setting, these splitter boxes were common for a time.  

The basic operation was to have a line or cable coming into the box from an audio device like a stereo, a record player, a cassette player, or a VCR or DVD player.  Then, in each corner of the box you'd have a place to plug in a set of headphones.  In the image above, you can see the black cable leading from one corner and twisting around to the 3.5mm plug in the lower center of the picture.  That would go into the audio device, and then the four silver circles would be where you would plug headphones in.  The boxes were purchased when the larger 1/4" jack was used on headphones and other devices, and two of them have metal or plastic adapters in them to accommodate the smaller 3.5mm jack.  There are also short silver-colored sticks in the center of the box that were used to adjust the volume for each of the pairs of headphones that were plugged in.  

This speaks to me of a different time and place related to technology.  First of all, you might only use a splitter like this in a place where you wanted to, at the same time, allow multiple people to listen, but also contain the sound.  So, a library or school setting makes sense, where a small group of students might watch a DVD together, or listen to music without disturbing others around them.  But we also have to think about a time when the devices to play those sounds might be less common (like a VCR), and too expensive that every individual who needed to use it could have their own.  And certainly, these devices were readily used in classrooms or homes without headphones.  We could also imagine a situation where the medium you were using (a VHS tape, record, cassette, or DVD) might be in limited supply, so that everyone would have to come to the library to listen or watch.   

That certainly drove the need for the splitter, where four students might come and sit in the library's instructional materials center (IMC) room and watch a nursing videotape(that doesn't leave the library), while next to them another four students might watch a DVD for another class.  In a limited space you could accommodate multiple listening needs for not only individuals, but small groups, too.  

Now, the splitter is limited to four users, and today we might think of other ways to accomplish a shared listening experience.  With more study rooms, you could have a larger group watch or listen to something together without headphones.  Or, you could have any number of people listen individually to something in the library with headphones or earbuds from their phones or laptops, or a library computer.  And depending on the media (streaming video comes to mind), individuals could view a streaming video from home or anywhere else.  

If you'd like to see the splitter and imagine listening in the past, stop by the library.   More throwback technology is coming at you next week!