Four gentlemen about the Gouda of around 1890

19 October 1954 – Interviewer Dr. J.G.W.F. Bik, chairman of the Oudheidkundige Kring Die Goude, had managed to seize a so-called wire-recorder, a then very modern invention and early predecessor of the advanced tape recorder. The device was capable of ‘recording the spoken word on a kind of thick steel wire, after which the sound could later be played back. ‘The wire-recorder was used at Geert Bouwmeester’s De Goudse Insurance Company for dictating letters. But Dr. Bik was able to borrow the device for an evening, allowing the three very elderly Gouda residents to speak their highly personal childhood memories ‘live’ into the microphone. These conversations were later typed out on paper’. And so it is still possible to read what Messrs. S.H. van der Kraats, B.H. van der Werve and D.L. Dijkxhoom confided to the public and the wire-recorder in conversation with Bik. B.H. van der Werve, born on West Haven, was the oldest interviewee at 91. He had been a bailiff by profession and also a commissioner of the Werkinrichting tot Wering der Bedelarij for thirty years. S.H. (Sybrand) van der Kraats, father of the later editor-in-chief of the Goudsche Courant, Siep van der Kraats, was custodian of the library. Nothing further is mentioned about Dijkxhoorn (87 years).