Virtual Coach » Voice 17 years BEFORE Thomas Edison

Voice 17 years BEFORE Thomas Edison

March 31, 2008 Barbara One comment

Your kids probably know

about Thomas Edison – you know, the inventor of the Phonograph and all that great stuff?

Did you know he WASN’T the first to record voice? Neither did I! To wit:

…This weekend, Stanford University hosted the first public performance of the earliest known human voice recording–one that predates Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph by 17 years. The organization that made playback of the sound possible, First Sounds, has also posted the recording online for the public.

The recording, or “phonautogram,” was made April 9, 1860 by French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on a device he dubbed the “phonautograph,” which recorded sound by scratching a piece of paper that had been blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp. It features a girl–possibly the inventor’s daughter–singing about 10 seconds of the French folk song “Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit.”

The trouble was that while Scott was able to record sounds, he never …MORE….

Neat, huh? Bet your kids don’t know this little audio science history gem.

And if you’d like some more early voices and sound recording resources, consider:

Hope you enjoy the above.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert
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ps – and speaking about Thomas Edison: