You are about to hear something that nobody has heard in 147 years. In fact, not even the man who recorded it was able to listen to it because he had no way to play it back.
It's a voice recorded in smoke on a piece of paper from a process known as phonautography and it was recorded by a Frenchman named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Before Edison came upon a better method of recording in 1878, he too experimented with phonautography. His dilemma was the same as de Martinville's: no way to play it back. Prior to today, the world's oldest surviving recording which is capable of being played back, is this recording from 1878 of Frank Lambert, a contemporary of Edison, trying to make a recording for a talking clock.
I now present an unknown lady singing Au Clair de la Lune on April 9, 1860.
It's a voice recorded in smoke on a piece of paper from a process known as phonautography and it was recorded by a Frenchman named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Before Edison came upon a better method of recording in 1878, he too experimented with phonautography. His dilemma was the same as de Martinville's: no way to play it back. Prior to today, the world's oldest surviving recording which is capable of being played back, is this recording from 1878 of Frank Lambert, a contemporary of Edison, trying to make a recording for a talking clock.
I now present an unknown lady singing Au Clair de la Lune on April 9, 1860.
