New evidence suggests French inventor may have recorded human voice before Edison
By
Ron Cowen
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
New historical evidence suggests that French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville may have recorded the human voice before Thomas Edison's 1877 phonograph. Scott's "phonautograph," invented in 1857, created visual sound tracings on paper but lacked playback capability. In 2008, researchers used optical scanning technology to convert these tracings into audible sound, revealing a 1860 recording of "Au Clair de la Lune" — predating Edison by 17 years. The article explores the debate over whether Scott's invention qualifies as a true recording, given it was never intended for playback, and examines the implications for the history of sound recording.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThere can be no doubt but that the inflections are those of nothing else than the human voice.
Scott's phonautograph was never intended to play back sound — it was designed to create visual tracings of sound waves on paper.
The discovery challenges the long-held belief that Edison was the first to capture the human voice.
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