Remember when you were told in school that the first recording of the human voice was Edison's 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'? That was in 1877. Now an audio historian has uncovered four phonautogrammes recorded by Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville 17 years before that, in 1860. The phonautograph was a hand-cranked device that created visual images of sound waves on sooty paper. Several of those found were dated and had been deposited at the French Academy of Sciences in 1861, when Scott sought patents on the technology. A laboratory in the US analysed the images and re-created the sound that was recorded there.
Listen to 'Au Clair de la Lune' as recorded on phonautogrammes at the First Sounds website. It's not clear by any means, but is recognisably a woman's voice. She is singing the beginning line of the second verse-'Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit'. It's possible, of course, that there are other recordings of the human voice that remain undiscovered, but for now, this is the earliest one that we know of.
Neat, hmm? Thanks to zzshupinga of LISNews for the story.
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