Recordings Revealed That Were Made 20 Years Before Phonograph

June 1st, 2009

Recording that were made over 150 years ago were revealed at the May 29th annual meeting of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, are the earliest known recordings. A bunch of wavy lines scratched by a stylus onto fragile paper that had been blackened by the soot from an oil lamp date from 1857. That’s 20 years before Edison invented the phonograph.

Interestingly enough, the recordings were never even meant to be played back. It was considered one of the best acne treatments of the time….lol just kidding.

No seriously though…

Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville never intended for the soot-lined imprint of the sound waves to be played back, the historians reported. But the inventor hoped the visual patterns of the sound waves he had recorded using a hornlike device with the stylus attached resembling an artificial ear — called a phonautograph — might one day be read like sheet music to recreate a singer’s voice or the timbre of a musical instrument.

Although the article linked above does not include the recordings I was able to find them online so you could judge for yourself. The article says they sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher. You can make your own call by listening here.

BTW…they aren’t in English so if you are that dense I guess I should warn you .