Listen to oldest playable recording of American voice
Optical Imaging of 1878 St. Louis Edison Tinfoil Recording
posted about 12 years ago
Before Steve Jobs brought the world the iPod, before SONY gave us the walkman and before records drove kids crazy in the 1950's. Thomas Edison (in 1878) was working on a system to store sounds made by human beings.
[sarcasm alert] I feel pretty certain that there were some users of this early technology who felt there was no need to try to improve from this early iteration of sound recording.
"The modern masses can now listen to what experts say is the oldest playable recording of an American voice and the first-ever capturing of a musical performance, thanks to digital advances that allowed the sound to be transferred from flimsy tinfoil to computer."
Watch video and full text.
From websnap08.lbl.gov:
"This site provides information about the digital restoration of an Edison tinfoil record which dates from 1878. The restoration was done as part of a larger project to restore, preserve, and create digital access to sound recordings using non-invasive optical methods. This project is a collaboration between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Library of Congress."
Professor Haber's project site with recordings, photos and text.
