World's oldest voice recording discovered-predates Edison

[SteveGrenard]

No it wasn't etched onto a cave wall by a neanderthal but the device used to record it might be almost as primitive.

Experts Uncover World’s Oldest Recording

Posted on: Friday, 28 March 2008, 08:15 CDT


A group of audio historians have discovered what may be the oldest recording of the human voice.

The 10-second clip is of a woman singing part of a French song called “Au Clair de la Lune” and it was recorded in 1860 - making it 17 years older than Thomas Edison’s “Mary had a little Lamb.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1315449/experts_uncover_worlds_oldest_recording/

[Gravy]

Your excerpt may give the wrong impression. Edison's recordings could be played back with contemporary technology; Scott's could not.

“We found that Scott’s technique wasn’t very developed,” Giovannoni said. “There were squiggles on paper, but it was not recording sound.”

The U.S. experts made high-resolution digital scans of the paper. According to First Sounds, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California converted the scans into sound waves using technology developed to preserve and create early recordings.

[Segnosaur]

Your excerpt may give the wrong impression. Edison's recordings could be played back with contemporary technology; Scott's could not.

Actually Scott's recording could be, but then he was sued by the RIAA for violating copyright.

[/joke]

[Ixion]

This issue was addressed in an episode of Mythbusters that proposed that sound waves could be etched in mediums such as clay and amplified later for playback. This recent discovery of an etching on paper was very similar to what they were testing. In that episode, they found that the playback was full of noise and not very clear but that it could be done. It is exciting to see an example where it was actually accomplished.

[Rocko]

Rather sweetly, the news presenter who covered this on Radio 4 this morning had a giggling fit about it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7318173.stm

[Big Les]

*Sigh*, Charlotte Green...

[davefoc]

This issue was addressed in an episode of Mythbusters that proposed that sound waves could be etched in mediums such as clay and amplified later for playback. This recent discovery of an etching on paper was very similar to what they were testing. In that episode, they found that the playback was full of noise and not very clear but that it could be done. It is exciting to see an example where it was actually accomplished.

I have a different memory of that episode.

My recollection was that they were completely unsuccessful at playing back the sound and concluded (incorrectly in my opinion) that it couldn't be done. The idea they were attempting to debunk was that ancient sounds could be recovered from pottery by doing a 3d laser scan of the pottery and then using some software tease out sound. It seemed just barely possible to me and I didn't think they disproved the possibility of doing it with their clumsy experiments.

I thought something similar to what was done for recovering this sound might be possible with pottery. But I also thought that it would be very rare that a sound could be recoverable from pottery and wouldn't be surprised that it would never be accomplished unless an intentional effort was made to embed sound wave vibrations in the pottery.

One thing that wasn't mentioned about this story that I found suspicious was that a song was recorded. It seems really strange that somebody fooling around with completely cutting edge technology would be worried enough about what to record that he would be going to the trouble of recording a song. I think just some yelling would have been adequate to test the recording part of his process. Why would he go to the trouble of recording a song before he had a pretty good handle on a playback mechanism?

[m_huber]

One thing that wasn't mentioned about this story that I found suspicious was that a song was recorded. It seems really strange that somebody fooling around with completely cutting edge technology would be worried enough about what to record that he would be going to the trouble of recording a song. I think just some yelling would have been adequate to test the recording part of his process. Why would he go to the trouble of recording a song before he had a pretty good handle on a playback mechanism?

"Hey, Marge, say something into that cone."

"What should I say?"

"I don't care."

"I'll just sing my little song..."

[davefoc]

"Hey, Marge, say something into that cone."

"What should I say?"

"I don't care."

"I'll just sing my little song..."

As an electrical engineer for thirty years or so I can tell you the first time we got something working we tried the simplest experiments possible just to see if our gadget worked at all.

Of course it might have happened like you suggested and it sounds like it did, but maybe if he'd devoted a little more effort to working on a playback device instead of listening to Marge sing we might have heard of him instead of Edison.

[Skullaxide]

This kind of stuff always creeps me out, also I've heard they had no way of playing it back at the time?

[Ixion]

I have a different memory of that episode.

My recollection was that they were completely unsuccessful at playing back the sound and concluded (incorrectly in my opinion) that it couldn't be done. The idea they were attempting to debunk was that ancient sounds could be recovered from pottery by doing a 3d laser scan of the pottery and then using some software tease out sound. It seemed just barely possible to me and I didn't think they disproved the possibility of doing it with their clumsy experiments.

I thought something similar to what was done for recovering this sound might be possible with pottery. But I also thought that it would be very rare that a sound could be recoverable from pottery and wouldn't be surprised that it would never be accomplished unless an intentional effort was made to embed sound wave vibrations in the pottery.

One thing that wasn't mentioned about this story that I found suspicious was that a song was recorded. It seems really strange that somebody fooling around with completely cutting edge technology would be worried enough about what to record that he would be going to the trouble of recording a song. I think just some yelling would have been adequate to test the recording part of his process. Why would he go to the trouble of recording a song before he had a pretty good handle on a playback mechanism?

You are correct in your memory. I went back and reviewed the episode. They did not recover any sound from the pottery. They did use 3D laser scanning. However, I totally agree with you that their experiments were clunky and did not disprove the possibility of sound recovery.

[AgeGap]

Rather sweetly, the news presenter who covered this on Radio 4 this morning had a giggling fit about it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7318173.stm

I was driving home when I heard that. Another voice can be heard in the background. Are you sure they were giggling at the old recording. Hmm, I may start a new topic in CT.

[Whiplash]

This issue was addressed in an episode of Mythbusters that proposed that sound waves could be etched in mediums such as clay and amplified later for playback. This recent discovery of an etching on paper was very similar to what they were testing. In that episode, they found that the playback was full of noise and not very clear but that it could be done. It is exciting to see an example where it was actually accomplished.


My favorite part of that episode is when Kari was screaming "TORY!" at the top of her lungs, to get it to "record" onto the pot, and after doing this for several tries, Tory says "Now I know what it would be like to be married to you". I lol'd.

[geni]

One thing that wasn't mentioned about this story that I found suspicious was that a song was recorded. It seems really strange that somebody fooling around with completely cutting edge technology would be worried enough about what to record that he would be going to the trouble of recording a song. I think just some yelling would have been adequate to test the recording part of his process. Why would he go to the trouble of recording a song before he had a pretty good handle on a playback mechanism?

Music was an early target because they quicky picked up it made simpler and more interesting wave patturns. The recording is in any case from 1860 by which time the patent on the device was 3 years old so extreamly doubtful it was the first recording.

[ErkDemon]

Ah, what people had to do for fun, before we had oscilloscopes ...

[Alice Shortcake]

There's something rather spooky about listening to a human voice recorded 148 years ago. I wonder how old the singer was? It's not impossible that she was born in the eighteenth century!