Pre-Edison sound recording unearthed!

[OvenMaster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/a...all&adxnnlx=1206806793-aQElEl0Ht3w3JMQTVyL+qA

 

[pretweak]

Saw it on the news last night. Very cool. I wonder if Edison was aware of its existance?

 

[Tmac83]

This was on NPR the other day too. Cool stuff. Really interesting how he made the recording. Interestingly enough he never intended it to be played back. He wanted to see the variance of the waves produced by a voice (similar to what you would see on an sound editing program on a computer). Evidently this guy was pissed when Edison was credited because he had many of the the same ideas 20 years previous.

 

[70salesguy]

If you closely read the article you will see where the device would "record sound" but was not capable of playing it back. It would produce only a visual record of the sound.

It took modern electronics and computers to "play back" the sound.

An interesting device and certainly one step on the way to recorded music.

It's possible that Edison may have been aware of it and further developed the concept into his device.

But as far as sound reproduction, it could not reproduce sound, it only recorded it visually!

 

[Old1625]

Interesting read--thanks for sharing... And I also heard about it--and heard a sample of the recording--on NPR a few evenings back.... :thmbsp:

 

[Old1625]

If you closely read the article you will see where the device would "record sound" but was not capable of playing it back. It would produce only a visual record of the sound.

It took modern electronics and computers to "play back" the sound.

An interesting device and certainly one step on the way to recorded music.

It's possible that Edison may have been aware of it and further developed the concept into his device.

But as far as sound reproduction, it could not reproduce sound, it only recorded it visually!

That's the bottom line right there: Edison succeeded in the complete retrievel of recorded info. And his process may very well have involved research on earlier attempts. That's what invention is all about in the real world.

The other "real world" element of Edison's general success was his recognition of the importance of publicity. He used it extensively--particularly in his defense of DC during the famed "war of the currents" sparked by threats of competition brought on by Tesla through the agency of George Westinghouse....

 

[Old1625]

This was on NPR the other day too. Cool stuff. Really interesting how he made the recording. Interestingly enough he never intended it to be played back. He wanted to see the variance of the waves produced by a voice (similar to what you would see on an sound editing program on a computer). Evidently this guy was pissed when Edison was credited because he had many of the the same ideas 20 years previous.

The thing we need to remember here is that in the attempts to record sound Edison's method made a better impression....

 

[jhoyt]

I just saw the article, you can listen to these "sounds" in mp3 format at firstsounds.org. They have the Scott and Edison phonautograms. The "Clair de la Lune" segment has a very haunting sound to it, even at just a few seconds in length.