The first attempts to record sound to an optical medium occurred around 1900. Prior to the use of recorded sound in film, theatres would have live orchestras present during silent films.

The history of the earliest origins of recorded sound technology is being rewritten! Recent scholarship makes it clear that sound recording was invented twice: First by inventor Edouard-Léon Scott de …

Today, the National Museum of American History has about 400 of the earliest audio recordings ever made. These recordings were made using a variety of methods and materials such as rubber, …

Nov 19, 2025 · Because Scott de Martinville’s phonautograph produced the first known physical record of sound vibrations, which has since been converted into audible sound, it is recognized today as the …

First Recorded Sound 1857 – Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invents the phonautograph, a device that traces, but cannot play back sound waves. The intent is to visually represent sound onto soot …

Sep 25, 2025 · This is the first known recording ever created, by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, on April 9, 1860, before Edison’s wax cylinder experiments. The 10 seconds ghostly voice is a woman …

Discover the timeline of the very first sound recordings and learn how modern technology helped us finally listen to the earliest captured sounds.

Feb 10, 2025 · The first phonograph (Phonograph was originally the trade name for the device) consisted of a rotating cylinder covered with tin foil. A recording was made by using a megaphone …

This makes the recording more accurate and permits the use of a flat recording medium the phonograph record. The playback device, which follows the grooves on the record and renders the recorded …

As sound entered the horn, the stylus moved in response, producing a wavy line that represented the sound's vibrations. These visual traces, known as phonautograms, were studied for scientific …