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Sound Firsts: Landmark recordings in history

Twenty Thousand Hertz

CHAPTER

The Earliest Recorded Audio of a Human Voice

The earliest recordings of sounds passing through the air were made by edwar leon scott de martinville. Styluses would scratch these wave forms into materials as varied as tinfoil, soot covered paper, paraffin, wax and even wood. The earliest really intelligible recording we have is auclaire de le lune from april ninth of 18 60. It's a recognizable tune. You can listen to someone singing across the ages and get a sense for what things actually sounded like in the room where he wasleon scott's device was designed to only look at sound.

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