I wish the sounds extracted from this tracing had some kind of meaning - they're so ethereal and unreal that they could be anything - more UFO than EL sounds, I think .
===================== From: [email protected] Date: 2008/03/28 Fri AM 09:28:42 CDT To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Fw: EARLIEST recorded human voice? In a message dated 3/28/2008 10:19:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: (reply below) Allen, I found this information at http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/ It's at the bottom of the page. You can actually listen to the recording Edison made with the phonautograph. <<Metropolitan Elevated Railroad from 40 feet away (1878 Phonautogram) In 1878, when Thomas Edison was hired to study the objectionable noise produced by the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad in New York City, he turned to the phonautograph, adapting one of his tinfoil phonographs to draw a "readable" lateral waveform. Edison's colleague Charles Batchelor made this particular phonautogram as part of that project in September. We believe the excerpt presented here begins and ends with test shouts, with three specimens of actual train noise in between-the earliest American sounds yet reproduced. Note that pitch fluctuations are due at least in part to the irregular recording speed. * _Metropolitan Elevated Railroad from 40 feet away_ (http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/1878-Edison-MERR.mp3) (mp3) >> ============== aha, I see it, and thanks. I believe the 1878 date given on this site is in error. When I saw this tracing years ago at the ENHS, it was marked as being made in the 1880s. Allen From [email protected] Sun Mar 30 12:07:33 2008 From: [email protected] (Bob) Date: Sun Mar 30 12:10:25 2008 Subject: [Phono-L] Fw: EARLIEST recorded human voice? References: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <00c401c89299$50198340$6500a...@your4dacd0ea75> Hi Dan, Someone else mentioned that to me. Could you provide a little more information as to what he used form the telegrph devices. I think it would be educational to others on the list as well as me. RMV ----- Original Message ----- From: "DanKj" <[email protected]> To: "Antique Phonograph List" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 1:13 PM Subject: Re: Re: [Phono-L] Fw: EARLIEST recorded human voice? > > Except that he didn't copy at all - Edison's phonograph was based on his > own telegraph recording/repeating devices, not the phonautograph. > > ===================== > From: Bob <[email protected]> > Date: 2008/03/28 Fri PM 12:17:43 CDT > To: Antique Phonograph List <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Fw: EARLIEST recorded human voice? > > What Edison copied was the idea of picking up sound vibrations with a > diaphragm and making a permanent record by transferring it to media with a > stylus and moving the media under it. Whether it was hill and dale or > side > to side is insignificant. In fact, for visual examination and comparison, > side to side is vastly superior to hill and dale. I cant imagine how hill > and dale could be observed or measured visually. > RMV > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bob" <[email protected]> > To: "'Antique Phonograph List'" <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 11:01 AM > Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Fw: EARLIEST recorded human voice? > > >> Am I missing something here.... Was the Scott "recording" hill and dale >> or >> side to side? I'm assuming side to side, so just exactly what did Edison >> copy? >> Bob > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
