It’s hard to imagine that less than two centuries ago, audio recording was still part of fiction. The oldest known audio recording is from 1878 which was made on the phonograph created by Thomas Edison. A group of researchers has now been able to restore this recording.
The extraordinary feat was accomplished by researchers at Berkeley Lab in California. The recording runs for the length of 78 seconds and was originally stored on a tinfoil-covered cylinder. This antiquated cylinder, which was the earliest forms of phonograph, makes use of a stylus.
Researchers have been trying to restore this recording to present it as the earliest-ever audio recording in human history. And now, they have finally succeeded. In achieving this, researchers had to scan the entire equipment which still exists.
They then created a 3D model of the equipment and with the help of that recreated the recording. The recording itself comprises of an instrument being played after which one can hear someone reciting ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and ‘Old Mother Hubbard.’ The exact identity of the singer remains unknown although some have speculated that it may be Thomas Mason, the well-known political writer of that age.
According to the trustee of Museum of Innovation and Science, John Schneiter, “In the history of recorded sound that’s still playable, this is about as far back as we can go.” On the coming Thursday, the recording will be publicly played at the museum so as to relish the oldest-ever recorded sounds from the pages of history.
Source: ABC News
Courtesy: The Verge
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