Sound collection barrel or resonator

1. The Phonautographthe 1857 invention of FrenchmanEdouard Léon Scott, 20 years before Edison’s phonograph. Voice enters here Sound collection barrel or resonator Crank cylinder covered with sooty paper Stylus or needle Lee Carleton MHIS 591 Dr. Bishop Spring 2008 Brass tube with membrane

2. Edison’s genius is undisputed but much of his success was due to self-promotion, showmanship, and massive financial backing by wealthy investors like Vanderbilt and J. P. Morgan who were hoping to make huge profits.However, Scott’s phonautograph was overlooked primarily because he had no mechanism for replaying the sounds recorded on the sooty paper.

3. Edison in Washington DC to patent his first phonograph. Though we celebrate Edison as the holder of over 1000 patents, many do not know of his deafness and his odd method of hearing, nor do we hear much of his early use of the phonograph in a talking doll that was a failure due to its fragile complexity.

4. Scott may not have been able to play his recordings, but digital technology has vastly expanded our ability to play early unreadable audio recordings According to a March 27, 2008 New York Times article,“Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison”scholars have recently used digital technologies to play sounds inscribed on sooty paper, a collaborative effort by audio historian DavidGiovannoni, Patrick Feaster of Indiana University, and Richard Martin and Meagan Hennessey of Archeophone Records, a company specializing in early sound recordings such as their Grammy nominated album Actionable Offenses, a collection of lusty 19th-century recordings.

5. Giovannoni holds “the April 1860 phonautogram, an immaculately preserved Sheet of rag paper 9 inches by 25 inches.” (note lines inscribed in soot)

6. The group scanned the sooty paperwith high resolution imaging at the Lawrence Berkeley lab, where they were converted into sound by audio scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell. This technology, developed along with the Library of Congress, creates: “high-resolution ‘maps’ of grooved records are played on a computer using a digital stylus.” The 1860 phonautogram was then separated into 16 tracks, then carefully re-assembled with adjustments for variations in the speed of the original hand-cranked recording. The soot from a lamp, or “lampblack,” covered the paper and became the medium in which the voice patterns were inscribed.

7. The Phonautograph Recording from 1860 of 'Au Clair de la Lune’digitally transcribed at Lawrence Berkeley Lab.1931 comparison recording of ‘Au Clair de la Lune’Though the recording is ghostly & somewhat unclear, this new technology promises to sound out many of our earliest recordings whether in soot, wax or acetate.