The First Recorded Music – Edison Was Second
We were all taught that Tom Edison made the first recordings, using his famous wax cylinders. This recounting certainly fits well with our typical US-centric mindset.
As it turns out, this article in Nature reports that Edison was probably two decades late. It turns out that Edison was probably bested by a Frenchman (Edourard-Leon Scott), who recorded music on a visual medium using a phonautograph.
But did the 1860 phonautograph technology really work, i.e., does it create reproducible music?
Listen to this MP3 for yourself, and come to your own conclusion!
1 Comment to The First Recorded Music – Edison Was Second
Categories
Links
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
OK, it may be a mistake to credit Edison with the first audio recording, but Edison was YEARS (like a century and a half) ahead of this Frenchman as far as making a usable system that actually lets you PLAYBACK the recording. To make a recording that has no way to be played back kinda defeats the purpose of making a recording.