The oldest known recording of American voice has been restored and replayed for the first time in over 100 years. Dating to June 22, 1878, the recording was made for an early Edison phonograph on tin foil which had become too fragile and torn to play back. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory optically scanned the foil and developed a program to replay it digitally. [more inside]
posted by Esteemed Offendi on Oct 25, 2012 - 29 comments

"What you are now going to hear is a recording of the actual voice of Oscar Wilde ..." [more inside]
posted by Fiasco da Gama on Jun 2, 2010 - 25 comments

Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies
posted by carter on Apr 22, 2008 - 13 comments

"Close your eyes. See if you can distinguish the voice of the New Edison from that of the artist. Did you ever believe it was possible to recreate the human voice?" As featured on the July 16 episode of NPR's Next Big Thing, Thomas Edison's promotional tone tests have been recreated by composer Nicholas Brooke for the stage, which New York MeFites can see at the Lincoln Center Festival later this week. (More wonderful phonographic ephemera here, by the way.)
posted by scody on Jul 19, 2004 - 1 comment