Recordings made by Alexander Graham Bell Heard for the First Time

Smithsonian/YouTube ^ | Jan 13, 2012

[My Favorite Headache]

Researchers and scientists work together to find a way to play recordings made by the studio of inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qEVX55JqY&feature=relmfu

[Slyfox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94qEVX55JqY&feature=relmfu

[Jemian]

The first time? Really? The first time EVER? Somehow I am suspecting it is “the first time in X number of years...”

I can’t get to youtube now. Work has it blocked.

[cynwoody]

The first time? Really? The first time EVER? Somehow I am suspecting it is “the first time in X number of years...”

The keyword is "non-invasively". That is to say, to use present-day technology to recover the sound as best as it can, without damaging the original in such a way as to block future efforts using future technology to do the same.

[Nervous Tick]

Wow! What a thrill! Almost as exciting as this morning’s phone call over my AT&T wireless phone! I had almost 3 (THREE!) minutes of conversation — not quite as clear as this recording, but okay — before the call dropped! That’s DARN good!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

So they must be using a pulsed laser to gather data on the topology of the recording, which would seem to be the most complete way of digitizing the recording. Using a needle to read out the record would risk wear/damage.

It puts me in mind of a videotaped course on digital signal processing I took back in the 1970s, in which they demonstrated enhancing an old Caruso record which had been made with a purely mechanical process, without electronics. Which had terrible frequency response. It was remarkable what they could do with that, at the dawn of digital signal processing. I would hope they could do a lot better than that now, what with mere iPads having more number-crunch capability than a supercomputer of that era.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

So they must be using a pulsed laser to gather data on the topology of the recording, which would seem to be the most complete way of digitizing the recording. Using a needle to read out the record would risk wear/damage.

It puts me in mind of a videotaped course on digital signal processing I took back in the 1970s, in which they demonstrated enhancing an old Caruso record which had been made with a purely mechanical process, without electronics. Which had terrible frequency response. It was remarkable what they could do with that, at the dawn of digital signal processing. I would hope they could do a lot better than that now, what with mere iPads having more number-crunch capability than a supercomputer of that era.

[Jemian]

Where is that keyword? I salute their success. The headline and explanation aren’t clear.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

No laser. It's a 3d camera. Still wonder why they never tried a pulsed laser to recover the data.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Sidebar: My daughter went to school with Alexander Graham Bell’s great-granddaughter. (President John Tyler, who was born in 1790, has two living grandsons.) Strange how close we are to what seems like ancient times. Her family was not particularly wealthy, which shows how quickly family fortunes dissipate. (She attended public school in a leafy suburb.)

[21twelve]

And just imagine what Bell would be thinking of listening to those recordings on Youtube over the internet!

I used to live in New Jersey next to an old guy and he would talk about the old days. How as a kid he worked at the Edison Cement Factory just down the road from our clump of houses set among the farm fields. The factory then was nothing but a few foundations still visible.

But he would tell stories of checking the weight of the cement and bringing the results back to the office, sometimes to Tommy when he was there. Or bringing a sandwich into Tommy.

It took me several visits for something to click.

“Wait! You mean Thomas Edison!? You would bring sandwiches to Thomas Edison!!??”

“Hell - who did you think I was talking about!?”

(In my defense, I had never heard him called “Tommy” before, nor did I know that he made cement!)

[SeminoleCounty]

Sidebar: My daughter went to school with Alexander Graham Bell’s great-granddaughter. (President John Tyler, who was born in 1790, has two living grandsons.) Strange how close we are to what seems like ancient times. Her family was not particularly wealthy, which shows how quickly family fortunes dissipate. (She attended public school in a leafy suburb.)

---

AG Bell had a lot of children, and, he used quite a bit of his wealth to work on other inventions (AGB was an innovator in hydrofoil boats....developed the “original cell phone”...and other inventions). AGB was not broke when he died, but he had quite a few descendants, so not surprised his wealth had been diluted over the years

If you and other FReepers ever get to Nova Scotia...his museum in Baddeck (on Cape Breton Island) is one of the most interesting you’ll find. It is on his old property he bought after he invented the phone

[jsanders2001]

How cool is that? knowing someone that worked for Edison...lol

[SunkenCiv]

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[Prospero]

Didn't Tyler have the largest number of children of any President? A close friend is a descendant.

Without a search, I remember 14, off the top of my head.

[JoeProBono]

[GreenLanternCorps]

WAAASSUUUUPPPP!!!

[Dr. Sivana]

The first time? Really? The first time EVER? Somehow I am suspecting it is “the first time in X number of years...”

There were even earlier recordings that were recorded, but unplayed:

A group of researchers has succeeded in playing a sound recording of a human voice made in 1860 – 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Roughly ten seconds in length, the recording is of a person singing “Au clair de la lune, Pierrot répondit” – a snippet from a French folksong. It was made on April 9, 1860 by Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on his “phonautograph” – a device that scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp. Scott never dreamed of playing back his recordings. But this morning, the dream Scott never had will come true. A cadre of audio historians, recording engineers, and scientists working in conjunction with the First Sounds initiative has transformed Scott’s smoked-paper tracings into sound.

http://www.firstsounds.org/press/032708/release_2008-0327.pdf

And yes, the creepy recording is on YouTube somewhere.

[JoeProBono]

[a fool in paradise]

"I'm eating tomato soup with grilled cheese and a side of arugula for lunch, and you're not!"

[a fool in paradise]

[freedomlover]

“And yes, the creepy recording is on YouTube somewhere.”

---

And yes, it still sounds better than Yoko Ono.

[cynwoody]

Where is that keyword?

The LBNL scientist in the second part of the video, Carl Haber, uses the word "non-invasively" to describe their approach of imaging the grooves with a special camera and then analyzing the imagery with software to filter out the noise and reproduce the audio represented by the squiggles in the grooves. The goal is to digitize the Library of Congress's vast record collection and do it without risking damage from the touch of a stylus.

Haber and another scientist, Vitaliy Fadeyev, repurposed technology originally developed to analyze the tracks left by elementary particles coming out of particle accelerator experiments. More here.

[cynwoody]

http://www.firstsounds.org/press/032708/release_2008-0327.pdf

According to your link, the scientist who speaks in the second part of the posted video, Carl Haber, was also among those responsible for playing back de Martinville's recordings.

It's not clear that de Martinville even attempted to build a playback device. His phonautograph was really the first audio oscillograph. And it's purpose was to study sound, not to play it back.

[Dr. Sivana]

His phonautograph was really the first audio oscillograph. And it's purpose was to study sound, not to play it back.

Yes. But whether he ever intended to play it back or not, he did in fact make the first known audio recordings. I kinda liken it to that guy who invented the sealed metal can decades before anyone dreamed up a can opener.