The BBC reports:
An "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years.
The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice.
A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record.
The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines.
Audio file at the link.
Sounded better than I expected, really, considering the gizmo was never intended to be a sound-reproduction system.
Posted by: CGHill | March 30, 2008 at 06:38 AM