This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., on 11 March 1885. The recording process involved focusing a beam of light, projecting it through a liquid, and causing sound waves to interrupt both the light and the liquid to expose a prepared photographic plate. The recording, which starts at the center and spirals outward, is of variable density, that is the areas of exposure vary in density according to volume and pitch of the sound recorded. Process is described in U.S. Patent 341,213 awarded Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester A. Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter on 4 May 1886.
Volta Laboratory Experimental Recording
- Description
- This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., on 11 March 1885. The recording process involved focusing a beam of light, projecting it through a liquid, and causing sound waves to interrupt both the light and the liquid to expose a prepared photographic plate. The recording, which starts at the center and spirals outward, is of variable density, that is the areas of exposure vary in density according to volume and pitch of the sound recorded. Process is described in U.S. Patent 341,213 awarded Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester A. Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter on 4 May 1886.
- Sound was recovered from this recording in 2011.
- Content summary: “Mary had a little lamb”
- Content transcript (37 seconds):
- “ [?]…Sumner Tainter and H. G. Rogers. This eleventh day of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-five. [trilled r sound] [indistinct phrase] Mary had a little lamb, and its fleece was white as snow [alternatively, black as soot?] . And wherever Mary went…Oh [indistinct word].
- Mary had a little lamb, and its fleece was white as snow [alternatively, black as soot?].
- And wherever Mary went, the little lamb was sure to go. How is this for high? [trill]”
- Download link, Interplanetary File System (IPFS) content identifier (CID): https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeibrdb5tuqk4lj5yuqa7cvd57uxf3xtgujfd2g5j4ugmsscqx7pgja
- References:
- Patrick Feaster, “A Discography of Volta Laboratory Recordings at the National Museum of American History”
- Leslie J. Newville, “Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory,” in Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5 (1959): 69-79.
- Steven E. Schoenherr, “Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone”
- Wile, Raymond R. "The Development of Sound Recording at the Volta Laboratory," Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal 21, No. 2, 1990, pp. 208-225.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Volta Laboratory Associates
- date made
- ca 1885
- date recorded
- 1885-11-03
- Credit Line
- Gift of Alexander Graham Bell
- Physical Description
- glass, coated with photographic emulsion (overall material)
- disc (overall shape)
- Measurements
- overall: 1/8 in x 13 5/8 in; .3175 cm x 34.6075 cm
- center hole: 1/8 in x 1/4 in; .3175 cm x .635 cm
- Object Name
- experimental disc sound recording, glass
