The world’s oldest known human voice recording was made by French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on April 9, 1860. This recording, which lasted only 10 seconds and was probably sung by a woman, included a section from the French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune.” The recording was made with a device called a photonograph, developed in Paris. This device was a mechanism that transferred sound waves visually onto paper, and the recordings were stored as waves drawn with a needle on soot-covered paper. This 10-second fragment remained unheard for nearly 150 years until it was discovered by American sound historians in 2008 and revived with modern technology.

Sound historian David Giovannoni stated that he had a “magical and otherworldly” experience when he first heard the recording. According to him, the fact that the sound seemed to rise from the paper behind a curtain of smoke further increased the historical value of this recording. This discovery changed the title of “oldest recording” previously attributed to Thomas Edison, revealing the importance of the method Scott developed.

Photonograph: The Visualized Form of Sound

Scott designed this device, which he developed in 1857, to obtain a visual trace of sound rather than an auditory one. The photonograph consisted of a diaphragm that detected sound waves and a needle system connected to this diaphragm. The sound passed through a hollow tube and reached the diaphragm; this vibration was reflected as wave patterns on a soot-covered paper on a rotating cylinder by means of a needle. Turning the cylinder by hand caused differences in the recording speed, which in turn created variations in the pitch of the sound.

Scott’s goal was not to play sound, but to document human speech on paper and try to understand it by examining these visual patterns. In this respect, his approach functioned as a kind of “speech shorthand” rather than reproducing sound. Today, these visual recordings can be converted back into sound with digital technology.

Rediscovering the Record and Reviving It with Modern Technology

For many years, this 1860 recording lay forgotten in the archives of Paris. In 2008, a group of American sound historians, engineers, and archivists called “First Sounds” found the document at the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) in Paris and the French Academy of Sciences. The team, led by David Giovannoni, worked with scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to scan the photonograms at high resolution.

Carl Haber and Earl Cornell converted the drawings into digital sound waves using a technique called “optical sound reading.” Using high-resolution imaging, the lines on the recording surface were analyzed on a computer to reconstruct the sound. The pitch of the sound was corrected using a tuning fork to compensate for the speed differences caused by the hand-cranked instrument. As a result, this short section of “Au Clair de la Lune” became audible again, albeit with a crackling sound.

Thomas Edison and the Phonograph: Different Purposes, Different Approaches

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, the first device that could both record and play back sound. This recording, made with the children's song "Mary Had a Little Lamb", was long accepted as the "first sound recording". However, Scott's recording, which predates Edison by 17 years, overshadowed this title with its historical value.

David Giovannoni emphasized that he had great respect for Edison's achievement and that he was the first person to be able to play back sound. However, since the method Scott developed only provided visual recording, it was not possible to play back sound directly. Therefore, the approaches and goals of the two inventors were different: one aimed at documentation, the other at reproduction.

Historical and Cultural Importance

This recording, dated 1860, was recognized by Guinness World Records as the "oldest human voice recording". This discovery not only sheds light on the history of sound technology but also reveals scientific curiosity and determination in the 19th century. Prof. Jonathan Sterne from McGill University emphasized that Scott's effort to "make sense of sound by visualizing it" bears similarities to today's digital sound analysis.

This recording was not only a technological development; it was also the first major step towards immortalizing sound. This invention, developed in a workshop in Paris, has become audible again today with the contributions of American researchers and has gained the historical reputation it deserves by emerging from Edison's shadow.

As a result, the first time a sound was recorded in the world was with this experiment of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville with a photonograph in 1860. A mere 10-second section of “Au Clair de la Lune” is both a technological and cultural heritage as the first trace of the human voice in history. Although this invention offers a different perspective when compared to Thomas Edison’s phonograph, it has reached the present day with the contribution of modern science and has become a sonic bridge of our connection with the past.