Listen to the Oldest Recording of a Human Voice

Whether you grew up with 8-tracks and cassette tapes or digital playlists and podcasts, recorded sound probably feels like an ordinary part of everyday life. Today, it’s possible to capture a voice, replay it instantly, and send it around the world in seconds. But before the mid-19th century, the concept of preserving words after they had been spoken was the stuff of science fiction, because the means to do it hadn’t yet been invented. Indeed, to pinpoint the oldest known recording of a human voice, we have to go back almost 170 years, to a ...Read More