While many of us take for granted the art of recording, and the numerous pieces of equipment and work that goes into it, it’s hard to think of a time when there was no way to record audio. This was changed on April 9th 1860, when Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville created the words first audio recording.
Using the above pictured machine, which was called a phonautograph, a rendition of a common folksong was played back. The machine was meant to replicate the human ear, and while it wasn’t perfect it was the first example of recorded sound ever made. The machine worked by using a vibrating membrane attached to a stylus, which would move according to a roll of glass that would mimic sounds. The main issues came from the timing, as the device had to be hand cranked and couldn’t perfectly match up with the timing of the original audio.
The above sound was unfortunately changed by the restoration process, leading to what some experts believe to be a higher pitched voice than what was actually recorded.