He invented a world - changing acoustic gimmick that give up us to place our representative over corking distances , but what did telephone creator Alexander Graham Bell ’s voice audio like ? His last living congeneric who had heard him speak , granddaughter Mabel Grosvenor , died in 2006 . The recordings he and his associates made on discs and cylinder ( form of — among other materials — composition board , wax , and paper ) were silent artefact from which modern technology could n’t extract entropy .
Bell donated more than 400 of these discs and piston chamber to the Smithsonian Institution . Though the inventor document his research well ( in case patent disputes should arise in the future tense ) , the precise method used in these early audio recording experiments have been lost for decade .
But physicists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley , California have recently made discovery in drawing sound from these discs . By creating high - resolve ocular scans and converting those by computer into audio data file , the muffled other attempts at record — unheard for over a century — are audible . Among the recitations ofHamlet , telephone number sequence and nursery verse , the squad made a particularly noted discovery .
On a 130 - twelvemonth - old magnetic disc , immortalize on April 15 , 1885 , is arecording of Alexander Graham Bell ’s interpreter . The legendary inventor declares : “ In viewer whereof — hear my phonation , Alexander Graham Bell . ” Even with so few words , much is reveal : Bell ’s careful enunciation is predictable for a man whose male parent was a renowned elocution instructor and whose wife was indifferent . He live in England , Canada , and the eastern United States throughout his sprightliness , and his voice is ting with a British emphasis . For anyone who appreciates Bell ’s contributions to modern engineering , the transcription is veneration - inspiring , incredible in its simplicity but groundbreaking in its meaning . lead over toSmithsonianto hear Bell verbalize .
