Early Recording Technology

Discover early sound recording! Learn about the Phonautograph, Phonograph & Gramophone. Fun history worksheet!

Sound Reproduction History This article is going to walk you through some of the earliest sound recording technology (and literally give you some answers). Click on the title of this section to open it in another window. Then use it to answer some of the next couple of questions. Sound Reproduction History Fill in the blanks from this section of the article. It all began in 1857 when French printer and bookseller Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the first sound recording device in Paris. Called Phonautograph, this device had the capability to detect amplitudes of the sound by mimicking the architecture of our own human ears (gathering chamber where sound is focused into one spot, where diaphragm collected the vibrations of the sound and transferred those vibration to the moving stylus who pressed the ink on the moving paper). Although his design was intended only for recording information about speech structure onto the paper and did not have any playback capabilities, his efforts greatly inspired the work of future inventors. The Earliest Known Audio Recordings... thanks to the Phonautograph. You only need to watch the first 1:27 seconds of this video to get the next answer, but this is pretty cool stuff. The phonautograph was never meant to playback sound, but in 2008 a bunch of scientists found a paper recording from the phonautograph and used a computer to trace the sound waves and play it back! What song was on the recording (that they think Léon-Scott might have recorded himself)? It's a French children's song, so just give me the title. It's in the video above... not the article. Edison's Phonograph This curator from the Smithsonian Museum of American History is going to explain how the phonograph works. It's a basic 2 minute video, but see if you can get the basic idea... Organize the steps of using the phonograph... I've listed out the steps Carlene laid out in the video (she does get two of them backwards... Rotate and THEN shout) and you just need to label them with what order you would do them. Step 1 Wrap tin foil around the drum. Step 2 The operator rotates the drum and shouts at the mouthpiece. Step 3 The vibrations shake a diaphragm with a needle attached, causing grooves in the tinfoil. Step 4 Rotate the wheel back to the starting position and place the needle in the groove. Step 5 The needle bounces around in the groove and vibrates the diaphragm which reproduces the sound. Keep reading the original article through the section about the Gramophone. You'll need ALL of the info you've learned to answer the next question. Sort all of these facts based on which invention they apply to. Please note that there is a category for ALL which means if the fact applies to all three inventions, you should place it in the ALL category. Phonautograph Had no way of playing back the recording (until recent history) Scratched vibrations onto paper coated in dust Invented in France. Phonograph Used a cylinder to record and playback sounds. First etched sound into tinfoil, then later wax. Gramophone Used a flat disc instead of a cylinder. Eventually used vinyl for more durable recordings. ALL 3 Inventions Uses a needle and a diaphragm to capture sound vibrations. Invented in the 1800's