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Volta Laboratory Experimental Sound Recording, Glass Disc
From the collection of National Museum of American History. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This experimental sound recording was made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., on 17 November 1884. The recording process involved focusing a beam of light, projecting it through a liquid, and causing sound waves to interrupt both the light and the liquid to expose a prepared photographic plate. This is a variable-area recording, that is, sound is represented by a spiral of that varies in width according to volume and pitch. The process is described in U.S. Patent 341,213 awarded Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester A. Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter on 4 May 1886.
National Museum of American History’s own descriptionCredit lineVolta Laboratory Experimental Sound Recording, Glass Disc. 1884-11-17. Volta Laboratory Associates. National Museum of American History, Gift of Alexander Graham Bell. CC0.
