Bell & Blake Ear Phonautograph – Video Profile
Channel: Canada Science and Technology Museum
Date: 2021-08-26

This is a recent reconstruction of Alexander Graham Bell and Clarence J. Blake’s 1874 ear phonautograph. The ear phonautograph works by channeling sound wave vibrations, made by speaking into the mouthpiece, into the ear canal of an excised human ear. Vibrations from the eardrum are then passed onto a stylus which then etches the shape of those vibrations onto a moving plate of smoked glass. Bell’s original goal for the instrument was to use it as part of his controversial and ultimately failed deaf speech training program called “visible speech.” However, it’s best known today as the instrument that gave him the technical insight he needed to go on and invent the telephone in 1876. The original ear phonautograph no longer exists, which is why we decided to build this reconstruction — using a 3D-printed ear.

If you want to see the ear phonautograph reconstruction in person, it’s on permanent display in the Sound by Design exhibition at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa: https://bit.ly/3C1dH9g

The French version of this video can be found here: https://bit.ly/2Vi0CY0

The English transcripts of this video can be found here: https://bit.ly/3jfiEnA