Volta Laboratory Experimental Recording
notes: label: Description
content: This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., in October 1881. Made from an original recording of paraffin and wax, it is a negative electrotype copy for stamping out multiple recordings. The recording is laterally cut, that is, a stylus cut across the record surface side-to-side rather than vertically. It was part of the proof of invention that the Volta Associates—Alexander Graham Bell, his cousin Chichester Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter—deposited in a sealed tin box at the Smithsonian on October 30, 1881, in case of a patent fight. The box was opened in the presence of Bell relatives in 1937.
label: Description
content: Sound was recovered from this recording in 2011.
label: Description
content: Speaker: unknown
label: Description
content: Content (10 seconds): “[trilled r sound] One, two, three, four, five, six [trilled r sounds].”
label: Description
content: Download link, Interplanetary File System (IPFS) content identifier (CID): <a href="https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeiadnf7tkj7imh65y3rfzb7n5y6ub2iywbgd23fl2wa7rwa5llchnu">https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeiadnf7tkj7imh65y3rfzb7n5y6ub2iywbgd23fl2wa7rwa5llchnu</a>
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Leslie J. Newville, “Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory,” in Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5 (1959): 69-79.
label: Description
content: <a href="https://phonozoic.net/volta-discography.pdf">Patrick Feaster, “A Discography of Volta Laboratory Recordings at the National Museum of American History”</a>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Technology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
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content: Communications
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content: Hear My Voice
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.312119
label: accession number
content: 162298
label: catalog number
content: 312119
objectType: label: Object Name
content: experimental sound recording
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: disc (overall shape)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 in; 10.16 cm