Volta Laboratory Experimental Sound Recording, Glass Disc
date: label: date made
content: 1884-11-17
name: label: maker
content: Volta Laboratory Associates
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: Sound was recovered from this recording in 2011.
label: Description
content: Speaker: unknown
label: Description
content: Content (7 seconds): "ba-ro-me-ter" [repeated]
label: Description
content: Download link, Interplanetary File System (IPFS) content identifier (CID): <a href="https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeia64q6r65h2ek4b7htzygmp4ptl6yljzwe5gnhcgesseelewaevlq">https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeia64q6r65h2ek4b7htzygmp4ptl6yljzwe5gnhcgesseelewaevlq</a>
label: Description
content: References:
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: 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://www.aes-media.org/historical/html/recording.technology.history/graphophone.html">Steven E. Schoenherr, “Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone”</a>
label: Description
content: Wile, Raymond R. "The Development of Sound Recording at the Volta Laboratory," Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal 21, No. 2, 1990, pp. 208-225.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
topic: label: Subject
content: Technology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
label: See more items in
content: Communications
label: See more items in
content: Hear My Voice
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Alexander Graham Bell
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.287686
label: accession number
content: 57694
label: catalog number
content: 287686
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sound recording
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: disc (overall shape)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/8 in x 12 7/8 in; .3175 cm x 32.7025 cm
label: Measurements
content: center hole: 1/8 in x 1 in; .3175 cm x 2.54 cm
label: Measurements
content: glass disk: 13 1/2 in; 34.29 cm