Experimental Sound Recording, Disc Layers of Cardboard, Plaster and Foil
date: label: date made
content: ca 1885
name: label: maker
content: Volta Laboratory Associates
notes: label: Description
content: This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C. In a ring around the center, it is marked with the initials for Sumner Tainter, one of the Volta Laboratory Associates, and a date: “S.T. Dec. 29th 1881.” This recording was copied from an 1881 master at an unknown later date.
label: Description
content: Sound was recovered from this recording in 2013.
label: Description
content: Content transcript: “…[indistinct] I am a magnetical graphophone. What are you? To be, or not to be: that is the question. [trilled r sounds] How is that for high?”
label: Description
content: Download link, Interplanetary File System (IPFS) content identifier (CID): <a href="https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeiaiqmuhaxdwi3akimvy2ykmipagtpzh4cuu5vuzzremx35ovtr4wa">https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeiaiqmuhaxdwi3akimvy2ykmipagtpzh4cuu5vuzzremx35ovtr4wa</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: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
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content: Communications
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content: Computers & Business Machines
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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.287860.02
label: accession number
content: 58498
label: catalog number
content: 287860.02
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sound recording
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: foil; plaster; cardboard (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: disc (overall shape)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 3/4 in; 24.765 cm