Edison’s first sound recording predated by 20 years

March 28, 2008 Thomas Alva Edison has been considered the father of recorded sound since he captured the spoken words "Mary had a little lamb" on a sheet of tinfoil. Now a recording has come to light made by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on his phonautograph which captured the waves and translated them into visible form on paper. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed the playback technology which unlocked the recorded sound (listen to it here as an MP3). According to the researchers, the recording was made on April 9, 1860, predating Edison’s recording by a full two decades.

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