Friday, March 28, 2008
So Edison *Was* A Hack?
That's what Nikola Tesla would have told you. But now it comes out that the first recorded human voice pre-dates Edison's phonograph by about 20 years. Of course, Edison's invention was the complete package, both sound recording and playback, which wins him the golden crown. But Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville will now have to be credited with making the first recording of a human voice (....at least for now), but it took 150 years to figure out how to play it back. All in all, one of the most interesting stories I've read in a long time. <Link - along with audio of the 1860 recording>
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Great story, but Edison still has the edge due to his invention of the Moog synthesizer in 1912 - not to mention the 8-track player in 1971.
A little know fact is that it only took Tesla about 15 minutes to figure out that a good bong hit made the playback so much better - and who the hell cares about the Wizard of Menlo Park at that point. He had his own wizards to deal with if you know what I mean. He definitely has the edge.
By the way, I noticed that if you hit the link right at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, it matches perfectly. How weird!!
hey author, your entry on The Matrix is awesome---I am wondering did you watch Matrix Revisited and Matrix Revolution? I really want to see your opinion on those two movies.
thanks.
I did see Revolutions but I was disappointed in it and don't remember much of it. I didn't see 'Revisited'. Perhaps I'll rent them on DVD and see what I think all these years later.
I forwarded your entry about The Matrix to two of my friends who love Matrix, they all found it very interesting.
Will you write some more about the Matrix series if you watch more of it?
Post a Comment