The oldest ever recording of a human voice has long been considered that laid down by Thomas Edison with his phonograph in 1877, since he was the first person able to play recorded sound back. Now a recording some 17 years earlier than that has been successfully played using a "virtual stylus" to read a phonautograph. Created by etching soot-covered paper (or by twinkling fairies for all I understand it), mostly what it is is quite ghostly. Listening to it put me faintly in mind of a baby burbling on a scratched record, or possibly someone drowning very tunefully. Full marks if you identify the tune in question, having listened to it on the BBC website here.
Then go and listen to Charlotte Green's hysterics at the clip here.
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