One example of the Smithsonian museum’s collection of about 400 of the earliest audio recordings ever made. Scientists have recently figured out how to play recordings from Alexander Graham Bell’s Volta lab without disturbing them. |
In
the early 1880s, three inventors—Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell
and Charles Sumner Tainter, collectively making up the Volta Laboratory
Associates—brought together their creativity and expertise in a
laboratory on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., to record sound.
In one experiment, Nov. 17, 1884, they recorded the word “barometer” on a
glass disc with a beam of light. This disc and about 200 other
experimental recordings from their laboratory were packed up for
safekeeping, given to the Smithsonian and, with a few exceptions, never
played again.
In
2011, scholars from three institutions—National Museum of American
History Curators Carlene Stephens and Shari Stout, Library of Congress
Digital Conversion Specialist Peter Alyea and Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory Scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell—came together in a
newly designed preservation laboratory at the Library of Congress to
recover sound from those recordings made more than 100 years ago. Using
high-resolution digital scans made from the original Volta discs, they
were able to hear the word “barometer.”
The
museum’s collection has about 400 of the earliest audio recordings ever
made, including the 200 from Bell’s Volta lab. A reflection of the
intense competition between Bell, Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner for
patents following the invention of the phonograph by Edison in 1877,
these recordings, along with supporting documents, were offered to the
Smithsonian by each inventor in his lifetime.
“These
recordings were made using a variety of methods and materials such as
rubber, beeswax, glass, tin foil and brass, as the inventors tried to
find a material that would hold sound,” said Stephens. “We don’t know
what is recorded, except for a few cryptic inscriptions on some of the
discs and cylinders or vague notes on old catalog cards written by a
Smithsonian curator decades ago.”
Now,
through a collaborative project with the Library of Congress and
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the mystery of what is on these
recordings is being unraveled. To date, the team has successfully
submitted six discs—all experimental recordings made by the Volta
Laboratory Associates between 1881 and 1885—to the sound recovery
process.
National Museum of American History curator Carlene Stephens examines a glass disc recording containing the audio of a male voice repeating “Mary had a little lamb” twice, made more than 100 years ago in Alexander Graham Bell’s Volta Lab. Photo: Rich Strauss, Smithsonian |
The
recordings in the museum’s collection are in fragile condition due to
their age and experimental nature. Until now, the technology to listen
to the recordings without damaging the discs and cylinders was not
available. The noninvasive optical technique used in this project to
scan and recover sounds was first studied by Berkeley Lab in 2002–2004
and installed at the Library of Congress in 2006 and 2009. The process
creates a high-resolution digital map of the disc or cylinder. This map
is then processed to remove evidence of wear or damage (e.g., scratches
and skips). Finally, software calculates the motion of a stylus moving
through the disc or cylinder’s grooves, reproducing the audio content
and producing a standard digital sound file. For more information, visit www.irene.lbl.gov.
Recovering
sound from the six Volta discs is the first step in an ongoing project
to preserve and catalog the museum’s early recording collection and to
provide increased access to the collection and its contents for both the
academic community and the public. The content of the recordings,
studied in conjunction with the innovative nature of the physical discs
and cylinders, provides insight into a variety of topics—from the
invention process of these well-known 19th-century labs to speech
patterns of the late 19th century.
This
project has been made possible with funding from a variety of sources.
The National Museum of American History received a special preservation
grant from the Grammy Foundation and support from the museum’s Jackson
Fund. The museum is looking for additional funding to continue the
examination of other recordings in its exceptional collection. The
Institute of Museum and Library Services provided funding to Berkeley
Lab through a grant to further develop the optical scanning technology
and bring it into use in support of collections and special projects
around the world.