For over 130 years, people have been able to hear each other’s voices thanks to Alexander Graham Bell and his monumental invention of the telephone (as well as other sound-recording devices). Do you ever wonder what the inventor himself sounded like? Now, you can finally listen to the voice of Alexander Graham Bell.


Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922). (Image credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives)

In 2011, The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Library of Congress teamed up to decode recordings made in Bell’s Washington, D.C. Volta Laboratory between 1881 and 1885. Six discs, believed to possess the voice of Bell were submitted to the sound recovery process in order to preserve and catalog the Smithsonian Museum’s early recordings collection.

What can we hear? 

Among the original 200 audio recordings the Smithsonian had, researchers found a piece of paper believed to be a transcript of a recording. The transcript was signed and dated by Bell and concluded with the words ““in witness whereof, hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell.”

 
Handwritten transcript of audio recording containing Alexander Graham Bell's voice. (Photo credit: Smithsonian)

When the team set out to decode the discs, they came across one that had the same date found on that transcript, April 18, 1885, and the initials “AGB.” Once sound was recovered through the optical sound recovery process, researchers were able to match the contents of the disc to the transcript and positively identify Bell’s voice.

Listen to Bell read from the transcript below.


They were also able to identify the voice of Bell’s father, Alexander Melville Bell, on a recording from September 1881 recovered from a wax-coated drum.

Click here to listen to another Volta disc recording that was originally recorded on December 29, 1881 and reproduced around 1885 in tinfoil over plaster on a cardboard backing. 

The optical sound recovery process

In order to actually decode these recordings, the team employed a non-invasive optical technique created by the Berkeley Lab. This technique creates a high-resolution digital map of the wax-on-binder-board-disc which is then processed to remove any damage such as scratches. The team then used software to calculate the motion of a stylus moving through the disc’s grooves to reproduce the audio content and create a digital sound file.


Bell's phonorecord dated April 15, 1885 with the initials "AGB" was decoded. (Image credit: Richard Strauss, Smithsonian) 

Big step

Recovering the sound from the Volta discs has provided knowledge of the invention process of 19th century labs.

Not only do these findings allow the public to hear the voice of the famous inventor, but they also provide further insight into the late 1800’s. Researchers now have further knowledge of the speech patterns of the time period and can hear exactly how people sounded.

  

Story via Smithsonian.