An early phonautograph, 1859. Image from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

The Forgotten Inventor Behind The First Audio Recordings

A short history lesson about the first recorded sounds and their unappreciated originator.

Erik Hellgren
The History Inquiry
6 min readMay 1, 2022

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When you think of the earliest audio recordings of sound waves or human voices, who or what would you associate with that groundbreaking phenomenon? Many of you are probably thinking of Thomas Alva Edison and his…

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Erik Hellgren
The History Inquiry

Analyst-in-training. Aspiring historian. Amateur artist. Avid reader. I write concise content about history, society, and life generally.