This photo provided by the Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, N.Y., shows Thomas Edison's 1878 tinfoil phonograph. Researchers have digitized what experts say is the oldest recording of a playable American voice and history's first-ever recorded musical performance, along with the first recorded blooper. Recorded on a sheet of tinfoil on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison, the recording was made in St. Louis in 1878. It contains a short coronet solo of an unidentified song, followed by the voices of a man reciting popular nursery rhymes. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
(AP)—Researchers have recovered and digitized what experts say is the oldest playable recording of an American voice and history's first-ever recorded musical performance.
Also included: the first recorded blooper.
The recording was done on a sheet of tinfoil on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison and made in St. Louis in 1878. It opens with a short cornet solo and is followed by a man reciting nursery rhymes.
Near the end of the 78-second recording, the man laughs after messing up one of the words to "Old Mother Hubbard."
The tinfoil and the newly digitized recording is being presented Thursday at a museum in Schenectady (skeh-NEHK'-tuh-dee), N.Y., where Edison founded the General Electric Co.
Experts at California's Berkeley Lab recovered the recordings using technology developed for the project.
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