🎙️ 1877
Phonograph or Speaking Machine
U.S. Patent 200,521 · 1878
From the abstract
The object of this invention is to record in a permanent manner the human voice and other sounds, from which record such sounds may be reproduced and rendered audible again at a future time.
Note
Filed December 24, 1877. Edison's foil-cylinder machine recorded — and played back — sound for the first time in human history. The first words committed: 'Mary had a little lamb.' Within weeks Edison was demonstrating it in Washington for President Hayes at 11pm; the cabinet stayed up until 3:30am taking turns talking into it. He moved on to other projects and the phonograph languished for a decade until Bell's Volta Laboratory improved it. Edison returned to it in 1888 and dominated the cylinder market until disc records (Berliner, 1887) ate his lunch.