The Weirdest Things Science Has Revealed About The Past

What Alexander Graham Bell's Voice Sounded Like

We now know what the man who made it possible to hear the voices of cross-country friends sounded like. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor most notable for his invention of the telephone and other sound recording methods, has himself been silent in the annals of history, but thanks to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in collaboration with the Library of Congress and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, researchers have identified Bell's voice. The audio recordings come from Bell's Volta lab, and they are some of the earliest ever made. Researchers discovered a transcript of a recording, which was signed and dated by Bell. Recently, researchers matched this transcript with a recording dated April 15, 1885. The recording sounds as old as it is, and Bell spends about 4 minutes reading numbers aloud, signing off with "in witness whereof, hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell." The noninvasive optical technique that was used to recover the sound is a method that has been developed over the past 10 years. The team is still recovering sound from the Volta lab discs with hopes to shed light on the innovation process.