<P> The first device that could record actual sounds as they passed through the air ( but could not play them back -- the purpose was only visual study ) was the phonautograph , patented in 1857 by Parisian inventor Édouard - Léon Scott de Martinville . The earliest known recordings of the human voice are phonautograph recordings , called `` phonautograms '' , made in 1857 . They consist of sheets of paper with sound - wave - modulated white lines created by a vibrating stylus that cut through a coating of soot as the paper was passed under it . An 1860 phonautogram of Au Clair de la Lune , a French folk song , was played back as sound for the first time in 2008 by scanning it and using software to convert the undulating line , which graphically encoded the sound , into a corresponding digital audio file . </P>
<P> The first device that could record actual sounds as they passed through the air ( but could not play them back -- the purpose was only visual study ) was the phonautograph , patented in 1857 by Parisian inventor Édouard - Léon Scott de Martinville . The earliest known recordings of the human voice are phonautograph recordings , called `` phonautograms '' , made in 1857 . They consist of sheets of paper with sound - wave - modulated white lines created by a vibrating stylus that cut through a coating of soot as the paper was passed under it . An 1860 phonautogram of Au Clair de la Lune , a French folk song , was played back as sound for the first time in 2008 by scanning it and using software to convert the undulating line , which graphically encoded the sound , into a corresponding digital audio file . </P>
when was sound captured for the first time
when was sound captured for the first time
1857
1857