The phonograph was invented by Thomas Alva Edison 100 years ago. In Edison's view the phonograph was a tool for use in business or research and not as a source of entertainment. One of the earliest applications of the phonograph was in scientific research where it was used to study the acoustic characteristics of vowels and other speech sounds. The phonograph soon replaced the phonoautograf as the instrument of choice in recording acoustic waveforms. The research literature of that period contain several illustrations of waveforms obtained with either the phonograph, phonoautograf or related instruments, including several waveforms that were recorded graphically prior to the invention of the phonograph. As a tribute to Edison, we have reproduced several of these earliest known sound recordings using conventional digital signal‐processing techniques.

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