Recreate the world's first recording hidden in Thomas Edison doll

Scientists have found a way to listen to a phonograph recording hidden in a "talking" doll made by Thomas Edison using a new technology, using a microscope to capture the tracks in the recording and re-create. audio on electronic computers.

Successfully recreated the first recording in the world

A "talking" doll in Mr. and Mrs. Rolfs' collection.(Photo: Science 20)

Robin and Joan Rolfs own two rare dolls, produced by Thomas Edison's record company, but they do not turn on recordings in the camcorder hidden in them.

In 1890, Edison devised a way to shrink the disc player and put it in a doll. After the doll has a handle, want to listen to music, people have to turn them. This invention was a failure, children thought the toy was difficult to control, and made a creepy sound.

Mr. and Mrs. Rolfs knew that if the risk of turning the handle, it was very likely that it would damage or destroy the grooves in the disc player, including many circular cylinders. So, for years, no one heard the mysterious sound in the doll's heart.

However, sound researchers say that the hidden version of the doll is of historical value.These are the first entertainment recordings in the world , and the young women hired to sing are the first studio artists in the world.

Therefore, for many years, the Rolfs have tried to understand how to listen to the recordings. Experts of a US government lab have devised a way to hear precious recordings, without touching them.

Miniature disk player hidden in dolls.(Photo: Science 20)

This technique uses a microscope to reproduce the detailed image of the grooves on the phonograph. Then, a high-precision computer simulates the sound by creating a sound diagram through a needle through those grooves.

In 2014, for the first time, this technology was introduced to the public.

" We are very afraid to ruin these recordings, " said Jerry Fabris, curator of the Thomas Edison Museum, in West Orange, New Jersey state.

This technology is called Irene , which includes many complex stages such as image acquisition, sound reproduction and noise cancellation. Irene was developed by physicist Carl Haber and Earrl Cornell engineer at Lawrency Berkeley National Laboratory. It can extract sound from grooves and record discs, and can reproduce sounds from heavily damaged, inaudible recordings.

" Now we are hearing the sounds of history that I never thought would be heard, " said Fabris.

Irene technology uses a microscope mounted on the shaft bar that captures thousands of high-resolution photos of groove details . Then, the image is assembled, creating a different low-level cylindrical surface topographic map, with a thickness of 1/500 of the hair length. The pitch, volume, tone as well as the speed of the track, are all encoded on this surface.

The audio wave encoder is digitized on the computer, then filtered for noise, and the rhythm emits more clearly. The recording from one of Mr. Rolfs' dolls is " There was a little girl" , about 20 seconds in length.

"That moment was wonderful ," said Mr. Rolfs.

Last month, the Thomas Edison Museum announced three recordings inside Edison's doll online, including recordings from two Rolfs from dolls."Perhaps there are many more records, we hope to digitize them, " said Fabris. " Now, we have the technology to listen to recordings without harming them."

You can listen to the "There was a little girl" in a Mr. and Mrs. Rolfs doll here.