Volta Laboratory Experimental Sound Recording, Green Wax on Brass Disc
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Object Details
- Volta Laboratory Associates
- Description
- This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., about 1884. The wax, poured into a brass holder, has been dyed a bright green.
- Sound was recovered from this recording in 2011.
- Content summary: Hamlet’s soliloquy
- Content transcript (17 seconds):
- “To be, or not to be: that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die, to sleep…”
- References:
- Patrick Feaster, “A Discography of Volta Laboratory Recordings at the National Museum of American History”
- Leslie J. Newville, “Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory,” in Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5 (1959): 69-79.
- Steven E. Schoenherr, “Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone,”
- Wile, Raymond R. "The Development of Sound Recording at the Volta Laboratory," Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal 21, No. 2, 1990, pp. 208-225.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Dr. Alexander Graham Bell
- 1883-1885
- ID Number
- ME.287920
- catalog number
- 287920
- accession number
- 58498
- Object Name
- sound recording
- Physical Description
- wax; brass (overall material)
- disc (overall shape)
- Measurements
- overall: 1/4 in x 10 7/8 in; .635 cm x 27.6225 cm
- place made
- United States: District of Columbia, Washington
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Mechanisms
- Communications
- Computers & Business Machines
- Hear My Voice
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Technology
- Record ID
- nmah_852791
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-aacc-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
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IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.