Edison Tin Foil Phonograph

1878

In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the first device to ever record and play back sound. Speaking into a mouthpiece caused a metal stylus attached to a diaphragm to move up and down. The stylus made indentations on a sheet of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating drum. During playback, the stylus traced those indentations. That caused the diaphragm to vibrate, making sound waves that recreated the original sound. Other experimenters had recorded sound visually before this, but Edison’s machine could also reproduce the recorded sound.