can't stay away the whole weekend but thanks. Hope they video the presentation. Have a great time, Ron
________________________________ From: mark lynch [mailto:markely...@earthlink.net] Sent: Thu 10/28/2010 10:16 AM To: Antique Phonograph List Subject: [Phono-L] Edison NHP Presentation "Humanity's First Recordings of its Own Voice" A fascinating presentation at the Edison NHP next Saturday. Read below for free reservations. Hope to see some of you there. Best, Mark "Humanity's First Recordings of its Own Voice" - David Giovannoni at Thomas Edison NHP, November 6, 7:00 pm Thomas Edison NHP News Release Contact: Karen Sloat-Olsen Phone: 973-736-0550 x17 Reservations: 973-736-0550 x89 Humanity's First Recordings of its Own Voice Historian David Giovannoni Presentation WEST ORANGE, NJ - On Saturday evening, November 6, 2010, at 7:00 pm, Thomas Edison National Historical Park welcomes historian David Giovannoni who will give a 75-minute illustrated presentation titled "Humanity's First Recordings of its Own Voice." The program will be held at the Laboratory Complex at 211 Main Street. Admission to the program is free. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Reservations can be made by calling 973-736-0550, ext.89. Thomas Edison's tinfoil phonograph of 1877 is rightly considered one of the marvels of the nineteenth century. But in mid-nineteenth-century France, amateur inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville conceived of a rather similar machine. Between 1854 and 1860 he experimented with focusing airborne sounds of speech and music onto paper. His phonautograph bore a striking resemblance to Edison's phonograph of 20 years later. But his recordings, unlike Edison's, were meant to be read by the eye, not heard by the ear. For a century-and-a-half his experiments lay quietly in the venerable French archives in which he deposited them. Then in 2007 a few audio historians hypothesized there was a real possibility that modern technology could develop these experimental recordings like dormant photographic plates. Instead of exposing images, however, these would bear sounds - perhaps even humanity's first recordings of its own voice! In this presentation David Giovannoni recounts how he and his colleagues have identified dozens of these forgotten documents and coaxed several to talk and to sing. A principal in their discovery and recovery, Giovannoni is the first person since Scott de Martinville to personally examine every recording. He'll explain how they were made and how they are played. He'll discuss Scott de Martinville experiments, his reception in established scientific circles, and his early descent into an unmarked grave. For more information or directions please call 973-736-0550 ext. 11 or visit our website at www.nps.gov/edis. -NPS- National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Thomas Edison National Historical Park 211 Main Street West Orange, NJ 07052 _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org <http://phono-l.oldcrank.org/> _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
