Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a French inventor, created the world's first known recording of the human voice in 1860—17 years before Thomas Edison unveiled the phonograph. Yet the sound remained unheard for nearly 150 years because Scott's invention could record audio visually but could not play it back.
The recording, a rendition of the French folk song "Au clair de la lune," was finally reconstructed into audible sound in 2008 using modern digital technology, reshaping the history of recorded sound and bringing long-overlooked recognition to Scott's pioneering work.
