The Phonogrammarchiv der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Vienna

Abstract

The wish to record the passing sound of language or music is very old. It is illustrated by the legendary box of the old Chinese which preserved commands, or by the machine of Gargapiades mentioned by Xenophon. Some approach to developing a recording method can be found in the 17th and 18th centuries; first particulars on a recording apparatus came from the physician and scientist Thomas Young, who described his "Time- keeper" in 1807.