
Particle Physics Resurrects Alexander Graham Bell’s Voice - sohkamyung
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/particle-physics-resurrects-alexander-graham-bells-voice
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Lordarminius
I recall a documentary I watched a while ago, and had almost forgotten, about
an African tribe in which the presenter plays a 100 year old old voice
recording of the natives' ancestors made by an earlier explorer . You could
see the astonishment and joy in their faces when they heard the voices and
names of tribe members they had heard about but never even seen. (If anyone
else has seen the documentary please remind me of its title)

We tend to place great emphasis on pictures and video, but audio recordings I
believe, capture the past like none other. There is a connection here that is
unique.

Great work by the creators of IRENE. Much praise also to Bell and his team,
and all the other uncredited contributors to the development of the telephone.

I'm sure to start making audio recordings to store up for future generations.

~~~
macintux
You don't think they would have been even more excited to both see and hear
their ancestors?

~~~
Lordarminius
I don't know for sure, we have old reels aplenty yet we are still moved by
scratchy barely audible voice recordings.

~~~
macintux
Perhaps a matter of focus. Audio recordings are more often conversational,
video tends to be more hyperactive.

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your-nanny
It's gray-ham bell, in his own voice. Can't in good conscience use the short
vowel a any longer

~~~
ljcn
Not surprising as he grew up in Scotland, and that's how Britons today still
pronounce Graham. Perhaps Graham was widely pronounced that way in Canada and
the USA at the time too? I don't know.

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H4CK3RM4N
The recovered recordings are on
[http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/h...](http://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/hear-
my-voice/6.html)

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ggchappell
> Bell knew there was a distinct possibility of a patent fight with Edison, so
> on three occasions he had papers and experimental products sealed in tin
> boxes and deposited at the Smithsonian Institution for safekeeping.

You can (or _could_ ) do that?

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dang
Discussed at the time, in 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5611288](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5611288)

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saalweachter
For some reason this reminded me of the Narmer Palette, (one of?) the oldest
artifacts naming a king and his works.

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leereeves
Where's the particle physics?

~~~
ddavis
The same technology used to align the silicon detectors for ATLAS (one of the
detectors on the LHC) was used to recover the audio. (article mentions optical
metrology)

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agumonkey
damn, retro scifiesque

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txsh
It doesn’t seem right that a man who fought so hard to prevent deaf people
from being taught sign language now gets to be heard forever.

Bell was a despicable monster whose work led to forced sterilizations in the
US and to the holocaust in Germany.

If it had been me, I would have smashed the disk.

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DoctorOetker
the IEEE is turning into an advertisement network?

I just hope the next floating point format does not do:

2E3 CocaCola + 3E4 BigMac =3.2E4 McMenu

