There is no denying that Thomas Alva Edison was a genius.

The list of patents he is credited with claiming is incredibly long with more than 1,000 in his name in the U.S. alone.

However, a recent discovery in an archive in Paris may dispute his claim to have been the first person to record the human voice.

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a Parisian typesetter and tinkerer, was convinced that he was denied credit for his invention which had wrongly been given to Edison. Scott came up with a way to record the human voice on paper. He didn’t have a way to replay it, but he did etch the sound waves onto paper in 1860.

With modern technology, those recorded waves have been transferred back into sound. The result was a 10-second recording of a singer crooning the folk song “Au Clair de la Lune.” It predates Edison’s recording of his recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by about 17 years.

Imagine the money Scott missed out on. It makes whatever is left of the feud between Blue-ray and HD DVD look like small potatoes.

For more, including a chance to hear the actual first recording, go here to the New York Times’ site.

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Tags: Thomas Edison, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Phonograph, invention, feud, “Au Clair de la Lune”, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

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