recording and playing machines divpfixing and reproducing the spoken word were major concerns for the inventors of the phonograph in the late 1870s mr edison regretting that we could not get an idea of the voice and intonations of our famous men speakers scholars and musicians had the idea of keeping phonograms that would have collected their speech or their songs for future generations article in the journal of the exposition universelle de 1889 paris cited by jperriault in memoires de lombre et du son une archeologie de laudiovisuel flammarion 1981 p 184 as techniques evolved sound recording and playing machines went from being fair attractions to work tools notably for typists eventually becoming private entertainment centres for individualsppthis exhibition drawn from the collections of nine major cultural institutions gathered in the a hrefhttpwwweuropeanasoundseueuropeana sounds projecta offers a selection of machines that illustrate a wide range of techniques and technologies from the days of the phonograph to the digital age collections of machines from cultural institutions provide a thorough overview of the evolution of machines used to register and play soundspdiv httpexhibitionseuropeanaeuexhibitsshowrecordingandplayingmachines bibliotheque nationale de france sabhal mor ostaig tobar an dualchais the british library