I thought that you would play A. G Bell's voice as described in Smithsonian Magazine...now I'm disappointed!

Well done with technology available at this time. Hopefully, you will continue to preserve the recordings so that future generations may be able to decipher all with more advanced technology available at a later date. It is always exciting to gain access to living history.

No kidding! Why not allow us to hear more of the recordings rather than the history behind it?

Playing the Unplayable Records. I would like to suggest that a link be created to whatever happened next. Did they play anymore records or was there anymore recording on that record? Did they clean up the sound track and play it? Very interesting but kind of left me hanging. Thank you.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/press/releases/%E2%80%9Chear-my-voice%E2%80%9D-smithsonian-identifies-130-year-old-recording-alexander-graham-bell%E2%80%99s —The full Alexander Graham Bell recording can be found here. Amazing bit of history to be sure.

As a Smithsonian Magazine subscriber, I was thrilled to follow the link to this video piece. What did I find? Three minutes and thirty seconds of build-up, followed by less than ten seconds of actual recovered audio. Actually, the video's closing credits take longer to display. My reaction matches the "Oh, " exclamation at the end of the audio: disappointment.

it sounds like when you're trying to take a picture but accidentally take a video and the recording ends with a Uhhh.... LOL.

The section that stops in "mid verse" sounds very lyrical. Are you sure this isn't a narrator chanting a profane joke, rather than someone who is disappointed? I'd like to read what the Smithsonian believes the full verse says.

This is awesome. I have also had the opportunity to hear hitlers voice - going back and hearing these voices you thought you'd never get a chance to hear.

When I read about this work at the Smithsonian I was intrigued.that you had found sound bites from the past. I only wish that more were available and this could be shared. Thank you for your work.

The magazine article (May, 2013) references Bell's "unplayable" recordings at this website. All I can hear is a few garbled seconds of talking in the video. Is there another place to hear the recordings that are mentioned?

I enjoyed "Clear as a Bell" and this website very much and for 2 different reasons. One, I worked for AT&T for 20+ years, so learning you have these materials makes me happy. Two, is there any way to clean a wax record? In 1943, my mother had one made of her playing the piano for her boyfriend (later to become my father). It hasn't been played in many years, and while in good shape, it seems only right to clean it before we make a digital recording of it. Thanks for your help. Paula Morrison

Congratulations! Thanks for a great work.

Where's the rest of it? There's an obvious cut and the "very long" part is omitted, jumping to the last few seconds. And I notice Mr. Haber's lips moving during that last bit--seems likely HE knows what's being said! "Oh, @#$%+&!" (my own disappointment!)

I think this is great you found this.I would give you people a award.

I was disappointed. It was marvelous to hear the sound, but the article in the magazine said I was going to hear Bell say "In witness whereof--hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell." If this was in the video, I couldn't discern it and no one introduced it.

Very,very cool

I'm disappointed; we only got 10 seconds worth of sound, recorded acoustically by the camera, which makes it very difficult to hear clearly. I was hoping for links to the actual audio recordings themselves.

Hi. You can clean 78 RPM records in the sink with just a couple drops of dishwashing liquid in cool water. First, flush the record's grooves with a stream of tap water (not HOT). Then use a lint-free cloth (I like a "micro-fiber" cloth) wash the record with the soapy solution, gently rubbing in a circular motion. DON'T wet the paper label or you will damage it. After washing, rinse the record in a stream of water and dry with another micro-fiber cloth. That's it.. wait until the record dries before you play it.

What an amazing updated adaptation of the cold war spy technology...I saw a documentary of how the Americans learned with a laser to transfer vibration waves from the windows of the Russian embassy into audible sounds. I used to work on an MRI study, and I wish our government would stop wasting money on wars, and get back to funding historical research, and science based projects like this. I've been collecting records for almost 40 years now, and Smithsonian made my day!

It is very interesting. I have about 1000 78th jazz records. Some of them need cleening. How can You help me with this? You cut Your information after couple of minuts.My records are very unknown(Edison about 200 pcs.) Please answer me. Best Regards Dymitr Markiewicz

I could spend countless hours working with that kind of thing....restoration of sound, silent films, etc.

I hate video only presentations. I can't watch them on my work computer because the Flash Player is out of date and will never be updated. What happened to reading?

Wow, this is amazing. I'd like to see a 60 minute documentary on this. Please let us see more! I am in the process of archiving recordings made by my family on records in the 1940s, they used a record cutting machine to send audio postcards, and I can hear the voice of my great grandparents, who had passed away 25 years before I was born.

Closed captions of what they said on the recording would make this video more enriching.

Interesting. Close captioning would help one understand what they were saying.

Would the 3-D copy machine catch the sound?

Excellent, keep up the wonderful work. I have a lot of old 78's and still delight in finding new descoveries.

This is fascinating. I wish I could have heard all of it, but my sound system suddenly stopped working right.