July 18: When a machine first repeated a human voice
On July 18, 1877, Thomas Edison recorded the human voice for the first time. Tonight's film: Strange Days (1995).
Last night I went down to the basement and found an old cassette. Nothing written on it, just a worn sticker with a date I could barely read. I put it in the old walkman, and something spoke that was not my voice. A relative I have not heard in decades. Only a few seconds, but those seconds stopped the room.
