Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

French printer and inventor (1817–1879)

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (French: [edwaʁ le.ɔ̃ skɔt də maʁtɛ̃vil]; 25 April 1817 – 26 April 1879) was a French printer, bookseller and inventor. He invented the earliest known sound recording device, the phonautograph, which was patented in France on 25 March 1857. Despite his innovation, he received little recognition during his lifetime, and his work was largely forgotten until the early 21st century, when phonautograph recordings made in 1860 were rediscovered and played back in 2008.

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