New research shows that it may have been a Frenchman, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, rather than the American Edison, who is the first to have recorded sound, some 17 years before the great inventor's patent on his phonograph. David Giovannoni led a team of American researchers who have dug up the recordings and managed to reproduce the sound they recorded. Interestingly, the sounds were recorded in a visual form, rather than a mechanical form. They were never necessarily meant to be replayed, but computer technology has made it possible to retrieve the sounds originally etched in visual form on paper. You can hear the recording and read all about it here.