Patented in 1857 by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville "It transcribed sound waves as undulations or other deviations in a line traced on smoke-blackened paper or glass. Intended solely as a laboratory instrument for the study of acoustics , it could be used to visually study and measure the amplitude envelopes and waveforms of speech and other sounds, or to determine the frequency of a given musical pitch " (Wikipoedia) The recordings from this device were not translated into sound until 2008 when image to sound conversion software became available.