(Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)Sound recordings of Alexander Graham Bell were decoded and played to a public audience for the first time in over 125 years at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., on Tuesday.

The short and scratchy samples were recorded in the 1880s on fragile cylinders and discs. They were so fragile that nobody - until now - had been able to decode them without causing them irreparable damage in the process.

The Library of Congress and a U.S. Department of Energy lab teamed up to decode the long-dead messages from the man credited with inventing the first practical telephone.

It's still difficult to decipher Bell's voice and intonations, but one can now listen to the short clips including the opening line of "Mary Had A Little Lamb," and information such as the date.
    
The data was transferred to cleaner digital files and posted on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's website.

It's hard to find surviving recordings from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, such as a recording of Handel's "Israel in Egypt" from 1888, and Alfred Tennyson's recital of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" from 1890.

What sounds or recordings from the turn of the 20th century would you want to listen in on? Would it be the musical hits from that era? What about a speech from a former Prime Minister like Sir John A. Macdonald or Sir Wilfrid Laurier? Let us know in the comments section below.


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