For more than a century, since he captured the spoken words “Mary had a little lamb” on a sheet of tinfoil, Thomas Edison has been considered the father of recorded sound. But researchers say they have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison’s invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/arts/27soun.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1206633661-hex2Hco0wkCANssPg8Bn0Q&pagewanted=all