I didn't anticiate posting twice in one day, but I knew I had to when I stumbled across a story on our local news station's website. Researchers found an 1860 recording, which they believe is the earliest recorded human voice. It was made by Scott, a Frenchmen who believed you could understand sound by seeing it. It predates Thomas Edison by 17 years! I guess Scott was very angry with Edison for getting all the credit, but they had two different views of the technology. I found the mp3 file online, so have a listen for yourself...

http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/1860-Scott-Au-Clair-de-la-Lune.mp3

On the educational side of things, this would be a very cool thing to discuss in a Science or Music class. It might be a little easier for older students to understand, but I think its a great topic--students should understand how we came from this to become an iPod generation.