World
Edison and the 'Nechrophone': When the Inventor Wanted to Make the Dead Speak
Thomas Edison, the inventor of the phonograph—a mechanical device designed to record and reproduce sound—developed a project he called the 'nechrophone,' intended to capture the voices of the deceased. The experiment never came to fruition. This project emerged during an era when spiritualism was at its peak, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Philippe Simon explores this fascinating history in Le Temps on August 10, 2026, as part of a series dedicated to technology as a medium for communicating with the dead.