Text to speech… in 1846

Professor Joseph Faber unveiled Euphonia at London’s grand Egyptian hall in 1846.  It was the first machine to genuinely replicate human speech.

The Euphonia was the product of 25 years of research and an undeniably impressive feat of engineering. Fourteen piano keys controlled the articulation of the Euphonia’s jaw, lips, and tongue while the roles of the lungs and larynx were performed by a bellows and an ivory reed. The operator could adjust the pitch and accent of the Euphonia’s speech by turning a small screw or inserting a tube into its nose. It was reported that it took Faber seven long years simply to get his machine to correctly pronounce the letter e.

The crowd was not nearly amused as Faber had hoped. Click here to read more on Euphonia.