What words did Thomas Edison recite in his first successful phonograph recording?

Thomas Edison recited “Mary had a little lamb” in his first successful phonograph recording in 1877.

Edison’s phonograph used a stylus to trace sound vibrations onto a tinfoil-covered cylinder. When the cylinder was played back, the stylus followed the grooves and reproduced the recorded sound, demonstrating that speech could be captured and heard again.

The short nursery-rhyme recording became famous because it provided a simple, memorable proof that the machine worked. Edison reportedly recited the opening line while testing the device in his laboratory.

The phonograph is often confused with the gramophone, a later format associated with flat discs. Edison initially concentrated on cylinder recordings, while disc records became dominant in the commercial market decades later.