Voice recorder

File:2000s digital voice recorder OLYMPUS VN 120 made in China.jpg

A digital voice recorder from the Japanese company Olympus.

A voice recorder or a dictation machine is a device to record speech or other sounds, and then play it back. Starting in the early 20th century they were much used in business. Usually a typist played the recording and transcribed it. In the late 20th century dictation machines used microcassettes. Today, smartphones can do their job.

Voice Recorder Media

• Dictaphone operator.jpg

  Transcribing dictation with a Dictaphone wax cylinder dictation machine, in the early 1920s. Note supply of extra wax cylinders on lower part of stand.

• EdisonDictaphone.jpg

  Thomas A. Edison dictating in 1907.

• Dictaphone cylinder machine.jpg

  Dictaphone cylinder dictation machine from early 1920s.

• Thomas Edison National Historical Park - Edison Voicewriter Reproducer.jpg

  Edison Voicewriter from about 1950

• Zoom H4n Digital Recorder-front oblique PNr°0427.jpg

  The front side of a H4n Digital Recorder by Zoom