

An archive photograph of Edison taken in 1922. Image Credit: Library of Congress

Thomas Edison had attempted to come up with a device that could record voices from beyond the grave.

Well known for developing devices such as the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb, Edison's inventions would go on to make him a household name. Less well known however was the fact that the inventor and businessman also dabbled in the creation of a device that could enable communication with the dead.His research in this area wasn't well publicized and it wasn't until 1949 when a French edition of his original diary was discovered and translated that the full details of his experiments were revealed.His efforts to record the voices of dead took place in late 1870 when Edison attempted to develop a "spirit phone" by significantly amplifying the sound from one of his phonographs.He was so certain it would work that he even made a pact with one of the engineers, William Walter Dinwiddie, that the first of them to die would attempt to contact the other from the afterlife.Whether Edison actually picked up any evidence of spirit communication however remains a mystery.