Alexander Graham Bell happens to be one of my favorite historical personalities. The 'Father of phone technology and optical communications' just got a VOICE today, exactly a century after he passed away.

Living in an era that lay somehere between the traditional and modern, Bell discovered something that was to revolutionize the 21st century vastly. His was a time when there were no high quality sound recording devices, tabs, iPhone's or for that matter vinyl records; words once spoken out only lived in the annals of Memory.

He transmitted the first sound waves in 1876 or what we can tag as the world's first phone call. For us, living in the ever-developing world of smartphone technology, the idea of Bell's simple gadget is a piece of vintage fancy at best.

How many of us even dare to imagine how he must have accomplished the discovery or how he must have felt speaking out the first words - "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you"?

At best we can only imagine.

As crafty as it gets, there are actually a handful of odd sound records that still survive from the era of the 1860's-80s says Smithsonian. The sorry part is, they are still in the process of being discovered and being made playable using 3D scans that converts them into audio files. In fact, just last year a team of researchers released the oldest playable American recording with perfectly audible voices. Fascinating isn't it?

Now coming back to Bell, in a absolutely fascinating discovery, the Smithsonian researchers have recovered the only surviving recording of the inventor's voice, by using the latest optical communications technology. According to reports, the voice piece was found in a wax-n-cardboard disc, dating back to April 15, 1885.

"From the 1880s on, until his death in 1922, Bell gave an extensive collection of laboratory materials to the Smithsonian Institution, where he was a member of the Board of Regents. The donation included more than 400 discs and cylinders Bell used as he tried his hand at recording sound"

The time period was one of experimentation. Bell along with his cousin Chichester Bell and technician Charles Sumner Tainter are said to have worked in a stable-turned-laboratory in Washington. Bell's research with light and sounds were also part of his rivalry with Edison and laid the founadtions of the modern day fiber-optic communications.

Hear the inventor say the words - "In witness whereof — hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell", here.

Technology has evolved from Bell's simple phone to the smartphones we so easily use to connect. But just take a moment and imagine what the world would have been minus this 19th century man's discovery. Seems highly grave and boring!

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