There’s an intriguing series at quarter to four on Radio 4 this week about early sound recordings. Thomas Alva Edison, who claimed to have invented almost everything, did actually invent the phonograph in 1878, although he followed the leads of a couple of Frenchmen, and was closely followed in turn by Emile Berliner and Alexander Graham Bell, the Scot who invented the telephone.  There was a wonderful tangle over the patents on both sides of the Atlantic.

I remember when I was eight or ten years old I was given for Christmas a record of This Old House, and we had another called Mission Bell. They were 78s – stiff, brittle 10-inch discs that revolved at 78 r.p.m. The needle was thick and heavy, and there was more hiss than music.

Then came an amazing new phenomenon – the LP. Our American cousins sent us LPs of musicals including Oklahoma and South Pacific. I can still remember the words, not only of the songs, but also the hype on the sleeve: ‘Long-playing microgroove’, which sounded tremendously technical to me. The stylus was lightweight, the record went round at only 33 r.p.m., and because it was 12 inches across it lasted for more than half an hour, instead of four or five minutes. What’s more, there was much more music than hiss.

Even more miraculous, it was in stereo – you could have an orchestra playing in your sitting room. Not that you would want an orchestra playing in your sitting room, but the principle was there.

Later came the 7-inch 45 r.p.m. single, cassette tapes, and 8-track, and one day I was approached by a man on a tricycle in the middle of the California desert; he said ‘You must listen to this’, and put a pair of headphones on my head. This was the prototype of the Walkman, called the Stowaway. When he switched on I heard with extraordinary clarity a train thundering from my right to my left, even though all I could see was desert, and there was no railroad for miles.

But the subjects of these radio programme are older even than I am: Victorian recordings including Tennyson and Florence Nightingale. I have heard Ms Nightingale, and could not make out a word until it was interpreted for me. Perhaps these have been enhanced, or perhaps you have better ears than I. In any case, happy listening.