The Voder, full story here.
The first device to be considered a true speech synthesizer was the VODER (Voice Operating Demonstrator) developed by Homer Dudley of Bell Labs in the 1930s. It was a rather complicated machine with fourteen piano-like keys, a bar controlled by the wrist, and a foot pedal which the operator could manipulate and cause the machine to speak. It sounded very robotic, like “an alien speaking under water” as Lisa Guernsey of the New York Times described it.
