Carl Haber, a guy I worked with at LBNL[1] about twenty years ago pioneered this technique, at least as far as I know. The really cool thing about it is how it can be used to play very fragile recordings without damaging them.

"The method has been used to successfully play several recordings for the first time, including an 1860 phonautogram, the oldest known sound recording of a human voice, and the only known recording of Alexander Graham Bell’s voice."

[1] https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2013/carl-haber