Webbage: Working out the concept of recorded sound

Here's a New York Times article (you may need to register) about the recent discovery of a 'phonautograph' an early attempt to record sound. The recording dates from 1860(!) and contains a short snippet of 'Au Clair de la Lune' (you can hear the recording here). For me the most interesting part of the story is contained in the following passage from the article:

The recordings were not intended for listening; the idea of audio playback had not been conceived. Rather, Scott sought to create a paper record of human speech that could later be deciphered.

But as it turns out, scientists were able to use a laser stylus to 'read' off the date stored on the sheets and reconstruct the audio. I guess what throws me is the notion that audio recording could be conceived of separately from audio playback. It makes one wonder about the as yet unconceived applications/extensions of our present technology.