By 1930 it was already plain that electronic technology offered the best hope for future work on the acoustic speech signal. Thermionic valve development, and corresponding advances in circuit design, were opening up new possibilities, and high-quality sound recording was possible on disc or film. The new did not immediately displace the old, and laboratories often made use of incongruous blends of anachronistic technology. The kymograph, with all its failings, continued in use for speech research after the Second World War, sometimes out of necessity, but sometimes also from choice, and it even found defenders against the new technology into the 1950s. Lacerda’s chromograph needs to be studied in the general context of the development of recording oscillographs. The Lacerda chromograph certainly had advantages, but at the same time lacked the engineering refinements that might have turned it into a widely marketable device.