--- title: This Is What the Sound of WWI's Ceasefire 'Looked' Like description: A reproduction of a few seconds' worth of data on a century-old recording tape is remarkably eloquent -- and surprisingly moving canonical: https://time.com/3881527/world-war-i-ceasefire-november-11-1918-graphic-2/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-18T18:59:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:34.325Z og:title: This Is What the Sound of WWI's Ceasefire 'Looked' Like og:description: A reproduction of a few seconds' worth of data on a century-old recording tape is remarkably eloquent -- and surprisingly moving og:url: https://time.com/3881527/world-war-i-ceasefire-november-11-1918-graphic-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35b87c3fb1357bdf/69884cde5f570f0fe6b1b293/world-war-1-ceasefire-november-11-19181.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2553 og:image:height: 1436 og:image:alt: World War I Ceasefire, Graphic Record og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What the Sound of WWI's Ceasefire 'Looked' Like twitter:description: A reproduction of a few seconds' worth of data on a century-old recording tape is remarkably eloquent -- and surprisingly moving twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35b87c3fb1357bdf/69884cde5f570f0fe6b1b293/world-war-1-ceasefire-november-11-19181.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Silence Visible: This Is What the Sound of WWI's Ceasefire 'Looked' Like > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=cc0bac28-3613-4369-a736-b3ffa83210a0&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 18, 2014 6:59 PM UTC  A reproduction of recording tape showing what the auditory landscape in France "looked like" just minutes before and minutes after the ceasefire that ended World War I, Nov. 11, 11 a.m., 1918. A reproduction of recording tape showing what the auditory landscape in France "looked like" just minutes before and minutes after the ceasefire that ended World War I, Nov. 11, 11 a.m., 1918. US ARMY SIGNAL CORPS by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 18, 2014 6:59 PM UTC The most memorable graphic representations of historical events are often those we can take in at a single glance. Charles Minard’s famous mapping of [Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign](http://www.datavis.ca/gallery/historical.php#Minard) in 1812, for instance — widely celebrated as the greatest statistical graphic ever devised — is both elegant, and elemental. Its greatness derives, in large part, from its simplicity. The recording tape pictured above, meanwhile — while not quite on a par with Minard’s creation — is another striking distillation of a consequential moment. In this case, the moment is among the 20th century’s weightiest: 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, the instant the First World War ended. More accurately, that was the very moment that the war’s final ceasefire went into effect; the belligerents had signed the armistice agreement six hours before, and at 11 a.m. sharp, the guns stopped firing. To the left, the jagged lines on the recording tape indicate massive artillery activity just seconds before the ceasefire goes into effect; the smooth, straight lines to the right confirm that, very suddenly, all went very quiet. No single picture can possibly capture the scope and the import of that instant, when four years of mechanized carnage came to an abrupt, long-dreamt-of end. But for a stark, rather simple image, this reproduction of a few seconds’ worth of data on a century-old recording tape is remarkably eloquent — and surprisingly moving. **NOTE: For a better, more readable view of the picture’s complete — and fascinating — caption, view it in “Full Screen” mode.** ---  A reproduction of recording tape showing what the auditory landscape in France "looked like" just minutes before and minutes after the ceasefire that ended World War I, Nov. 11, 11 a.m., 1918. 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