The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-13 00:00:00

SOUND AND ITS TRANSMISSION.

(Front the Orb.)
Many years ago, Professor Pepper gave an illus-
trated lecture on Sound and its transmission, at the
Polytechnic. Tne experiments were, in fact, repe-
titions on a large scale of those instituted by Professor
Wheatstone, one of the inventors of the electric
telegraph. The fact that pine rods form the best
and speediest conluctors of sound was shown in a
very remarkable way. In a room 40 feet below the
audience addressed by the lecturer, there were
placed performers on the pianoforte, violin, clarionet,
aed violoncello. Before the company stood three
of Erard's grand harps upon orifices, in which pine
rods were placed, and brought into contact with the
musical instruments below. First an air was
played by each instrument singly, and then all
played in harmony. The music came up diatiactly,
and could be either shut off or let in to the room at
pleasure. Douglas Jerrold, who was present at the
private view, I remember exclaimed :—" This is a
case of concealed banditte," amidst general laughter;
and we talked of the time when music would be laid
down in pipes like water or gas, and an oratorio in
Exeter Hell be enjoyed at the same time in Edin-
burgh or Glasgow. It appears that an American
named Hackenburg has appropriated this idea, and
brought out as an invention of his own, what he
calls musical telegraphy. He states that his plans
are all matured, and he is ready to supply music, at
a given rate per annum, to all the world. A piano-
forte is to be connected by electric wires with any
number of instruments ; and on being played, the
sympathetic vibration will cause a stream of music
to permeate every place in connection with the cen-
tral depot. Subscribers will be able to turn on
music at will by means of a small tap. This will be
even more wonderful than Professor Pepper's last
invention, the wonderful ghost. Whatever credit
the American may claim for the application of the
idea, to Mr. Pepper undoubtedly belongs the merit
of priority in illustrating and developing it.
It is strange, too, to find the originality of photo-
graphy disputed as discovered simultaneously in
England and France by Mr. Fox Talbot and M.
Daguerre in 1839. Their processes were different
but both produced permanent sun pictures. It
seems that in 1791 Matthew Boulton, the partner
of James Watt at Soho produced large numbers of
sun-painted pictures, many of which are now in the
possession of Mr. Smith, curator of the museum of
Patents at South Kensington. They are all copies
on very coarse foolscap paper, of well-known de-
signs, by Angelie Kauffman, the porous, water-
marked paper being thickly covered with a varnish-
like substance, on the surface of which the picture
is produced, with the figures of the original reversed,
the drawing elaborately finished, and the lights
and shades so fully rendered, as .to give much the
effect of a mezzotint. What is still more singular,
it appears that these pictures were actually eold at
Soho in large quantities, and at low prices, at the
end of the last century. Their production seems to
have been stopped by the payment of a sum to
Boulton by the Government, on the representation
of the Royal Academy that the manufacture of these
roldeoua taken
ir;iadskeebie
ntezruangitl
pictures would inevitably ruin the picture trade.
In this same year (1791), Thomas Wedgwood, the
son of the famous potter on whom 111 r. Gladstone
pronounced so eloquent an eulogy, was also at work
eei
sa shown as
tbcleyuer- aoi
curious
breakfast-table,
thatre ehr aei ksdaf bpnat sorl
atol
r-sdc t
iaepbne
for chemicals, and beside Boulton's pictures are laid
n
aced
le is the double coincidence
Talbot in 1839.
on photography,
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ae
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01
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still
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The Aklibar of Algiers states that Sir Morton
veto has arrived in that city to examine the pre-
sent state of the works which are being executed on the Bou-
levard de l'lmperatrice. He has, it is said, made an offer to
the administration to construct almost immediately and on
conditions to be fixed by private contract, the buildings and
establishments of public utility which are most impatiently
looked for by the inhabitants,
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITURE.—It is a common
error, into which most people fall, according to
Colonel Wortley, to suppose that a photograph, because it
is taken as it were by machinery, must necessarily be a
likeness. The Colonel states that this is not the case, and
for the following reasons :—The photographic portrait lens
is not a perfect instrument, and of necessity magnifies the
objects that are nearest to it, and makes them out offprorom-
portion with those situated in a plane somewhat further from
over
the instrument. To prove this, you have only
t 0
00u will at
any collection of photographic portraits,
Once see that the hands, or feet, or any object
be, p)br'eo,llltionbenetilnY
brought forward, are larger than they shoourel
visiblo in the
due proportion. This defect, of course
of
aall'ow the chin to be elo--
ctl
jafo,siej,toialfenand,hiTaindiel
e,
dfotohtle, ocrxpo largetrhesesrio ii,
Y°7
course appreciably mi.ag
nified ; and the forehead and eyes, , .
Goar„, foolish. ex-
the•-hod and '
full of intelligence
vated, or birumgpohstinfogrwaabridtf,eirt'
be
t is of course much
pression given
This defect same time,
in one by any of the
and refinement of feature.
than
bad lens
greater in a cheap, .
best makers; though it is one that can easily be guarded
against.
educed duty obtained by pur-
me,tosarefadcleatTabt may is
oes, Ling thrown liac .. at
of pure.r Tea; very choice at 3s. 4d. and
Brd ' at 4s. 4d. (formerly Is. Bd.), is the
4chs.aFsiu'n'illiiibig:hrnnSeitfinLaffia: delicious imported. Agents in every
town ...Et
strongest_,,, nal
yn ditmi:srackets.