The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-14 00:00:00

REPORTING BY MACHINERY.

It is not easy to conceive a mechanical operation
which requires a greater exercise of intellect than
that of verbatim reporting by means of short-hand.
Yet even this art seems likely, before long, to be
supplanted. For several years a French saran, M.
L. Scott, has been engaged in experiments on the
fixation of sound upon a prepared tablet, in the same
way as photography fixes luminous images, and has
met with considerable success in this new art, which
he has named " Phonautography." At a recent
sitting of the French Academy of Sciences, a short
communication was made on the subject by the dis-
coverer, a brief outline of which will, perhaps, be
considered of interest. The problem which first re-
quired solution was the artificial construction of an
car, by means of tubes and diaphragms, so as to
imitate as nearly as possible the human ear in its
power of collecting sounds of every degree of in-
tensity, and transmitting them to a delicate mem-
brane placed at the extremity. After numerous
essays an apparatus was constructed which possessed
the above qualifications ' • the membrane was seen to
vibrate visibly, and in a different manner, with each
audible sound or note; and if a pen or style were
fastened to this membrane its points would trace the
wonderfully beautiful and complicated curves and
circles' appertaining to the elements of sound. The
next difficulty consisted in finding a sensitive sur-
face upon which this style could mark the imprint
of its movements, for the vibrations of the mrial
pen were so delicate that, if any appreciable
force were required to effect the transcription,
the resistance would at once stop all movement.
This difficulty was at last overcome by employing a
strip of thin paper, upon which was deposited a
film of lampblaok obtained from the smoke of burn-
ing bodies. The phonographs produced by M.
Scott's instrument are marvellously correct ; every
separate source of sound has an individuality of its
own. An oration, delivered with varyingrapidity,
and with the pitch of the voice greatly modulated
in different parts, has a very striking appearance in
its phonograph. Rapidly spoken parts have the
curves crowded together, whilst in others they are
widely separated. The loudlones of the voice are
shown by the written waves rising to perhaps half
an inch or more in height, whilst the low tones are
not more than the eighth of an inch high; the
modulations of the voice are thus shown very beau-
tifully by the varying height of what may be called
the letters of sound. The problem of the graphic
ai
enh fixationseladt onbt
these
;but
nowoun d may thus be considered as accom-
eavenrevwardyiffiincguletnyr7aeerisbesa,ekthaagtaionf
ptrl
into ordinary language. If each word or syllable,
or even compound sound, of which our spoken lan-
guage is built up, were invariably represented by
the same system of curves, the work of transcrip-
tion would be comparatively easy. This, however,
is far from being the case. Not only does the im-
pression vary with the tone of the voice, the
rapidity or loudness of utterance, but it has been
found that the same words uttered by
one person are written down by the instru-
ment very differently from the way they are when
spoken by another ; just as the handwriting of one
person differs from another. This,
however, is a
difficulty which will be overcome by practice, and,
perhaps, improved instrumental arrangements. The _
themselves permanently on
rPadPeevreloped, as the in-
ventorfect of being able to make spokenis soofunitdsselfremcoorsdt
astonishing ; but, if it is..?vbee
to sufficient perfec-
tion says it shortly will
difficult '
to imagine the
be written off verbati2n, it is
he discovery, whether it be in respect
importance of t
to enable it to take down
. speeches which may
parliamentary
aetonnytti trouble and expense in reporting
gemnpneea:fhableacceuracy of the process, the
the
eerticulate sounds, or the great saving of the
rteimpnertaetthe exhausting labours of

The accounts from Venezuela by the mail
yesterday reach to the 22d of October, and are satisfactory
as regards the progress of the pacification of the country
under General/ Pavz.