Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1878-04-23
THE Telephone AND THE HOME
CIRCLE.

CIRCLE.
We Accept the Hospitalitiss of COmmodOr
Haines's Home Through the TelephOn
His Children Sing for Us.
Our readers have probably no.
ticed the statement that Commo'
dore r. r. Haines, of the Western
Union Telegraph Company, had
received number of telephones
Yesterday evening we found that
gentleman busily engaged rigging
up the little machines which have
the bell attachment, which is used
for calling attention. Owing to
the absence of a diagram, he failed
to get it in working order. He
therefore threw it aside and fell
back upon the simple apparatus
which Lieut. Reade had used in his
experiments some weeks ago. The
wires and the little case containing
the diaphragm were all the mech.
anism employed.
Some of our readers may remem-
Der that, in our account of Lieut..
Reade's experiments we failed to
enthuse. His wire was run from
the parlor of the st. Charles Hotel
up to his bed room, probably a dis
lance of seventy. five feet. We
failed to hear word the whole
evening, but we stated that this
was not fair test Of the telephone,
as we were uncompromisingIy
deaf and could hardly distinguish
an unfamiliar voice at our elbow.
We of course labored under the
same disability last night, and, in
addition, the test was q far more
thorough one. Mr.. Haines had
made telephone attachment be-
tween his own residence on Fort
street and the office of the Western
Union Telegraph Company-a dis
lance of about one mile.
Commodore Haines- applying
the speaking aperture to his Iips)
" Now children sing a song for Mr..
l."
In moment came the air of the
"Little Brown Jug" We could
distinguish few words here and
there, but not all. That is, we
heard everything as distinctly as
aOe would have heard the words of
the song had we been in the front
row of Turnverein Hall and
singer of ordinary distinctness of
utterance had been singing. A
person with a quick ear would
have heard every word in each
case. But one thing particularly
we desire to note, and that is the
NATURALIZATION of the voices.
Had we known each of the three
children of Commodore Haines
who participated in the song we
would b we been able to distin-
guish the voice of each. Had the
voice of an adult Joined in we
should instantly have known it
was an adult, and if we knew the
person we would have been able TO
recognize the voice and name its
possessor.
Another thing we noticed, and
that is that the ear gradually be-
comes used to this method of
transmitting sound, and hour by
hour and day by day the ability to
hear readily and alphabetically
would grow upon one. The chill
dren next struck up "Home, Sweet
Home" and we heard every word
of it, almost, partly because it was
so familiar to us. and partly, no
doubt, because our at best disabled
ear was becoming more and more
familiarized with the medium of
transmission.
The thing that charmed us most
about the whole thing was the
individualizing of
the voices. Mr.. Haines's children
are very young, and it was curious
and pleasant to notice that, with
your ear to this sensitive dia-
ghragm, at remove of u mile. you
were just as sensible of that fact as
though you were sitting with them
in parlor. The childish treble,
the infant tremolo. the uncertain
struggle with high note, were
charmingly apparent.
But the most interesting feature
of the whole occurred after the par
lor entertainment was over. Mr..
Haines applied the diaphragm
to his ear; and, between pauses, he
said it was very curious, but he
could not help reading the mes
sages which the operator was TAX
ing down in the next room for the
HERALD. "For instance" said the
Commodore, "the operator has just
taken down the words ordered
printed" And again, "moved a
suspension of the rules.n He went
into the next room (the door was
closed) and, sure enough Mr.. Stol-
brand had just taken down those
words. This is astonishing for the
reason that the wire Mr.. Haines
had connected with his house and
the telephone is six inches below
the wire over which our Washing
ton kilograms were being trans
mitted. The telephone diaphragm
is SO sensitive and sympathetic
that, even at this remove, to the
ear of the practised operator the
whole story with which the wires
were freighted was told to him.
This makes the telephone q very
delicate and dangerous instrument
in skillful and scheming hands.
Verify the telephone is wonder
f1l invautiOn