The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1878-05-07

VIII give the resonance that IS. lacking IN |
this machine. Another thing am going |
to do right away-abolish the whole cyl |
inder and supercede it with fat circu-
lar steel plate about as big as dinner, |
plate This plate will BE reaftied with
line groove running around itself, begin
ming in the center and etidiIg 10 the cir
cumferenoe. can, make that groove so
fine that the plate will hold so, ,0OG words,
that is, it will hold the whole of one of
Dickens novels. My puzzle now is to
decide whether to make it fine enough to
hold $4,000 words or coarse enough to
bold only 200 A merchant may not
want all his business mixed up on his
phonograph. He may prefer to shift the
tinfoil."
Z Mr.. Edison here led us to the machine
shop and exhibited the new phonograph
with the dat plate in place Of the cylin.
der. 1t is to be run by clockwork, SO
that the speed may be faster or slower
and the speech uniform.
Taking up sheet Of tinfoil that had
been in the phonograph, Mr.. Edison
crumpled it all up in his hand so that it
was no larger than walnut Then he
picked it out as smooth as he convent
emily could, laid it on again, andit sang:
"Tramp, tramp, tramp. the boys are
marcdingw The noise OF the wrinkles
overlaid and somewhat muffied the song,
but every word was distinct, in spite Of
that He spoke into the photography,
and showed that by turning the cylinder
fast he could increase the rapidity of its
speech indefinitely, while its pitch was
raised from bass to soprano. by turn-
ing that wheel fast enough" he said, 81
can raise bass voice to whistle. p
| Turning it slower the voice returned to
a bass drawl, and by greatly diminishing
the speed it gave no sound at all. To
return sound it requires sixteen to
eighteen vibrations to the second.
How much does this tinfoil costT
'Oh, scarcely anything We have
been working here two months on 81.
so worth of it, ~T
Edison then showed us his disman.
tied Grophone. Some of it started for
Europe last week. said be, 'and can't
show you how It sounds. But here, you
see, is the same tympanum that we use
in the telephone and phonograph; we
speak against this, and its vibration, in.
stead OF prtcking sheet Of tinfoil,
opens and closes valve in the steam.
pipe, and thus gives to the whistle the
articulations of the human voice. 1t is
much simpler than the phonograph, and
tits audible speech can be heard four
miles, or even more. I will guarantee
that it shall read the Declaration of In.
dependence so that every word will be
distinctly heard by every citizen of Man
haitian Island, 1t will call out all the
stations on railroad, and the locomo.
tive will go through the country talking
whatever the engineer thinks it necessa
ry to saw. Steamers can converse al
lsea. Lighthouses can warn ships in 6
storm. Fire districts can he shouted
also information whether a fire is spread
ling or is being mastered.
Il will have on exhibition at Paris,
aid Edison, eight telephones, besides
my phonograph and erophone'
To what use do you expect the phon.
ograph will be putr he was asked
Several he replied. -
i 81 For debating twill take the plac,
of short hand reporters, as thus A mar
who has many letters to write will tall
them to the phonograph, and send tn,
sheets directly to his correspondents
who will lay them ON the phonograpl
and hear what they have to say Sucl
letters as GO to people who have nj
monographs will be copied from th,
machine by the Office boy.feG
.: For reading. A first. t.class elocu
. ZIONIST will read one of Dickens novels
into the phonograph. 1t can oil b.
printed on sheet ten inches square
and these can be multiplied by the mil
lion copies by cheap process of elec
trotyping. These sheets will be solt
for, say, twenty-five cents. A man !,
tired and his wife's ewes are failing, an(
80 they sit around table and hear tn
Telephone read from this sheet the who'll
novel with all the expressions of frst
{ class reader. Seel A company .fo
printing these is already organized il
New York. 50 . ~
: g. 1t will sing in the very voice o
Patti and Kellogg, so that every family
can have an opera any evening.
a. 1t may be used as a musical com
I: poser. When. singing some favorite air
e backward it hits some lovely airs, ant
s believe musician could get one val
8 liable popular melody every day by ex
perimenting in that way.
D Is. 1t may be used to read to inmate
S of blind asylums, or to the ignoran
e who have never learned to read.
e '6 1t may be used to teach languages
and have already sold the right to US
: it to teach children the alphabet. Sup
r pose Stanley had had one and thus OF
n tanned for the world all the dialects Q
central Africa. .,
q. 1t will be used to make toys talk
A company has already organized t
!. make speaking dolls. They will spea
in little girls voice, and will neve
lose the gift any more than little cir
q 81 1t will be used by actors to- lear
} fthe right readings of passages. In fac
Tits utility will be endless
VI What will the phonograph sell for
J. 'We shall charge 500 for machine
= This will limit its sale for the present
II Here is story characteristic of hi
It methods In the development of the al
y tomato telegraph it became necessar
!. to have solution that would give
b chemically prepared paper upon whic
1t the characters could be recorded al
:. speed greater than 200 words minute
There we're numerous solutions
n French books, but none of them enable
= him to exceed that rate. But he had ir
~ vented machine that would exceed j
land must have the paper to match tn
n machine 4 came in one night Johr
a son, an associate Of Edison, says, IAN
J. Ethere sat Edison with pile of ehemis
it tries and chemical books that were fiv
feet high wien they stood on the foo
8 laid one upon the other. He had order
a ed them from New York, london an
y Paris: He studied them night and day
}. He ale at his desk and slept in his chail
e In six weeks he had gone through th
g books. written a volume of abstracts