The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-03-09
Tue TALKIHa.uAcHINY.

THE TALKN6-lACHINE.
An tntervie~ with Edison, the fsiephone
Man-Some Stsries About the M1chine
Which You Can Believe II You Like.
sg tFrom the New York SUM-
The writer visited Menlo Park, n. j :,
on Saturday to chat with Prof. Thomas
A. Edison This gentleman Is the in.
veDtor Of the automatic telegraph, quad
ruplex and sextuplex dispatches. the
carbon telephone, the stock indicator,
the electric pen, the airaphone, the mar
veloas speaking phonograph. and q
score or more of similar machines. He
is also the discoverer of the electro
photograph, by which dispatches may
be telegraphed without magnetism.
Scientific men regard it as his greatest
discovery, and predict that 1t win some
day prove of immense value.
,Menlo Park is a small place on the
line of the New York and Philadelphia
Railroad, two miles north of Metuchin.
MIR. Edison's mandatory stands forty
rods west of the depot. A high bank
shuts out the view from the car, win
dows. The building is long wooden
structure, something like an old-fash-
toned Baptist tabernacle. It faces to the
east. Nine lightning rods pierce the sky
above it. A dozen telegraph wires are
led into it by sentry like poles connect
ing with the main line along the rail-
road The front doors open directly
into the office. The writer entered. A
man sat at d table studying a mechani-
cal drawing. An inquiry for Mr.. Edi-
son drew from him the words. &" Go
right up stairs, and you'll find him sing
ing into some instrument. "
The stairs were climbed, and the
writer stepped into q long room form
ing the second story. 1t was an inn
mense laboratory, filled with electrical
instruments. A thousand jars of chem
icals were ranged against the walls. A
circle of kerosene lamps, was smoking
viciously on an empty brick forge.
Their ehimneys were the essence of
blackness. There was no disagreeable
smell, for the smoke was borne off by
the draft of the forge. An open rack
filled with jars of vitriol stood in the
middle of the room, and the rays Of the
sun struck through them, flecking the
floor with green patches. The western
end of the apartment was occupied by
telephones and other instruments, and
there was small organ in the south
western corner. 4u- ta oEa5 sTFzal
Prof. Edison was seated at o table
near the center of the room. He looked
like any thing but professor, and re-
minded me Of a boy apprentice to an
iron molder.i His hands were gritty
with SCOT and oil; his straight, dark
hair stood nine ways for Sunday; his
face was entirely beardless, but sadly
needed shaving; his black clothes were
seedy, his. shirt dirty and cOllarlesa, and
his shoes ridged with red Jersey mud;
but the fire of genius shone in his keen
gray eyes, and the clean cut nostrils and
broad forehead indicated strong mental
activity. He seems to be always look
ing for something of great value and to
be just on the point OF finding it. I'm
fortunately he is quite deaf, but this in
trinity seems to increase his affability
and playful boyishness. A man with
common sense would feel at home with
him in minute; but d mob or prig
would be sadly out of place. Though
but thirty-one years old, the occasional
CLEAN of silvery hair tells the story of
his application.
The professor was manipulating a
machine upon the table before him. He
had something resembling a gutta per-
cha mouth-piece of a speaking. tube
showed against a cylinder wrapped in
tin-foil, which he turned with a crank.
The small end of tin funnel was clap.
ped over the mouth-piece, and strange
ventriloquial sounds were issuing from
it. He shook hands, and pointing to
the instrument said: "This is my
speaking phonograph. Did you ever
see and hear II. talkP" tlf --'eI -lal. 81.
The reply was a negative. There
upon he picked up the gutta percha
saying, s'This mouth-piece
is simply an artificial diaphragm. Turn
it over,' suiting the action to the word,
" and you see this thin disk of metal at
the bottom. Whenever you speak in
the mouth-piece the vibrations of your
voice jar this disk, which, as you see,
has in its center q fine steel point. Now
for the other part of the machine. Here
is brass cylinder, grooyed something
like the spiral part of a screw, only
much finer. / wrap q sheet of tin-foil |
around the cylinder, and shove the |
up to it so that the tiny
steel point touches the tin foil above one
of the grooves. Then turn the cylin-
der with q crank, and talk into the |
The vibrations arouse
the disk, and the steel point pricks the |
tin-foil, leaving perforations resembling
the old Morse telegraphic alphabet. |
They are really microscopic views of !
the voice., recording all that is
said, with time and intonations. 1t |
is matrix of the words and voice, and |
can be used until worn out, Now let |
Us reset the cylinder, so that the steel |
point may run over the holes or alpha |
bet made when we talked in the mouth
piece. The thin, metal disk rises and,
- the steel point trips from perforation /
70 perforation, opening the valves of
he diaphragm, the words, information,
and accent are reproduced exactly as
spoken. For instance, before you came
up, was talking to the instrument, and
here is the matrix or stereoscopic view,
t you please, of what i said," putting
his finger on the tinfoil which still re-
NAMED on the cylinder. "Now reset
he instrument, :" sliding the cylinder to
he right. " Here the steel point starts I
It The same point when I talked through
he mouthpiece, but its action is now
by the perforated alphabet.
t repeats what said. 1 use this sort
# an ear-trumpet to bring out the
ound, so that you can hear it more dis
inctly. Listen" ''.' 80
He placed the small end of the funnel
yer the mouthpiece, showed the mouth
'iece against the cylinder, and turned
he crank. The following words chased