The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-05-03
EBENSBURG, PA, FRIDAY, MAY g. 1878

pressively than ever, that il is no preToga-
tive of the living organism to respond to
these subtle and exquisite changes of air
the inert, dead matter OF which we hear so
much-mere cold iron--will do exactly the
same thing. When we begin to use tele-
phone for the first time there is a seEse of
oddity, almost of fOoliShness, III the exper-
iment. The dignity of talk ing consists in
having a listener, and there seems kind of
absurdity i'll addressing piece of iron, but
we must raise our respect for the metal,
for it is anything but deaf. The dia-
phragm of the telephone, the thin iron
plate, is as sensitive as The living tympanum
to all the delicate Tefiuements IF sound.
Nor does it depend upon the thinuess of
the metallic sheet, for piece of thick boil
er plate will take up and transmit the mo-
tions Of the air particles in all the grades
of their subtlet And not only will 1t do
the same thing as the tympanum, but 1t
viii do vaslly more the gross. dead metal
proves, in fact, to be hundred times more
alive than the living mechanism of speech
aud auttion.
This is no eXaggeration. In quickness,
in accuracy and even in grasp, there is a
perfection of sensitive capacity in the metal
with which the organic instrument cannot
compare, We speak of the proverbial
ssquickness of thought, but the telephone
thinks quicker than the nervous mechan-
ism. Let word be pronounced for a per-
son to repeat, aud the telephone will hear
and speak it hundred miles away in a
tenth part of the time that the listener
would need to utter it. Give a%nan a
series of half dozen notes To repent, aud
he cannot do it accurately to save his life
but the iron plate takes them MP, transmits
them TO anotheItplate hundreds of miles off,
which rings them forth iustantaHeously
with absolute precision. The human ma
chine can hear aud reproduce III its poor
way only single series of notes, while the
iron ear of the telephone will take up whole
cords and strains of music, aud sending by
lightning through the wire, its iron tongue
will emit them in perfect relations of har-
mony. The coTelaLiOns and tranSfOrma-
tions of impulse are, besides. much Roie
extended i'll the telephone than in The living
structure.
The voiitional mandate from the brain
incites nervous discharges, expended in
producing muscular contractions, that i'm
pei the air across the vibrating chords,
where it is thrown into waves. But IN thc
case of the telephone, the air waves are
spent in producing mechanical vibrations
of the metal. These create magnetic dis
turbances which excite electrical action IL
the wire, and this again gives rise to mag
netic changes that are still further conveI l.
ed into the tTemOrs of the distant dia
pbragms ana these Hnaliy redppear as new
trains of air waves that affecs the listener
while the RhOls intermediate series %
changes is executed in a fraction of tht
time that is required by the nervous com
binationS of speech. And not only does the
telephone beat the living machine out q
sight in speed, accuracy, compass ofresult
and mul' iplcity of dynamical changes
but it distances in the simplficatioE of it
resources. The same bit of dead meta
serves equally for both ear and tongue. =
The offices of the Giaphram are interchang
able, and the machine works backward
with exactly the same facility.