The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-07-11
THE pHoN0GRAPH.
How 1t is operated-Tin Foil Speaking Like
q Human Being.

How 1t is operated-Tin Foil Speaking Like
| q Human Being.
I We copy the following fine description
of the phonograph from the atlanta Con-
stitltiot!.
The phonograph is here at last. And
Atlanta, recovering from the mortifca-
ton that seized her when she found that
Augusta and Macon had seen it before,
is lifting her eyes slowly and looking at
its wonders.
WHAT THE PHoNoGRAPH Is.
The phonograph is, to all appearance.
simply piece Of iron roller mounted on
a windlass. 1t is surmounted by
mouthpiece, inside of which are arrayed
g, few needles. just underneath three
needles, wrapped closely around the
roller, Is sheet of tin foil.
The voice of the man who speaks to the
monograph shouts in this mouthpiece.
The waves of his voice, striking against
the needles, impinge them against the
tin foil and make little perforations
THEREIN. The roller must be turned
slowly and regularly as the voice is pour
ed in through the mouthpiece. When it
lis desired to reproduce the voice, the
phonograph is turned and the WORDS are
sounded distinctly and in fac-simile. :,
THE RESULT OF THE EXPERIMENTS.
There is no doubt that the phonograph
exceeded the expectations of those who
saw it. The experiments made succeed
ed wonderfully. The first words spoken
to it were these "Mr. Phonograph, will
you talk?" A breathless pause succeed
ed. this question. The operator then
turned the roller steadily, and from the
depths ofthe phonograph came the words,
| in ghost-like, metallic tones, "Mr. Phon-
ograph, will you talk 2" There was
something actually uncanny about it.
The few spectators looking wonderingly
lin each others faces, and Harris turned
| pale to the roots of his hair, which was
pretty pale. 1t almost surpassed belief,
that this instrument could so reproduce
the sounds OF; the human voice.
IT,. The operator then lbarked in it,. and
when he turned the. crank you would
have thought chat he was turning it
over the toes of an imprisoned dog. He
sung into it, and the tune was reproduced
with startling distinctness, with all the
Infections a coronet solo that was
poured into the instrument from the lips
of some musical .MaconiIe, was then re-
'produced, and gave great delight to the
crowd. The song of. sold Uncle Ned"
was then sung TO the foil and a tune
whistled in over it. The song and the
whistle were then reproduced simulta-
neously. The marvellous instrument
then crowed, prayed, laughed, whooped,
coughed, and issued every-sound that the
human voice was capable of suggesting
Ito it. y .o,sf,.s ;rs 8, y. mi +
The tones of the voice are perfectly re-.
lproduced, and the accent memorably
preserved, but the volume of the voice is
much less than in nature. The ,gutteral
sounds are occasionally indistinct, but
words spoken into it clearly can be heard
across a large room very plainly. i
:; Professor William. Henry Peck spoke
q Shakspesrian. quotation into the phon-
ograph, and every sound of his voice was
reproduced with perfect distinctness,
even the catches that he purposely threw
lin being duplicated. In pronouncing
1.-The word arat" he rolled his "r's" and the
machine, in reproducing the word, would
have made a Frenchmau ashamed of
himself: The machine is q veritable
wonder, and every citizen of Atlanta
should be sure and see it:
F. ''.'''' 4 100000 LIFT. :,
There are no monographs for sale.
There are only forty in existence, all of
tthem being used for exhibition pur-
poses. Ofthese twenty-five are in Amer
4 lea and fifteen in Europe. The right to
4 exhibit them has been,sold at enormous
prices. The one in Boston sold for S10,-
600, and it is probable that every one
| drought this much. If this is so, the
First 40 machines will yield the inventor
| 100000.
Edison was born in America, about three
months after his parents reached this
country. He was very poor fer the most
of his life, and it is said that he had
livery little business talent. He failed
1 once, however, for about $500, 900, which
argues avery good order Of talent. He is
now worth probably million dollars.
HE has an annual income from the
| Western Union Telegraph Company of
| $56,000 for certain inventions of his that
they are now using. The Western
Union Company has agreed to take 12,-
600 of these machines as soon as they
are perfected, and to pay him S126, 900
per annnm for the. use of them. Their
idea is to combine them with telephones,
and Bpeak dispatches instead of sending
them through instruments. Edison has
now III patents, every one of which is
connected with telegraphy or electricity,
every one of which yields him some in
come. ~
In'Augusta, MIR. Morey succeeded in
having nine languages spoken into the
machine, and in Savannah eleven Ian
guages were spoken. Atlanta must de-
] cidedly outdo these towns. Prof. Peck
| has already led off with some English,
Irish, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish,
Italian, Hebrew, Chinese, Indian, and
nigger. a half dozen languages can
doubtless be added to these.
THE USES TO WHICH THE PHoNoeRAPH
can be put are infinite. The proprietors
propose to print books upon tin foil. A
single sheet Of foil will takela book OF
400 pages, and it can be read of to a
family instead of them having to read it.
| A book done up this way will sost only
10 cents.
The machine will do away with steno-
lgraphic reporters. 1t is now so perfec-
/ ted that it can be set nine feet of from a
speaker and drink in and record every
word and infection that he!uses, so that
it can be. unwound at pleasure. I, II is al
ready being put in clocks so. that they
will cali ont the hours instead of striking
them. 1t can call out instructions at
! any time of the day 50 that a person can
| be reminded of what he must do.
| Aspeaker. can have his thoughts bot
! tied up and distributed at pleasure. A
lecturer can speak his lecture in it and
have it wound simultaneously in a doz-
en- cities. An opera troupe can sing an
| onera in IL. and manager can then car