The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-06-27
New Wonders Of the Telephene.

An entirely new field of science has,
been opened by the discoveries in the
line of the phonograph and telephone.s
The limit can hardly be guessed ct.
The latest thing is the invention OF an
instrument that bears the same relation
to our capacity for hearing that the mir
croscope aor telescope does,ato vision.
The new device magnifies sound It is
appropriately call the nlicroph By
its means, sounds so faint that they have,
never before been heard by human ears
may be made of any degree of louttness.
A feathers edge, brushed over the
sounding-board of this instrument, has
been made to crash upon the ears Of the
listeners. The touch of the tip of o
camel's-hair brush was the occasion OF
6 a cracking noise, of which the inten-
sity was almost painful to the ear"
The faintest whisper of the human voice
can be produced in the loudestl tones.
Prof. d. f. Hughes, the inventor of
type printing telegraph instrument, is
the inventor of g. microphone, of which
he has given full account to the Royal
Society of London, and the steps by
which he was led, up to the invention.
The apparatus which he has employee
his new experiments is of the simplest
character, and the most trifling cost.
With it he has made the footsteps of
house fly distinctly audible; and All
these sounds, after being intensified, ARE
transmitted to any needful distancesby'
the ordinary telephone. Alta recent ex-l
hibition Of these experiments to q few
scientific friends in London, all the as
tonishing effects that have been referred
to were easily produced, except the fly
performance. With great difficulty
(says Nature) the philosophers found q
fly in the house. With greater difficult
ty they caught the insect. But the final
trouble was insurmountable; the cap
tured fly would stay on the glass-tumsi
bier that imprisoned him; nothing could
induce him to walk on the soui1ding~
board which the tumbler covered. Ma
ture states that Prof. Hughes has dis
covered that the yibrationsOfs sound are
reproduced, with the greatest delicacy
and increased force, by certain materi-
ais interposed in an electric circuit.
| The reproduced sounds gain their in
crease of power, doubtless, at the ex-
pense of the current After large
number Of experiments, he gives
the ~ preference to carbon for this
purpose-especially to-, pieces Of
charcoal that have been heated
to whiteness, and then plunged into
mercury. These pieces, in one OF his
experiments, he placed in q glass tube.
and brought pressure upon them that
squeezed their ends together This ap-
paratus was made part of a closed cleo
tric circuit of three small cups. A Bell
telephone was then introduced into the
circuit, and the whole thing was. COM
plete. All that was necessary to do was
to talkto the tube, even at d respectful
distance from it, and the telephone re-
peated the sound, at any distance yet
tried, with q loudness dependent only
on the pressure in the. tube. This in
vention viii enable the telephone to do
all that was hoped for it, and what it
was feared it never could accomplish.
AS an exchange remarks: HT'his dis
poses at once of the fear. that the tele-
phone was nearing the end of it's useful
ness as an instrument of conveying
speech. 1t is only at the beginning.
With such means there will be no OBJ
stacle to reporting public speaker OF
singer; no difficulty, in fact, in hear
/ ing whispers inaudible to 5unassisted
ears" s..,- .5-fss a..1s es.ef 40