Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-05-01
Men and Affairs at washineton.

Editorial Correspondence Gate City,
i We saw great crowd of ladies
ana gentlemen in the senate room OF
the committee on Patents, and We
joined the throng. There were oil
the Senators of the committee, and
more House members were coming
IN eager curiosity. There was Con.
ger, OF Michigan, with his fine cut and
concentrate face of mingled power
and querulousness. There was Gov
~. u. Cox, with his frank, manly
modest, straightforwardness and
strictness written in every feature
There were masculine press CORES.
pondents and feminine as well. And
what was it all aboutp Why, it was
curiosity and instructive homage to q
man who hae done something worth
the doing, At an unpretentious lit
tie machine, small cylinder turned
by handle, sort of combination OF
. fluting iron and coffee mill, is a
lyoung man of thirty, smooth faced
and beardless, medium size, average
head, low, square forehead with q
little arch over ideality, plain features
a gentle mouth, good strong nose,
shy and unassuming, but speaking
when he speaks with the quiet posit-
iveness of the man who has ideas back
of his words and has q right to his
0plnions-that's Edison the inventor
Of the photograph. And he is Civ
ing the Senate committee illustrations
of the workings Of it. He is just such
. young man a. you might pick out
in any machine shop or factory, or
store or Office anywhere. Yet he has
put himself by his work in the compa-
ny of the immortals. Apart from the
self.poise and quiet confidence that
pervades him when explaining his
work, tbs curious to see the unsoph-
isticatedness and incompleteness of
the man when he gets off of that
That is his right hand and he knows
it. As to that he is all mems master
and so walks and talks to them with
authority. But this being center of
personal remark, this familiar and
inquisitive contact with Senators and
notables--this is his left hand, and he
has not mastered that. And so It's
odd to see how, when his assistant
has taken the instrument and the
work off of his bands, the inventor
falls back into q state of shy and APP
pealing helplessness, rs though he
would like to be out Of this crowd of
pretentious folks and safe by himself
with his shop and his tools and his
inventions. The wonder that his
work has caused is wonder to him
and . revelation, one largely mixed
with pleasure, too, and he breaks into
Ia pleased, boyish, modest, self-con-
scious, but sincere little beginning of
a laugh, occasionally, at the thought
of what noise in the world this
work Of his hand is making. We
didn't attend closely to the modes of
the machines working. But it's very
simple: tin-foil is placed upon the
cylinder smoothly. Then while the
cylinder is revolvcd the operator
talks down upon the foil by tube
A speaking tube is then affixed, the
handle turned and the words spoken
upon the foil are ground out in q
lower key, but perfectly audible aud
giving every note of varying articu-
latiOn of the original speech. 1t does
not as alleged, reproduce the sound
of the speakers voice. 1t would be
impossible to detect any resemblance
between the individual voice of the
person speaking aud the reproduced
speech But it does give the varia-
tons of pitch, etc. Upon one piece of
foil, spoken with all possible varia-
ton of voice wasimpressed the cluck
of hen, the crow of chanticler,
slack and Jill went up the HILL"
"Mary had little lamb" "Oh, say
Mr.. Telephone, do you think you can
be so improved as to learn to auto
matically pick cotton? Why. of
counsel" at is just as easy as talk
ing this way from tin foil" And the
piece was put in the cylinder and
ground off SUCCESSFULLY and audibly
to all present these successive express
sions with a comicalness Of utterance
that would be fortune to the end
man of minstrel show.