Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-04-24
tFrom our Regular correspondent.)-
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, April 20.

gathering of the National Academy oil
Sciences " at the Smithsonian Institution,
and the arrival of Mr.. Edison, the famous
inventor. with his photograph, which he
exhibited yesterday at the Capitol to an
admiring throng of senators and mem
beers. Mr.. Edison received an invitation.
BY telegraph, to attend the meetings at
the Smithsonian, and brought with him
his marvellous instrument, which is, sure
enough, wonderful invention. When he
took it up to the Capitol some of the more
skeptic among our Solons shook their
heads doubtingly and predicted that II
such things as claimed for the monograph
were possible, then the world would GER
tainly not stand long; but others, with
more faith in the possibilities of the nine
teenth century, elbowed the throng to get
near enough to the instrument and get a
chance to test it. Mr.. Edison first ex-
planned the principles upon which the
monograph operates. and then went
through number Of practical tests, such
rs whistling. singing, growing, talking diff
ferent sentences, etc., all of which the
monograph repeated with wonderful ac-
curacy The only two instances in which
it failed to repeat distinctively the ques-
ton put to it was when Senator Howe
said something into the mouthpioce, to
which the only answer that came back was
" Bow, wow!" But then. perhaps the
senator had only been barking. The other
failure was when, in reply to a whisper
by General Butler into the machine, the
single word "Spoons!" rang out clear
and distinct from the little black cylinder,
with metallic sound in the very utter
ance that has something significant in it.
AS possibly many of your readers now
hear of the photograph for tho first time,
will endeavor to describe this wonderful
machine in few words: 1t is composed
of cylinder, on which appear spiral
grooves, and which is connected with a
crank by which it may be turned, and a
diaphragm over the cylinder, showing on
the outer side mouthpiece, and on the
inner side fine steel point. The cylinder
is covered with tin.foil and set in motion.
If no words had been spoken, the steel
point would merely have pressed the tin
foil into the grooves of the cylinder, and
formed regular indentation. But the
words spoken into the mouthpiece caused
vibration in the steel point, as it indented
the tin-foil. When the machine was
reversed and the steel point placed where
it commenced its journey, as the cylinder
again revolved, the same vibrations were
produced in the steel which originally
caused the indentations, and were trans
lated into sound-waves and spoken from
the mouthpiece. When words were utter
ed in the mouthpiece, the sound-wave
caused vibration in the needle or steel
point and indentations in tine tin foil.
When the steel point was again passed
over the indented tin-foil, precisely the
original vibrations were produced, which
by reverse process were converted into
and issued from the mouth
piece as speech. Thus the process was
entirely mechanical. Into the mouthpiece
of the inrtrument Mr.. Edison's assistant
sang and shouted and whistled and crow
ed, and in few minutes the same sounds
hoated out upon the air, faint but distinct.
q" declare" said one who had heard it
before, it sounds more like the devil
every time!" There was something
weird and uncanny about the little ma
chine as it expressed itself in articulate
Ian guage, and more than one little girl in
the audience crept up closer to her pro-
tector as the awful hush that preceded the
monographs remarks was broken by its
far off utterances. Senator Ransom seemed
particularly delighted, and asked Mr.. Edi-
son whether he could invent machine
that would pick cotton automatically. Il
believe could" Mr.. Edison replied; and
in answer to question by Senator Conk-
ling, he said that he had taken out one
hundred and fifty eight patents and eighty
six caveats on different inventions.
The Daily Union newspaper, edited by
Mr.. Lynch, was, on Tuesday last, merged
into the Daily Post, democratic daily
ably edited by Mr.. A. c. Buell.. The latest
bon mot in newspaper row is, therefore.
that the Union was lqnchcd! 1t was a
republican paper, supporting the Hayes
administration.
Among the applications received at the
pension Office yesterday was one from
Captain Harry Ward of Sackett's Harbor,
N. Y, aged one hundred and one years,
who served in the United States navy in
the war of 1912, taking prominent part
in the battle of Sackett's Harbor, where he
was three times wounded, which laid him
up for good, and he has resided there ever
since.
The reported interview of New York
World reporter with Senator Conklina
created considerable of stir here, and
the Utica senator has been compelled te
hire two men, armed with shot guns, and
stationed them at his door to keep of
other interviewers and intruders generally
While he does not explicitly deny thu
published statement,in which he expressed
himself with considerable animadversior
against the administration, yet on tn,
other hand, he does not admit it, and pub
lie opinion hangs suspended between
Ives " and "no," as did Mahomet's cot
fin between Heaven and earth. 1t is
however, pretty well settled by this tint
that Mr.. Conkling cannot, by any manner
of means, be classed among the admin err
of Mr.. Hayes or his policy; so that more
are inclined to believe his pungent utter.
ances about the administration, as reported
by the World man, than can be found tc
disbelieve them.
Dr." Mary Walker, the famous female
dress reformer and advocate of pantaloon
| r H.. ,o,>,o 81 ,,,o,,,n.