The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1878-06-14

An entirely new field OF science ha
been opened by the discoveries in tn.
line Of the phonograpL and telephone
The limit can hardly be guessed at
The latest thing Is the invention OF al
instrument that bears the same relation
TO our capacity for hearing that the mi.
croscope or telescope does to vision.
The new device magnifes sound; il Il
appropriately call the microphone. BY
ITS means, sounds so faint that they have
never before been heard by human ears
may be made of any degree of lou,lness.
A feathers edge, brushed over the
sounding aboard Of this instrument, has
been made TO crash upon the ears Of the
listeners. The touch Of the tip Of a
camel's-hair brush was the occasion Of
"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 loudest tones.
Prof. ID. Il. Hughes, the inventor OF a
type-printing telegraph instrument, is
the inventor Of microphone, of which
he has given a full account to the Royal
Society Of London, and the steps Dy
which he was led up TO the invention.
Theapparatus which he has employed for
his new experiments is Of the simplest
character, and the most tritling cost.
With II he has made the footsteps of
house fly distinctly audible and all
these sounds, after being intensified, ARE
transmitted to any needful distance by
the ordinary telephone. At recent ex-
hibtion of these experiments to 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 a
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-tum-
bier that imprisoned him; nothing could
induce him to walk on the sounding
board which the tumbler covered. Ma
ture states that Prof. Hughes has dis
covered that the vibrations Of 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
CT ease 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
20 wilderness, and then plunged into
mercury. These pieces, in one OF his
he placed in a glass tube,
md brought pressure upon them that
squeezed their ends together. This APP
oaratus was made part Of closed cleo
ric circuit Of three small cups. A Bell
telephone was then introduced into the
circuit, and the whole thing was COM
,lete. All that was necessary TO do was
o talk to the tube, even ut respectful
distance from it, and the telephone re-
'eated the sound, at any distance yet
ried, with loudness dependent only
N the pressure in the tube. This in
ention will enable the telephone to do
II that was hoped for it, and what il
vas feared il never could accomplish.
Is An exchange remarks; This dis
'oses at once Of the fear that the tele-
hone was nearing the end Of its useful
ess as an instrument Of conveying
peech. Ii Is only at the beginning
With such means there will be no OBJ
tacle to reporting public speaker or
niger; no difficulty, in fact, in hear
~ whispers inaudible to unassisted
ars."