Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1878-06-27
NEW WONDERs IN ACOUSTICS.
A Machine by which the Footsteps OF
Fly can be Heard.

We appear to be only at the beginning |
of discoveries in the line of the telephone |
and the phonograh. An entirely new |
field of science has been opened; the linn
its of which can not even now be guess
ed. An instrument has been devised that |
bears relation to our capacity for hear
ing, similar TO that whiclthe microscope
does for vision. The new device magni-
fies sound. II is appropriately called the
microphone. By its means, sounds so faint
that they have never before been heard
by human ears, may be made of any de-
gree of loudness. A feathers edge brush
ed over the sounding board of this in
strument, 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 F'a crack noise, of which the
intensity was almost painful to the ear"
The faintest whisper of the human voice
can be reproduced in the loudest tones.
'sThe maiden's sigh may roar like the cat
aract of Niagara
Professor Hughes has given full ac-
count of the microphone to the Royal So
ciety of London, and described the steps
by which he was led to the invention. He
is most widely known in England as the
inventor of a type printing telegraph in
strument which is in general use in that
country. Although he isan accomplished
r electrician, the apparatus which he has
2 EMPLOYED for his new experiments is of
the simplest character, and the most tri-
fling cost. With it he has made the foot
steps of house fly distietly audible; and
all these sounds, after being intensified
E are transmitted to any needful distance,
/. by the ordinary telephone. At a recent
! exhibition 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 the
professor found a fly in the house. With
r yet greater difficulty they caught the in
e sect. But the final trouble was insuI-
J. mountable; the captured fly would stay
q on the glass tumbler that imprisoned
|. him; nothing could induce him to wall
on the sounding board which the tumble
covered. But witness to the scene, de
scribing it in Nature, found consolation
d in watching Prof. Huxley talking Will
+ great solemnity through glass tube TIVE
e inches long, his grave tones being loudly
'e enunciated to listener with telephon
/ in distant apartment.
'e The philosophy of the new inYentiol
is more difficult to explain than is tn
telephone itself. The discovery has beel
made by Prof. Hughes that the vibration
of of sound are reproduced with the great
est delicacy and increased force, by Ger
tain materials interposed in an electri
current. The reproduced sounds gai
their increase of power, doubtless, at tn
expense of the current.
After a large number of experiments
he gives the preference to carbon for thi
= purpose; especially to pieces of charcoa
le that have been heated to whiteness, an
of then plunged into mercury. Thes
e pieces, in one of his experiment, he place
in glass tube, and brought pressur
upon them that squeezed their ends tc
gether. This apparatus was made pal
of of closed electric circuit of three sma
to cups. A bell telephone was then intro
e duced into the circuit, and the Who'll
. thing was complete. All that was nee
essary to do was to talk to the tube eve
at respectful distance from it, and tn
telephone repeated the sound at any dis
ay tance yet tried with loudness depend
K ent only on the pressure of the tube.
This disposes at once of the fear tn;
the telephone was nearing the end of i
usefulness as an instrument for convey
,at ing speech. It is only at the beginning
EST With such means there will be no obst
nd Gle to reporting public speaker or SIM
en- er; no difficulty, in fact, in hearir
M whispers inaudible to unassisted ears.
he All that has ever been imagined as amor
lg- the possibilities of the phonograph or IL
telephone seems now certain to be ou
done. Since the falling of pin can no
be heard at the distance of hundr,
m miles, little will be needed to reali
IS, Hoods metaphor, that Silence herse
W may be making row.