The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-05-25
THE PHONOGRAPH.
AN INFORMAL EXHIBITION or IT'S CApABIrI
TIES YESTERDAY.

TIES YESTERDAY.
An exhibition Of Eddison's speakinp
photograph was given in the First Metho-
dist church to the members of the Chicago
press association and their friends. At
o'clock Mr.. George II. Bliss introduced the
phonograph, giving short sketch of the
circumstances of its invention as we'll AS
some interesting anecdotes and incidents in
the career of the inventor. The machine
itself was placed upon table in full view
of the audience. II is about as large as u
cigar box, and is composed of cylinder
covered with sheet Of tin foil, a diaphragm
composed OF thin sheet of metal and q
needle which by the vibration of air caused
by the voice, indents the sheet of tin foil
while the crank is turned. When the SEN
tence, or song, or rhyme, or whatever it is
intended to reproduce is ended, the crank
is turned back to the starting point, and
sound is reproduced strongly resembling
the creak,ng Of a rusty hinge, but still
bearing the sembancc to the original
sound, if you happen to know what it was.
After explaining its workings Mr. Bliss
applied his mouth to the diaphragm and
amid a breathless silence on the part of the
audience shouted '
Hello, Is this monograph"
"les, sir, this is "A funny graf came
from the machine like the wall of sick
puppy.
A ripple Of laughter and establishment
swept over the audience like summer
breeze over wheat field.
Ladies' and gentlemen" said Mr.. Bliss,
Il will now repeat few lines of poetry and
begin with the we'll known couplet, written
by VIII is-name:
Man want. but little here below,
Nor want that little long
Turning back the crank and starting in
afresh, came back the answer
"sam wants but little here below,
Blu, when he does he wants II bad.
~ will now said Mrs Bliss, repeat few
nur.ery hymns, rs the machine is yet in its
infancy:
Hickory dickory. dock,
The mouse run mp q clock,
The clock struck one and down he run
Hickory. dckory, dock
Every pair Of ears were bent forward to
hear the reply, which came as follows:
Hickory dlckory. dock.
McCrra sold the journal clock;
The tayl-t j. fat oh, what are you att
Hickory, dickory, dock
Kid gloves were softly patted through
ont the audience, and whispered eNclama-
tions were heard of wonderful >" witch
craft" etc.
The next exhibition of the powers of the
monograph consisted in the reproduction
of the sounds contained in the following
| familiar lines:
| MARY had a little lamb
| It. fleece was white ~ snow.
| And ever where that Mary went
| The lamb wa. sure 10 90
With singular fidelity the answering
chord was struck as follows:
'.John-on had little mule,
| And how that mule would laugh
SO johnson traded OF the mule
| To buy phondgraph.
To test the power of the new invention
in the reproduction of music, a stan2a of Il
familiar hymn was sung as follows.
! Yankee doodle came to town
| Upon little pony.
He stuck a feather Ia his bat
And called II maccIroni."
A fresh sheet of tin-toi was put on, end
the notes reproduced as follows
| yankee doodle hat cat
| And she was fu OF frOlic
And every time she caught rat
You'd think she had the collie
A cornet player was then brought on the
stage, and he blew the stirring strains of
Yankee Doodle ina thin funnel until he
was black IN the face; and the phonograph
reproduced the music with the addition Of
a bass drum, "a pair OF cymbals and the
whole paraphernalia of a first class brass
band about to start upon Sunday picnic.
Various Ter tests were given, among
them the experiment of laughing heartily
with the mouth placed firmly against the
plate, and the machine giving it back as Il
ghostly giggle; to count from one to twenty,
and to call off the names Of prominent
firms, all Of which were reproduced in u
manner to be recognized by those who knew
what was coming.
Seriously, however, the principal is there,
and there is no doubt that some time in the
future, when it shall be perfected, the phon-
ograph may he ranked among the wonder
tul inventions of the age.