Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-03
THE PHONOGRAPH.
IN INVENTION DIsTANCISG THE
TELEGRAPH.
A Visit to the Instrument at the Labora-
tory of Its Inventor-How It wrk s-Its
Practical Uses.
From the New York Sun. |

From the New York Sun.
The writer visited Menlo Park. N. Y, on
Saturday, to chat with Prof. Thomas A. Edi-
son. This gentleman is the inventor of the
automatic telegraph, quadruplex and sextu.
pick dispatches, the carbon telephone, the
stock Indicator, the electric pen, the ARA
phone, the marvellous speaking photograph
and score or moe of similar machines
He is also the discoverer of the electro.
photograph, by which dispatches may be
telegraphed without magnetism. Scientific
men regard it as his greatest discovery, and
predict that it will some day prove of i'm
mense value.
Menlo Park is small place on the line OF
the New York and Philadelphia railroad
two miles north of Metuchin. Mr.. Edson's
mandatory stands forty rods west of the
depot. The building is a long wooden struc-
ture. Nine lightning rods pierce the sky
above it. The writer entered. A man sat al
table studying a mechanical drawing. An
inquiry for Mr.. Edison drew from him the
words: eco right up stairs, and you'll FIND
him singing into some instrument.
The stairs were climbed, and the write,
stepped into long room forming the second
story. It was an immense laboratory, filled
with electrical instruments. A thousand
jars Of chemicals were ranged against the
walls. Prof. Edison was seated at table
near the centre of the room. He looked
like anything but professor, and reminded
me Of a boy apprentice to an iron moulder
His hands were grimy with SCOT and oil; his
straight dark hair stood nine ways for Sun
day his face was entirely beardless, but
sadly needed shaving; his black clothes
were seedy, his shirt dirty and collarless, anG
his shoes ridged with red Jersey mud; but
the fire of genius shone in his keen gray
eyes, and the clean-cut nostrils and broaC
forehead indicated strong mental activity
He seems to be always looking for something
of great value, and to be just on the point
of finding it. Unfortunately lie is quite
deaf, but this intirmity seems to increase
his affability and playful boyishness. A
man of common sense would feel at home
with him in a minute; but mob or prie
would be sadly out of place. Though but
silvery hair tells the story of his application
The professor was manipulating a machine
upon the table before him. He had some
thing resembling gutta- percha mouth.
piece of a speaking tube showed against &
cylinder wrapped in tinfoil, which he turn.
ed with crank The small end of tin
funnel was clapped over the mouth piece
and strange ventroloquial sounds were isssu-
ing from it. He shook hands and pointing
to the instrument said: .'This is my speak
ing photograph. Did you ever see it and
hear it talk?''
The reply was negative. Thereupon he
picked up the guttapercha mouthpiece, saying
G... !:
phragm. Turn it OVER suiting the action to
at the bottom. Whenever you speak in the
mouthpiece the vibrations Of your voice ja1
this disk, which, as you see, has in it's centre
a fine steel point. Now for the other part OF
the machine. Here is a brass cylinder
grooved something like the spiral part of a
screw. only much finer. | wrap sheet OF
tinfoil around the cylinder, and shove the
mouthpiece up to it SO that the tiny steel
point touches the tinfoil above one of the
grooves. | turn the cylinder with a crank
and talk into the mouthpiece. The vibra
tions arouse the disk, and the steel point
pricks the tinfoil, leaving perforations re-
sembling the old Morse telegraphic alpha
bet. They are really stereoscopic views OF
the voice, recording all that is said, with
time and intonations. It is a nlatrix of the
words and voice. and can be used until worn
out. Now let us reset the cylinder, so that
the steel point may run over the holes OF
alphabet made when we talked in the mouth
piece. The thin, metal disk rises, and. as
the steel point trips from perforation to per-
foration, open the valves of the diaphragm
the words, intonation and accent are pro
duced exactly as spoken. For instance
hnfar r 4,11- ~,
strument, and here is the matrix or stereo-
scopic view, if you please, of what I said, .
putting his finger on the tinfoil which still
remained on the cylinder ..Now l reset
the Instrument sliding the cylinder to the
right. 'sHere the steel point starts at the
same spot as when I talked through the
mouthpiece, but its action is now controlled
by the perforated alphabet. It repeats what
l said. use this sort of an ear trumpet to
bring out the sound, SO you can hear it more
distinctly. Listen
He placed the small end of the funnel
over the mouthpiece, showed the mouthpiece
against the cylinder, and turned the crank,
The following words chased each other out
of the funnel:
Mary had a little lamb.
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go-to go--to go
Ooh ooh ooh-ab!
Cockadoodle doo-ah!
-a-tuck-a-tuck
Tuck-ah! tuck-ah!
The cylinder was again set back, and the
crank turned very slow. The effect was lu-
dicrous. for the professor had originally pro
nounced the words with great gravity and
dignity, and the drawing way in which the
instrument repeated them would have made
a horse laugh. The cylinder was then turned
very fast, and the words flew out of the tun
mel so fast they struck the ear in confused
mass. But a most extraordinary effect was
produced when the professor turned the Gil
inder backward. It said:
Go to sure was lamb the
Went Mary that everywhere and
Snow as white as fleece its,
Lamb little had Mary.
All this with profound gravity. as if the
fate of the world demanded 11non tho .ooo,,4