The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-03-15
SEMINOLE

uuNtNN iioth iCuNt buu upon 1IluulTy tnlS
was not found to be an isolated case.
SEMINOLE.
Bottled Talk.
A SPEAKING PHoNoaRApH AT WORK.
Shouting How to Stereotype Your Vocal liter
rance. Making a Plate from Which Per-
feet Reproduction Of Your Speech can be
had achen You are in the Graue.
Were the veracious Munchausen in attend.
ance at an exhibition which was given lately
in the Philadelphia Local Telegraph Com
panys Office, Third and Chestnut streets, of
Professor Thomas A. Edison's marvellous in
vention called the speaking phonograph, he
might have triumphantly said 81 told you
SO" with reference to at least one of his
yarns-the story Of his journey by post from
st. Petersburg during a winter of uncon-
mon severity. Finding myself in narrow
lane" he narrates, 81 babe the position give
signal with his horn that other travellers
might not meet us in the narrow passage. He
blew with all his might, but his endeavors
were in vain he could not make the horn
sound, which was unaccountable and rather
unfortunate, for soon we found another coach
coming the other way" After telling how
he got the vehicle and horses around the OBJ
structing team, by carrying them under his
arm one at time, over the fence, through
part Of the field, and then over the fence
again, the conscientious traveller continues
I'VE arrived at the inn where my lpostilon
and l refreshed ourselves. He hung the
horn on peg near the kitchen fire sat on
the other side. Suddenly we beard tereng J.!
tereng! teng! teng! We now looked
around and now found the reason the postil-
ion had not been able to sound his horn !;
his tunes were frozen in it, and came out by
thawing, plain enough, and much to the
credit of the driver, so that the honest fellow
entertained us for some time with success
sive variety of tunes without putting his
mouth to the horn"
Yesterdays exhibition, to say the least,
was equally as remarkable as the one de-
scribed by Baron Munchausen. 1t demon
strated to the entire satisfaction of some of
Philadelphia's most intelligent citizens, who
we're present by invitation of Mr.. Henry II.
Bentley, president of the Local Telegraph
Company, that person can, so to speak,
bsttle up any quantity of his vocal utterance,
and, at the end of an indefinite period of
tims, cause the "bottle" to reproduce it ex-
actly as it originally came from his lips.
WHAT THE THING Is.
The instrument was operated sometimes
by Mr. Bentley, but principally by MrJames
Adams, the inventors representative. Mr..
Adams, highly.intelligent Scotchman, with
strongly-msrked Scotch accent in his
speech, has been for five years the assistant
of Professor Edison in the latter's electrical
and other experiments. The machine Oc-
cupied no more space than would Webstsr's
Unabridged, and its construction appeared
almost as simple as that Of housewives
coffee mill. 1t was a fac simile OF one which
Professor Edison is now constructing, and
which is to have a capacity of forty.eight
thousand words.
Mr.. Adams, before the performance began,
thus explained the instrument: an this
guttapercha mouthpiece is a very thin dia-
phragm, made of tin-type metal. The vibra-
tions of the voice jar the diaphragm. which
has in its centre, underneath, a fine steel
point. Around this brass cylinder, which,
you see, is closely and finely grooved by
spiral, wrap sheet of tin foil. shove
the mouthpiece up until the steel point
touches the tin foil, just above the first
groove on the left. Turning the cylinder
with this crank / talk into the mouthpiece.
The diaphragm vibrates, points perforate
the tin foil, leaving, little holes of different
dsmeters and resembling the old Morse tel.
egraphic alphabet. The cylinder moves
from left to right until the steel point has
gone over the entire length of the spiral.
Thus we have, as it were, a stereotype plate
of the voice. From this plate mstrix in
sulphur 1.-THE most desirable substance for
the purpose) can be formed, and years from
now there can be taken from that matrix
other plates capable ofthat same work which
you will presently see this one perform.
COMING OUT OF THE "BoTTLE."
Now turn the cylinder back to the
starting place, in order that the steel point
may go over the perforalions which it made
when talked into the mouthpiece. The
steel point, kept down by rubber spring
underneath the diaphragm, trips from hole
to hole, causing the diaphragm 10 to yibrate
as it did when was talking into the mouth
piece. This causing a corresponding open
ing and closing of the valves of the dia-
phragm the words, intonation and accent
are reproduced with perfect accuracy. 1t
would be impossible for human mimic to
do 1t 30 well. The small end of ,his tin
funnel is fixed in the mouthpiece to keep
the reproduction from scattering. Now, list.
en-" Several gentlemen, evidently supposing
that they would not be able to hear without
having their ears close to the funnel, were
putting their heads near the instrument, bul
Mr.. Adams told them that such proceed.
ing was unnecessary, as they could distin.
guish the sounds well enough at distance
Mr.. Adams, having wrapped sheet of tin
foil around the cylinder. spoke into the
mouthPiece in voice of ordinary pitch and
time, but with distinct articulation, mean
while slowly and regularly turning the crank,
! the following