Connecticut western news., 1878-05-02
THE WONDERFUL INVENTOR.
What the Young Man Edison the Wonder
 of the Ago Is Doing. F

of the Ago Is Doing. rF
 Edison, the inventor, was here the other day, says Herald Washington correspondent, to show his photograph and his carbon telephone to the Academy of Sciences. He is a young man, only thirty one years of age, from Ohio. He appears to have been born an inventor, having made his first invention when he was but twelve years of age. In 1863 he was train boy on Michigan railroad. In the fall of that year he began to work as telegraph operator, and two months later he brought to the manager of tn
 office in which he was employed g plan for a duplex telegraph arrangement which he had studied out for himself.
 His first recorded invention, for which, however, he did not take out patent,
 was published by him in the Telegraph Joprnal in 1868, and was also for du- plex. His first application for 8 patent here was in connection with the gold and l stock teIegraphs, and he has about fifty patents on record connected with that I system, and his was in an important re- | spect the first successful invention. He is now noted man at the Patent office,
 where his inventions recorded number about 150. ~- '' ,- ,..-- --.' @..
 The telephone, aerophone and phono-
 graph have, absorbed him for some time. 1 He has made important improvements
 in the first named instrument. The
 photograph for practical use he is now
 completing, and in three or four months
 the practical machine, which is, to con-
 sist of flat disk instead of. the cylinder now used, will be put in the market. ] He anticipates that it wild be in demand
 among merchants who have large cor
 respondence a man may read his mail,
 and as he reads speak his replies toseach
 letter at once into the photograph, which
 will work at set speed by aclock ar
 engagement When all is done the, in Eestrument will be turned over to a clerk,
 who, setting the clockwork to go more
 slowly, will copy from it's dictation. It
 is also suggested that skilled readers
 will be employed to read novels and
 oth her works into photograph, and the
 i'm pressions, be1ng duplicated cheaply
 and made permanent, may then be sold
 for the use of tie blind or for persons
 who wish to spare their eyes, and for
 whom the photograph will read aloud
 at the freside. It is said that clock company in Connecticut has already
 bought of MT. Edison the right to use a
 form of photograph which is to be
 oheaply applied to clocks, which will then call out the hours and half hours ins tead of striking. There can be nc
 dopbt that. the photograph will be g boon to the blind. , r........ Ike aerophone is an instrument in \ tended to increase very greatly the vol ume of the human voice. It is more in. gehious than the photograph. IF z
 ste eam whistle or an organ pipe is placed delicate valve controlling the supply of the steam or air. This valve is con nected with a diaphragm similar to thai used in the photograph and telephone and the vibrations of the diaphragm cause movements in the valve, which , opens and closes in exact aceordanc. with the vibrations of the human voice communicated to the diaphragm; throws the steam or air into similar vibrations and thus reproduces the words spoken In fact it gives the speaker additional wind, and it would be very useful tc
 members of the House of Represents
 tives, whose hall is one of the most try
 ing in the world to the voice and throat
 It is curious that the tin foil produced in @ photograph may be applied and used in an aerophone, and will cause the steam whistle to give out the words
 which the photograph has recorded
 The possible abuses of this machine are
 so evident that Edison has already had
 offers from eager advertisers who wani to use it to shout out the merits of theil wares to whole county at time, and ] if the inventor should let it fall into reck
 less hands we may see special sessions ot State Legislatures called this summer tc
 put down what might easily become ar , intolerable nuisance. Its legitimate E uses are for fog signals and steamships and possibly railroad trains.
 r It is said that the photograph wat 5 suggested to Edison by remark of Gen eral Butler, who, examining telephone said to the inventor :7.s sr-.. {" Now you must make something te 5 record these sounds"
 At the Smithsonian Institute the othe1 day Edison saw 8 phonautograph, { } machine used for delireating graphically the form of the sound waves, and exam ming it curious1y moment he remarked to friend:
 :'Wise men, these were, not to set that they could put hard point and { piece of tinfoil in front of it and there was the phonograph."
 He was asked by Southern Senator l here whether he could not invent ma 3 chine to pick cotton, and replied that he l "thought so" Later on the same day , a person watching the operations of the photograph said:
 't Edison, wonder if you couldn' ! talk hole through Q board.
 , "Of course could," was the reply 7 and he took a slip of paper and rapidly a stretched the point of the phonograpl : in connection with small ratchet wheel 8 which, in it's turn by proper eogs con 8, nected with gimlet. Thus every
 vibration of the membrane of the phon ograph, instead of propelling the poin f against the tinfoil, would push the l. ratchet wheel forward and turn the giln 8 lot o,od a m a1a 1.o11ld act11 ally he ahIn t1