The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1878-04-30
Correspondence NcW To,L: Mri,d.1

[C1'Tespo"dence Nc,o To'h: Hra,d]
WAsnINGToN, April 23.-Edison,
the inventor, was hero the other
day to show his phonograph and
his carbon telephone to the Acade.-
my of Sciences. He is q young man,
onl y thirty-one years Of age, and
comes, Of course, from Ohio.
Everybody is from Ohio nowadays.
He appears to have been born an in
vcntor, having made his first invcn-
ton when he WAS but twelve years
OF age. In 1868 he was train boy
on II 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 the Office in which he
was employed plan for q duplex
telegraph arrangement which he
had studied out for himself. His
first recorded invention, for which,
however, he did not take out q
patent, was published by him in the
Telegraph Jo"vma! in 1868, and
was also for q duplex. His first
application for Il patent hero was
in connection with the gold and
stock teleg"aphs, and he has about
fifty patents Oh record connected
with that system, and his was in al
important respect the first SUCCESS
full invention.
He is now noted man at. the
Patent Office, where his Inventions
recorded number about $50. He
has invented many forms of duplex
and quadupleX teleyraphs; worked
for while ut the automatic system
OF Bi,quc, which sends messages by
pei forated paper; and has worked
also at tho mutipleX system which
sends not simultaneously as the
duplex, but in tho minute intervals
between other messages. He is the
inventor Of the electric pen, with
which several copies Of q letter or
document are written Simultaneous
ly. This was brought forth in
response to the demand of q friend
OF his, IL merchant, who said -
II wish you'd make something
which would save copying, and by
which l could write two copies at u
time.
The telephone, mrophone and
phonograph have absorbed him for
some time. He has made important
improvements in the first name Il
! instrument. The phonograph for
practical use he is now completing,
and in three or four months the
practical machine, which is to cons
sist of Il fiat disk instead Of the
cylinder now used, will be put on
the market. lIo anticipates that it
Will be in demand among merchants
who have q large correspondence q
man may read his mail, and rs he
reads speak his replies to each
letter at once into the phonograph,
which will work at q set speed by
a clock arrangement. When all IS
done the instrument will DO turned
over to Il cle!k, who, setting tho
clockworli TO go more slowly, will
copy from it's dictation. It is also
suggested that skilled readers will
be employed to read novels and
other works into phonogrrph, and
the impressions, being duplicated
cho&piy and made permanent, may
then he sold for the use of the blind
fer pei sons who wish to spare their
eyes, and for whom the phonogrph
VIII read aloud at tho firesidc. 1t
is sail that clock company in
Connecticut has already bought of
NIr. Edison tho right to use form
of phonograph which 10 to be
chcaply applied to clocks, which
will then call out the hours and
half hours instead Of striking.
There can be no doubt that the
phonograph will be a boon to the
blind.
The erophone is an instrument
intended to increase very greatly
tho volume Of the human voice. 1t
is more ingenious than the phono-
graph. In n steam whistle or an
organ pipe is placed delicate valve
controlling the supply of the steam
or air. This valve is connected
with diaphragm similar to that
used in the phonograph and tele--
IL l.