The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-04-08
Improvement OH Congressman.

A machine with which remarkably
close imitation OF human speech can be
produced has been brought to this coun.
try by the inventor, Herr Faber, and ex-
hibited to the Physical Society, and pri-
vately, for closer examination of its me-
chanism, to several well known scientific
men. 1t opens up az entirely different
set Of questions from those suggested by
the performances Of the phonograph,
which merely produces sounds uttered by
the human voice. This talking machine
will give ineligible utterances more or
less distinct, according to the words, TO
the ideas of the operator. The machine
is the product of the continuous labor
and study of two members of the same
family. 1t was begun in 1915 by one
Joseph Faber, and so far elaborated in
1871 that it was exhibited in that year to
the King of Bavaria The originator
dying, bequeathcd the machine to his
nephew, the present owner, also named
Joseph Faber, who had been associated
with him in its construction, and since it
became his property Herr Faber has al
most doubled its powers of articulation.
The chief points of interest the machine
has for the physicist, the Psychologist,
and, it may be added, for the philologist,
lie in the results obtained from the inge.
nious contrivances by which the func-
tions of the flexible aud mobile organs of
the voice are performed. The principle
features of the machine are, to begin
with, the bellows, from which the air is
driven with considerable but varying
force, by means of pedal lever. The
air passes in horizontal stream through
a small chamber, which represents the
human larynx, and in the same right line
out through the mouth. The lips and
tongue are of india rubber, and the lower
jaw is movable. Below the laryngeal
apparatus, and opening from the chamber
in which it is contained, is another
smaller chamber about the size and shape
of lemon, from which pipe curved up
ward allows the air when driven through
to escape. This supplies the place of the
nose to the instrument, and when valve
is opened enables the sound of the letter
m and n to be produced by the striking
of the same keys with which the sounds
of or p are obtained. The larnyx is,
of course, the most complex part Of the
machine, and to Herr Faber is due the
elaboration of this portion of the me-
chanism. Within small oblong box, a
narrow and exceedingly thin strip OF hip
popotamus bone, strengthened by india
rubber on one side, produces by its vibra-
tions the speaking tone, which may be
called the fundamental sound to be SUBJ
sequently modified. At the will of the
operator the pitch can be raised or low
cred, but not during the utterance Of a
word or sentence, so that in saying "Ma-
riana," or "Comn,ent uons portez vous ?"
1.-THE machine talks French, German,
Italian or Englsh) the keynote remains
unaltered to the end. In front of the
vocal chord and within the laryngeal
chamber are stops or diaphragms, placed
vertically, and rising and falling like the
wards of a Chubb's lock, but different in
that each stop is complex machine in
itself, having within, moved by spring,
another stop by means of which an ori
fee at the base is enlarged or diminished.
Herr Faber has taken another liberty
with nature, for besides placing the nose
below the mouth, for the sake of conye-
nience, he has placed the teeth in the
larnyx, or, more strictly speaking, with
one of these stops he gets somewhat
lisping IS" or the sound "sh" from the
machine. A small windmill like ar.
rangement gives the rattle of the letter
"r," and thin iron band notched in The
lower rim III front, fitting outside the
upper lip, descends TO give the "f'' or "v"
sound. There are fourteen keys by
which sounds are controlled. Striking
the first the sound of "a" in "father" is
produced, the mouth remaining wide
open; another key being struck, the
lower jaw rises, and the sound of 90" in
"bowl" is given; a third key moves a
lever which nearly closes the mouth, and
the sound 20" in movement" is emitted.
The other vowel sounds and the conso-
nants are produced by the use of the dia-
phragms in the larynx with the mouth
in the second or third position.-London
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