The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1881-04-30
wAsuHNGTOs Es1T'TEE.
Meeting Of ssle National Arude-
my ofscienccs-Fbro He'll
Isxulnins HEis Wonderful zSis-
s.nYer.ie.S
from our Regular Correspondent

rFrom our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, d. C., April -, 1881
During the past weed; the National
Academy of Sciences has held one Of
its senli-annnaI sessions in Washington,
and its principal event has been a lee
ture by the distinguished discoyerer,
Prof. Bel, the iaeeator of the speak
ing telephone and photoPAone. He
recited the wonderful facts discovered
by him willie engaged in experiments
for the improvement of the photo
phone, and that yasi number Of sub
stances, solid, liquid, and gaseous,
possessthe property Of emitting SQUADS
upon the falling thereon Of intermit-
tent rays Of sunlight, and that his ex-
periments, 10 measure the emitted
sound had resulted in the invention
of an instrument styled by him the
spe3tophone, that the scientists SAY
will prove Of incstimabic value in the
field Of modern physics.
The academieians went wild over the
paper. AT its conclusion, Prof. Rogers,
in the chair, said that, in consideration
Of the yastness of the discoveries and
their enormous amplitudes, he could
not refrain from an expression of his
great JOY, as scientist, thereupon.
He little anticipated such glorious re
suits. In view Of this contribution
to the academy by its honored guest,
Prof. Bel, he suggested that a vote of
thanks be returned to the great inyen-
tor, and it was so ordered by unani-
nous vote.
Prof. Bell read bis paper, reciting
the great facts recently discovered by
him with the cooperation Of his as
scciate, Prof. Fainter. Ale Illustrated
his remarks with diagrams. The fol
lowing abstract of his paper gives the
essential facts:
He had previously ascertained that
thin disks, of very many different
substances, emitted sounds when ex-
posed to a rapidly interrupted beam of
sunlight. lie then aseertained that
sonorousness was, under the influence
Of intermittent light, a property com
mon to all matter. The satisfactory
results were communicated TO the
French academy. During his absence
an Europe, Mr. Fainter, at his sugges-
ton, examined, in the Washington
laboratory, the sonorous properties of
a vast number of substances, and dis
Feovered that cottonwood, worsted, silk
and tibrous materials generally, pro-
! duce much larger sounds than rigid
bodies like crystals. lie next found
that the darkest shades produced the
best etfect--blaek worsted especially
Then be tried lamp-blaek. Atteaspoon-
full Of lanp-black was placed in attest
tube and exposed to an Intermittent
beam of sunlight, and the sound pro
duced was much louder than any pro
duced before. The extremely LOUD
sounds produced from lamp-blacll dem
onstrated the feasibility of using thin
substance in artienlating photophont
Iiinstead Of the electrical receiver form
erly employed. 10 regard to the sen
sitiye materials, IN the ease OF solids
the physical condition aud the colo
are two conditions that Remarkable,
influence the intensity Of the sonorou
effects. The loudest sounds are produc
cd from substances in a loose, porous
spongy condition, and from those tia
/ have the darkest or most absorben
cclors lie had not as yet found on'
solid body that failed to become son
8Iserons under proper conditions of ex
pertinent.
The deduction from these expert
ments isthat sonorousness is, uDde
1.-The direct action of Intermittent sun
light, Q universal property Of matter
H Prof- Iiellmade Che gratifying state
inent sthat his experimental eAanlina
lions were still n their infancy, apf
thatstaere WAS no telling what great
resnlta might " developed IN the
Iifntare.