The Portland daily press., 1885-03-18
Talking by Machinery.
Am Tnvention that will Open up a Fright
ful Prospect.
(NewY,1x SUM-

(NewY1Ix Sum-
In ore of the front parlors of the Belvedere
House has been set up bewilderng jumble
of levers, springs, rods and pipes around a
bellows capable of holding about half.
bashel Of wind, and all on daintily carved
and completely gided table. The affair is
called talking piano, and has Just been
brought to this country by the Societe Anon
de Vienna.
Next to the bellows pipe is wooden box
about as big as brick, representing the hu-
man larynx. In front of this are lips and
tongue of rubber dyed red. The lower jaw
and the tongue are movable, and the oil
used to prevent friction gives to the lips
look as if the machine chewed tobacco.
Below the laryngeal apparatus another
chamber, about the size and shape of a
cheap lemon. From this pipe, curved up
ward, allows the air to escape, thus supply
ing the place of the nose in the pronuncia-
hon of he letters N and n. Within anoth-
er emall box adjacent to all the others is a
thin strip of alleged hippopotamus bone,
Win rusber on one side, which produces the
Tone. lhe inventor has supplied the place
OF !ne teecs by an arrangement la the
iarynx, and gas polite French roll on the
tSS~Oa ~ NnNoh< Ol d SUldll WlUumlH W0lC0
| is shifted into thecurrent by a lever.
There are IA keys which regulate the
sounds, aud with these and three side KEYS,
| which move the lower hp the tongue. and
| the windmill, all combinations are produced.
| All these arrangements require ior their op-
| Grafton the numberless rods. springs and
levers. 1t is said that the piano the pro-
duct of the continuous labor aid ,tudy from
1923 to 1868 of two members of the sama
family, who,e name is withheld blythe own
| ers. In 1865 it was exhibited to tie King of
| Bavaria.
| This history and the description of the
machine were supplied yesterday bya curly
| haired Frenchman, who said il male him
sweat 10 talk English. Then very dim lit-
| tie woman, with her hair combed Straight
| back and with an abstracted-lookin, face
| aud brown dress, came in ard sat down
behind the piano, with her foot on the bel
lows pedal. Her arm accidently struck one
| of the keys. There was a shuttle and
| rattle among the springs and the rods
a quver of the big rubber lips
and the spectators were startled by 8
| voice very similar to that made when her
tries to squawk Immediately after the heat
has been partially cut off. The Frenchmar
| smiled, aud said she vas missteek.n Th,
| operator frowned and tightened one of the
| screws.
Now" said the Frepchman, "say papa
The little woman began to shake like
birch tree in an Iowa cyclone, her hands
| few up and down on the jaw keys, tn,
tongue keys aud some of the other keys, ant
the piano cried "papaP' as a 6oO-pount
infant might.
"Now say Maria," said the master French
man.
This time the machine got in good worl
| with the windmill Oh the roll.
'Phladelphia," said the Frenchman, tri
umphantly.
This time the little woman fairly pouncet
upon the levers. The lips, the jaw, thu
tongue, and all had to be worked. 1t was
great test. One screw fell out ant
one spring few out and hit spectator OF
! taA bead. Then the spectators were asket
| The little woman aE,F--Snme said 'Blaine.'
,aIv. for it was new word. She dItrtr siao
| y, II ~-~-eL la The bellows, and it soun6e
IKE whisper IN the dim future. The nian
closed the exhibition by rafting off a lon,
WORD, and the spectators were asked If The;
understood it, No one did. Then tbs,
Thank you" ' Auiou