Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-03-17
Edison and His Inventions.


Mr.. Edison was interviewed recently
by "A Chicago reporter. lie said: ~
have been busy of late fixing up my
laboratory near Llewclyn Park. Or
ange, N. j., aud in perfecting the
monograph. As soon as the frost gets
out of the ground we are going to
build "A factory at Bloomfield and
vut IN machinery capable of turning
cut 250 monographs IA day. You II see
il shortly. Our agents are now learn
ing its use, and | expect by the middle
of April TO have the new instruments
all over the country"
Tell me something about it,
swell, il is a little instrument small
or than the ordinary typewriter; it
will record any sound transmitted to
it - violin and piano-forte music,
whistling notes, or anything you may
give il. BY the way, it will be a great
help to you newspapcrmcn when you
are in a hurry to have your copy put in
type. Suppose at night you come
late. You get to your photograph and
begin talking to it. Each of your
words is recorded to a little wax cylin-
der and repeated to the typescttcr at
Juc Obutt Civ. ~ viii tlhC ooNh IL
thing you may dictate, and to prevent
confusion, for the photograph will
talk faster than yourself, it repeats the
last six words of every broken sentence.
Where can it be uscdo Why, in any
number Of places. At the courts, tc
take down the testimony of witnesses
at the church, to record a sermon; a
the opcra-housc. where a famous prima
donna may be singing"
al do not quite understand how this
can be done"
'Iet me try to explain. The pho
nograph is made up OF the mouth
piece, where il receives the sound; Il
spirally grooved cylinder carrying n
sheet of t~in-foil and wax, by which it
receives the records of the movements
of the diaphragm, the human voice,
ETC., and another mouthpiece on which
the speech received in the cylinder is
reproduced. A screw connects il with
the cylinder; you talk and your speech
is recorded; now nov the screw and
the second mouthpicce repeats the
sounds the wax cylinder has received.
The wax cylinders arc about the size
OF an ordinary napkin ring and of the
same thickness, with a capacity of 250
words"
''Will the public take kindly to itp'
ii believe {. 1t is no longer in the
experimental stages, nor is it a mere
curiosity. Correspondence can here
after be performed through it., and the
labors of private secretaries will be
dispensed with"
Have you been working on any
other new inycntions?'
20, yes; I've got at least 100 new
ideas in my head still in the embryonic
stage. Some of them I've been work
ing on for years. Two or three | may
bring out this year. I'm working
hard on my scheme of housekeeping
out of the waste heat generated by
Goals"
''How far have you succeeded"
Il am trying to reduce the cost; the
present method is S expensive. | will
succeed. / think. The idea is to get
electricity generated from coal; a
hard thing { O do economically. II
strike a number of new things yet he
remarked parting with the reporter.
As 10 his system of telcgraphin2
from sea he said he had not done any
thing in that line this winter. He has
"A laboratory in Florida where he can
experiment III still water. His system
of tclegraphing from moving trains is
working satisfactorily on "a section OF
the Lehiga Valley Railroad.