The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-01-14
EDISON'S LATEST.

EDlS0N'S LATEST.
some Account of the Improved Phono-
From the Scientific american.
Ten years ago young man came
into the Office of tn. Scientific Amer
icau, and placed before the editors a
small, very simple ma chine about which
very few preliminary remarks were Of
fered. Our visitor, without any cere-
mony whatever, turned the crank, and
to the astonlshment of all present the
machine said "Good morning. How
do you do How do you like the pho
nograph p The machine thus spoke
for itself, and made known the fact that
it WAS the phonograph, an instrument
about which much was said and writ
ten, although little was known.
1t was the latest invention of Edison,
and the editors and employees of the
| Scientific american formed the first
public audience to which 1t addressed
itself. The young man was Mr.. Thos.
| A. Edison, even then we'll known and
successful inventor. The invention was
novel, original and apparently destined
to find immediate application to hun
dreds of uses. Every one wanted to
hear the wonderful talking machine,
and at once a modified form of the
original phonograph was brought out
and shown everywhere, amusing thous-
andS upon thousands; but it did not by
any means fulfill the requirements of
the inventor. 1t was scarcely more
than scientific curiosity or an anus
ing toy. Edison, however, recognized
| the fact that that it contained the ele-
ments of a successful talking machine,
and thoroughly believed it was destined
to become far more useful than curious
or amusing. He contended that it
would be faithful stenographer, repro
ducing not only the words of the
speaker, but the quality and infections
of his voice and that letters instead
OF being written would be talked. He
believed that the words OF great states
men and divines would be handed
down to future generations that the
voices of the worlds prlma donnas
would be stored and preserved, so that,
long after their decease, their songs
could be heard. These and other things
were expected of the phonograph. 1t
was, however, doomed to a period of
silence. 1t remained toy and moth
ing more until few months since, when
it was made known to the public that
the ideal phonograph had been con-
structed, that it was unmistakably
good talker, and that the machine
which most people believed to have
reached Its growth had after all been
refined and improved until it was cap
able OF faithfully reproducing every
word, syllable, vowel, consonant, aspi.
rate and sounds of every kind.
During the dormancy of the phono-
graph its inventor secured both world
wide fame and a colossal fortune by
means of his electric light and other
we'll known inventions. He has re-
Gently devoted much time to the pho
nograph, and has not only perfected
the instrument itself, but has established
a factory provided with special tools
for its manufacture, in which phono-
graphs are to be turned out in large
numbers, with interchangeable parts.
THE ORIGINAL PHoNoGRAPH.
The original instrument consisted of
three principal parts-the mouthpiece
into which speech is uttered the spir-
ally grooved cylinder carrying sheet
of tin foil which receives the record OF
the movements of the diaphragm in the
mouthpiece, and mouthpiece by
which the speech recorded on the cyl
inder is reproduced. In this instru-
ment the shaft of the cylinder is pro-
vided with a thread of the same pitch
as the spiral on the surface of the CYL
lnder, SO that the needle of the receiv-
ing mouthpiece is enabled to traverse
the surface of the tin foil opposite the
groove of the cylinder. By careful ad-
justment this instrument was made to
reproduce familiar words and sentences,
SO that they would be recognized and
understood by the listener; but in gen.
eral, in the early monographs. it was
necessary that the listener should hear
the sounds uttered into the receiving
mouthpiece of the phonograph to posi-
lively understand the words uttered by
the instrument.
In the later instruments, such as
were exhibited throughout the country
and the world, the same difficulty OBJ
tained, and perfection of articulation
was sacrificed to volume of sound. This
was necessary, as the instruments were
exhibited before large audiences, where,
it goes without saying, the instrument
to be entertaining had to be heard.
These instruments had but one mouth,
piece and one diaphragm, which an
swered the double purpose of receiving
the sound and giving it out again.
Strangely enough. the recently improved
phonograph is more like the original
one than any of the others. 1t is pro-