The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-09-04

Which Lin.ers After the Speak
or is Gone.
EDISON'S GREATEST TRIUMPH
The CuriositieS and Possibilities
Of the Photograph.

Il mean the monograph.
Tho mans countenance changed and he ac-
cepted an invitation to go to the Kimball house
at three O'Clock yesterday afternoon.
Soon after the appointed time party Of gen
tlemen walked into room 81 at the Kimball
house, where they were met by Mr.. H. c. Bal
ley, who brought the phonograph-grapho-
phone to Atlanta.
The monograph rests upon a stand like that
of sewing machine. 1t has
the same pedal at the bottom
but the number of revolutions per minutes
regulated by governor, constructed on the
same principle as those used in steam engines.
No matter how fast the pedal goes, the ma
chinery above always revolyes at the same
speed.
There is very little machinery about the
affair-only enough to revolve a horizon
tai black cylinder about five inches
long and a little more than an
inch in diamater, and to revolve
| above it a rod with a spiral screw that pushes
the needle along the cylinder at the rate of
one inch for every one hundred and forty rev.
| olutions.
The rod is about three inches above the
| cylinder, and a short piece of steel, with the
needle in the lower end, hangs from the rod
with the lower end resting on the cylinder,
| stiff, black wax as the cylinder revolves
| The short piece Of steel which holds the
| needle is broadened at the lower end to hold a
| diaphragm. The diaphragm is Immediately
! back OF the needle, and when it moves, the
| needle moves and presses into the wax on the
| cylinder. The diaphragm is connected with a
| speaking tube half yard long, and when the
| operator speaks into the mouth piece, the
| sound wave rushes down the tube and presses
| on the diaphragm, the diaphragm gives way
n
| wax on the cylinder. The cylinder
| is revolving aud the needle is making a trail
| round 1t by cutting out a fine shaving of wax
| only ne-three-thousandth part of an inch
deep. The trail goes spirally around the cylin-
| der, just as thread goes round a spool, except
that the lines are much closer together-140 to
the incb.l The trail is deep shallow, accord
ing to the sound. This is the whole story of
sound writing.
To reproduce the sound the operator
reTerses the process. Another needle
retraces the steps of the first and
this time the needle moves the diaphragm and
the diaphragm sends sound waYe back to the
ear.
To make the sound plainly audible, the pitch
is rnised by using smaller diaphragm.
! After the gentlemen had been introduced,
| Mr.. Bailey sat in front of the machine, with
the Tube TO his lips, and said, as he revolyed
the pedal:
Gentlemen, / am happy to meet you. This
is the phonograph- graphophone; one of the
| greatest inventions OF the age"
| Then he whlstled tune, and all at once
| broke out in a broad brogue
zone Paddy Doyle loved in Killarny,
great girl named Biddy O'Ioole;
Her tongue tipped with a bit of barney
| That same TO Pat was golden rule"
| The tube was changed for another with two
! rubber tips for the ears Mr.. w. \. Hemphill
sat by the machine and put the tubes in his
ears. AS the operator worked the
pedal and the needle went back
/ the track Of fhn paodlnc
| MI Hemphill's face frightened up and his
| expression changed to broad smile when the
needle got to the brogue. He said that the
sound was as perfect as the original.
Then the other gentlemen heard the graph
| ophone talk, and they all heard the perfecl
sound, even to the quality of the voice.
Mr. Bailey picked up another cylinder which
had been taking down drummers letter to
| his house. Mr.. Grady took the tubes and
| repeated the letter which he had never heard
before. 1t said that the drummer had taken
! no orders since he came, and the next order he
! expected was an order to come home.
Then Captain Howell was asked to 60 out
| of the room and Mr.. Grady told one of his
| Chautaugua jokes to the phonograph. When
| Captain Howell came back to the machine he
shook his sides laughing at the joke. Other
| interesting tests were made, and Mr.. Bailey
| gave some of his experience.
| II hoard q clap of thunder in Richmond the
| other day. said he "While the gentleman
there was talking he said; I'VE are having a
thunder storm here; did you hear that? 1t
| was a clap of thunder 1 heard the thunder;
! 1t was not so loud, but sounded like a window
| dropping"
The principal use for the photograph is,
in correspondence, to take the
! place OF stenegrapher. A man can talk to
the machine, put the cylinder in o paper box,
put q two cent stamp on 1t and send it to any
! part OF the country. Each cylinder holds 500
words, or about column of THE CoNsTIrU-
TON.
The monograph may also be used by the
| blind, who will be enabled TO read. Nicholas
| Niekleby can be put on eight cylinders.
IL IS proposed TO teach telocution and IAN
| guageS and the pronunciation may be repeated
! over and over. The genuine French accent
! may be sent to a student in this country by
/ mail.
PATHS songs will be for sale everywhere ON
| cylinders ready to sing to you, and the great
| orators will pour forth q perennial eloquence
! through the phonograph.
| There VIII be family records, with the say
/ ings ~ friends in thtr own voices, and even
the last words of the dying will be repeated
when their spirits are in another world.
! rms Is the ph0uOgraph-as it comes to At
! lanta, but 1t is not the Edison phOnograDh that
! we heard OF ten years ago.
Mr. Edison invented the machine which
! was exhibited thon, hut becoming interested
| III electric light inventions, he did not uorfect
! the phonogtaph then. Two years ago Chi
| chester y. Bell and Charles $. Tainter nat.
| ented the graphophone, Edisons difficulty
| had been That the needle ia mis- machine in
/ dcnted tiniaii, and each indentation threw tho
! preceding one out Of place Bell ana fainter
| devised the gr0phophone IN which the needle
makes an incsion instead of an indentation
and cuts ont the wax before II without disturb
ing the incision behind.
a lew months ago Edison perfected his
| phonosrapb, and both machines were about to
be put on the market in competition; litiga-
| tion seemed inevitable. The patent rights
of the Bell and Fainter machine
| were secured by J. II. Iippincott, of
| kitiSburg' and negotiations We're begun with
Edison for the sale OF the patent rights for his
machine in North America. On the 18th OF
| July Edison sold his right to the phonograph
| IN North America 20 the North American
Phonograph company for one million dollars,
| and the company agreed 10 pay him $4,000
the first year, Sl2,500 the second. $4,000 the
third q 800 the fourth and 5000 every year
| Of his lifetime thereafter for improvements.
| The company now owns both machines and
has begun toput the phonograph -Eraphophone
on the market IN the same way that the Bell
/ telephone was introduced, Ii is uroposed to
organize a company tor the three states OF
Georgia, Florida and Alabama, one Tor North
I and = ruth Carolina. and prp fs,r NTflsf.sfsuf