Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-08

ploys One at His work-It Is superio,
 to the Stenographer in Some Cases-How
 It Is Run-Six Minutes Solid Talk.
 Any one who doubtsthe usefulness ot
 the phonograph or graphophone, both
 devices now being under the same man.
 agement and both presenting the best
 features of the separate devices of Bell and Edison, needs but to wander through
 few Wall street law offices in order to
 be convinced that the talking machine,
 by whatever name it is called, has come to stay. It is in daily use at the office of Brayton Ives, Sweet & Co.,, Haines Bros., and in many other less prominent houses, The real business in talking machines
 however, has not yet begun. Such in. struments as are to be found in use are owned by persons interested in the com Pany. Nn1e are to be sold They will be rented at $40 year upon the same people.
 NO MORE PUNCH AND JUDY.
 ''There you see it," said this gentle man, lifting cover about half the size of sewing machine cover from a cor ner of his desk. 'It takes up no room and is always ready to take dictation. " The graphophone is about the size of a sewing machine, which it slightly re- sembles. A cylinder of hardened wax IS revolved by a small electric motor con- nected with a battery if there is no cleo tric current at hand. In the Mills build Ing the motor is run by a wire from the electric lamp, with which the offices are supplied. The principle of the apparatus Is still that of the old Edison photograph of 1875. The sound of the voice causes Q minute diaphragm bearing a fine needle point on It's under side to vibrate. As wax cylinder ten inches long and two inches in diameter revolves, the needle point lndents the wax according to the vibrations of the diaphragm, making q long spiral line around the cylinder which, as 1t revolves, travels from right to left. In order to get reproduction of sound species of sounding board is adjusted, and the needle is made to pass again over the indentations it has made. As 1t scrapes along the "sounding" dia- phragm gives forth a reproduction, more or less perfect, of the original words talked into the instrument. In the first Edison photograph of twelve years ago the instrument gave out a caricature of what was said to it; if one knew what had been said or sung into it it was easy enough to make sense out of the phono- graphs Punch d Judy talk, but not otherwise. The changes have been in the direction of improving the quality of the sound and its distinctness, rather than volume. AS it may be heard to- day the phonograph's message or repro auction is more distinct than one from telephone in first class order and under favorable conditions. And when the telephone "talks' well it talks very vol.
 COMPARED WITH sTENoGRAPHY.
 ''That instrument has been there nearly month";" continued the lawyer. .1t has saved me days of labor. When am ready to dictate a brief or con- tract, touch this little spring, which sets the machinery in motion; but so noiseless is 1t that unless you put your ear close to the motor you cannot hear it at all. I take this phone or mouthpiece and talk into 1t just as would do with a telephone, using my natural voice, and talking just as fast as I please, which you cannot do with telephone. If the machine is allowed to run, the cylinder will be-used up at the end of six minutes, but whenever l come to the end of a paragraph l want to think moment, or whenever 1 am interrupted touch stops It. In this way cylinder represents six minutes of 'solid' talk, or about 1 1000 words. The work of putting on another cylinder takes about second, and then can go on. When my work is done my typewriter takes my cyl finders, puts them on his phonograph and writes out from the dictation, mak- Ing the instrument go as fast or as slow as he wishes.
 "Now as to the advantages of the ma- chine over stenographer. In the first place no stenographer can go as fast as I like to talk; have to wait at every sen- tence for the stenographer to catch up. Sometimes the stenographers are busy. The photograph is always ready, and loes not mind any rate of speed-the faster the better. In the next place even cied, makes blunders, substitutes one word for another which looks like it, or 'kips words. The photograph repeats every syllable just as you gave 1t. The sypewritten transcripts of my phono- graph dictation are more perfect than when my typewriter had to use his own lotes. Of course, there are some disad- Vantages. When you wish to change word or sentence you have to give the necessary direction at the end of the 1t will not be long, however, before some method of erasing will oe devised. As compared to dictating uIectly tO Ine typewriter operator, you can speak three times as fast and lot so loud, for you do not have to be leard above the rattle of the typewriter. One little point will show you how valu- lble the graphophone will become. I lave machine at my home in the coun- ny. In the evenings do great deal 'f work in my library, and very often I nave to make long quotations from books which have at home, but of which I nave no duplicates at the office. Conse- luently, before the graphophone came, lad to indicate in my brief where I wanted the quotation to begin and end, md then I had to carry these books town to the office for my operator to 'opy from. With the graphophone it is 1 o easy to rattle off page or two of l print that do so and avoid taking my books out of my library. In five min ties can dictate to the graphophone what 1t would take me good hour to write out in long hand. ."-New York Star.
 The Scent of Bloodhounds.
 Some people doubt the possibility of l