The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-16
PHoNOGRAPHIC TOYS.
Some of the Marvels Which Interest
Children.
Copyright 1897

Copyright 1897
NEW YORK, April 13.-"The phon-
ograph promises to afford as much
much recrestion to children as it does nte =
est to grown folks" so said NJ. P. Handy,
the European manager of the great corpo-
ration which now controls the photograph
and graphophone indus ry. you have
heard Of the Photographic doll if you have
not as yet seen one, but unless you have
seen if you can form no idea of how natur-
ally and charmingly it talks, laughs, cries
and sings. This is the first step in long
line of photographic toys upon which our
inventors are now at work. When these are
are put upon the market they will create
wonderful sensation. Among them may be
mentioned Photographic animals. These are
toys made out of paper mache, paste-bo boar d.
composition and other material, each and
all of which are strong and durable. Each
animal contains in his interior a phono-
graph which when set in motion produces
all of the natural cries of the original.
There is a cat that purrS, meows, spits and
caterwauls in the most approved style: a
horse that neighs and whinnieS: dog that
| banks, snaps and bowls and a sheep that
| bleats in a way that would deceive the
mother eve, By using a megaphonic at
creased to almost any desired extent. Much
more interesting than the Photographic
animals are the Photographic birds
we have secured the melodies of the
lark, the linnet, finch robin and canary
bird and can reproduce them indefinitely
With canary birds the success is notable.
We have preserved in metal the entire re-
pertoire of a number of the finest bred
and highest priced birds in the market, and
by combining the song OF two or three into
one whole we have an ar ificial canary that
will out-sing any natural one whatever
The Photographic orchestra and the phono-
graphic miniature theater are other novel
ties to be soon produced. In the former
band of little images dressed up in glaring
miliJ ary colorS are sea ed on the stage as in
some great conc srt or stood around drum
major as on a parade. The moment the
monograph Is set going each little musician
moves his hands and instruments the natur-
al style, while the cylinder inside repro
duces the music of a fAl orchestra with
startling fidelity. In tho theater we can
reproduce all the spoken parts of the pla r
Another novelty that is half toy and half
a luxury will be great boon to ell mothers
whose young children insist on being sung
to before going to sleep. 1t Is a photograph
into which lady has sung her best songs
at her leisure and which is placed near the
crib or cradle. A mere touch upon spring
starts the machinery and gives the child
as much music as ne or she may want. A
singular feature of the photograph is the
fact that if the speed Of the mechanism be
increased the pitch of the voice it repro
duces is heightened and on the other hand if
it be slowed the pitch is lowered. At the
same time the character of the voice is not
changed in the least. This odd popularity
enables mar to near how his voice would
sound if he had been born high tenor like
Campanini, or the young girl if she had
been born basso-profundo."
FALEs CURTIS.