The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-07-09
TALKING MACHINES.
THE GRAPHOPHONs m ACTUAL USE
AND DOING GOOD WORK.

To the stenographer In Some Cnses-aow
IL Is Run-six Minutes Solid Talk.
ANY one who doubts the usefulness of
the monograph 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
a few Wall street law offices i'm order to
be convinced that the talking machine,
by whatever name il is called, has come
to stay. Ii is in daily use at the Office of
Brayton Ives. Sweet q Co, Haincs 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 he found i'm use are
owned by persons interested in the COM
pany. None are TO be sold. They will
be rented at $40 a year upon the same
system as that adopted 10y the telephone
people.
NO MORE PUNCH AND JUDY.
There you see it,, said this gentle
man, lifting cover about half the size
of q sewing machine cover from cor
ner of his desk lit takes UP no room
and is always ready to take dictation. +"
lnt 10 dDOul the SlLt vi a
sewing machine, which it slightly re-
sembles a cylinder of hardened wax
is revolved by a small electric motor con-
nected with battery if there'is no cleo
trio current at hand. IN the Mills build
ing the motor is run by wire from the
electric lamp, with which the offices are
supplied. The principle of the apparatus
is still that of the old Edison photograph
80 1S~E FThn p,,,,I Nf ha
a minute diaphragm bearing fine
needle point on its under side TO vibrate.
AS wax cylinder ten inches long and
two inches in diameter revolves, the
needle point indcnts the wax according TO
the vibrations of the diaphragm, making
u long spiral line around the cylinder,
which, as il reyolves travels from right
to left. In order TO get a reproduction
of sound species of sounding board is
adjusted, and the needle is made to pass
again over the indentations il has made.
AS it scrapes along the sounding" dia-
or less perfect, of the original words
talked into the instrument. In the first
Edison photograph of twelve years ago
the instrument gave out 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 and 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 monographs message or repro
telephone in first class order and under
70 ,pNla nd yhaY, he.
telephone talks" well it talks very wuil.
COMPARED WITH sTENoGRAPHY.
That instrument has been there
nearly month" continued the lawyer.
at has saved me days of labor. When
am ready TO dictate a brief or a con-
tract, touch this little spring, which
sets the machinery in motion; but so
noiseless is it that unless you put your
ear close TO the motor you cannot hear it
at all, take this phone or mouthpiece
and talk into it just as | would do with a
telephone, using my natural voice, and
talking just rs fast as | please, which
you cannot do with telephone. If tie
machine is allowed TO run, the cylinder
will be used up at the end of xix minutes,
but whenever | como To the end Of
paragraph | want to think moment, or
whenever am interrupted n touch stops
it. In this way a cylinder represents
six minutes of solid talk, or about
900 words. The work of putting on
another cylinder takes about a second,
and then / can 80 on. When my work
is done my typewriter takes my cyl
inders, puts them on his phonograph
and writes. out from the dictation, max
ing the instrument go as fast or as slow
as he wishes.
Nov as to the advantages of the ma
chine over stenoSrapaer. In the first
place no stenoSrapher can go as fast as /
like TO talk; | have TO wait at every SEN
tence for The stenographer to catch up.
Sometimes the stenographcrs are busy.
Tho phonoGraph is always ready, and
does not mind any rate of speed-the
faster the better. In the next place oven
a good stenographer, especially il hur-
ricd, makes Dlunders, substitutes one
word for another which looks like it, or
skips words. The photograph repeats
every syllable just as you gave it. The
typewriter transcripts Of my phono-
graph dictation are more perfect than
when my typewriter had to use his own
notes. OF course, there are some disad-
vantages. When you wish to change a
WOru OF Il sentence you nave TO give the
necessary direction at the end of the
message; it will not be long, however,
before some method of erasing will
be devised. As compared to debating
directly to the typewriter operator,
you can speak three times as fast and
not SO loud, for you 90 not have to be
heard above the rattle of the typewriter.
One little point will show you how valu-
able the graphophone will become. l
have a machine ut my home in the coun-
try. In the evenings do great deal
of work in my library, and very often l
have to make long quotations from books
which have ut home, but of which
have no duplicates at the office. Conse-
quently, before the graphophone came, I
had to Indicate in my brief where
wanted the quotation to begin and end,
and then / had TO carry these books
down to the Office for my operator to
copy from. With the graphophone it Is
30 easy to rattle off page or two Of
print that do so and avoid taking my
books out of my library. In five min
utes l can dictate to the graphophone
what IL would take mo n GOOD hour tn