The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-08-10
SHOWING THE pHoNooaApH.


Man y Very Sobcr Lesson.
Edisou's photograph has a magnificent
setting forth, and you can investigate and
enjoy this fascinating instrument to your
hearts content utterly frce OF the annoy
ing nickel. Beautiful young ladies will
very oblisinRly explain tho instrument to
your perfect understanding and treat you
az nicely az though they thought You were
going to buy one of them-onc of the ma
chimes, / mean. You will be interested to
learn how the monograph is being used
for teaching languages, also in commercial
life. TIL man of business talks his COM
muntcations into the Instruments mouth
piece. Later, the Typewriter, ut her leisure,
hangs the tubes In her dainty ears, and
denied wax gives back the words Of the
maj of business, and the typewriter puts
the matter into a letter. Or the wax cylin-
der is talked full, sent off by mail and the
words reproduced at the most distant point.
1t seems like witchcraft.
perhaps you would like to talk into 1t
youIselff" the pretty girl asked in the
sweetest tones after she had treated me to
cylinder after cylinder of songs and brass
bands and exercises In the German Ian
guage.
l said l thought 1t would be nice. Soshe
put a brand new wax cylinder on the ma
| chine, nicely adjusted the mechanism and
babe me speak into the mouthpiece. l
never felt SO bashful in my life.
II don't know what to say" l STAN
mered after looking vacantly into the
mouthpiece I'M then around the building
and then into the bright eyes Of the at
tendant. Suppose you begin"
So she uttered a few remarks, and one or
two other people took hold of the thing
c-J ,o;I ,ny,,a%bspsr 1rolir~ foo1tob all fIa
while. Then ! likewise took hold again.
"Say what you think of the phono-
graph" suggested the young woman, see
ing that l felt my position keenly.
9TH phonograph is-the-the phono.
graph is-a''-I began in u frightened tone.
"You must speak louder" she explained.
Sol spoke louder, but didn't know what
| said, and l even sang a feeble little verse
till people who had been listening began to
move away, with a wearied look on theil
faces, and the young lady shut off the
power.
Now, If you will listen through the
tubes,'' she continued, you will hea re
peated all that has been spoken into it."
So / hearkened. The little machine
buried and whizzed and then began talk
ing. l recognized the young lady's re
marks, and what the other people had said
every note and syllable exactly repro
duced, and then the thing began to STAN
mel and halt n give forth what seemed
to be the remarks of a young man with rec
hair and a blue necktie, who, never having
been in public life, is unexpectedly elected
to preside at u parish meeting and has t,
return thanks for the honor conferred upol
him. There were some hemmings ant
hawings, and a number of whistling noise
x,,&%J, o,r,n n,,,r D,l
could hear the instrument break forth int,
a cold perspiration as it finished the re
marks. Then 1 put the tubes CAREFUL,
down.
II am to understand, an l, that thos
concluding stanzas represent what / spok
. into the machine?" asked ir u mild an,
inoffensive tone.
Just the same" the young lady replied
with a faraway look in her eye.
"My tones, my words-everything?"
"E%veryehing," she said.
: So that explains it.. I know now VIII
people do not aspire to sing oftener. ! III
derstand why they do not ask me to sin
"Oh, Promise Me" and Daddy Won't Blu
Me q Bowwow," and such things at CO.
certs, and why nobody ever comes to N
when the regular tenor Is away and ask
me to take his place for a Sunday in til
choir. l have felt hurt about these thing
and thought l was kept down by jealous,
but now my mind is cleared of a misunde
I standing that might have lain upon it TO
ever had not Mr.. Edison invented his PHI
nograph. How grateful l am to him.
"And do / understand" l said to til
young lady. that this cylinder upon whic
l nave imprinted these remarks can be pr
served?"
"For CENTURIES she answered.
And my voice, with the information
fails to convey, reproduced indefinitely"
while the world lasts" she said.
But" l pursued, getting anxious, :
understand you can pare off that wax cy
Under, destroying the evidence, and use
for more vital purposes. Am l right?
"Quite right" she observed.
Miss Edison l said in a tremblir
voice, II am not rich, as men count richie
= but here is II. sou
"Give yourself no uneasiness," the your
: lady rc1oined. II shall destroy the CYL
: der. We always do"
: And SO l came away. You will new
I know what a weird, uncanny thing is 70,
! own voice until it comes out of u phon
) graph. You think you know it's SCUM
: but the sound you hear when you speak
not what you bore other people with.
! l shall try not to talk 30 much hereafte
) w. Q. Fuller, Jr., in Rockland IN. y
Tribune.