The Portland daily press., 1896-04-22
THE VOICE PHOTOGRAPHED,
Remarkably Ingenious Application of
Photography.

kfSeno bacne IN boSGOn IrausCripe
Photographing the notes of the human
yoioel Another wond erful discovery II
| announced to the world. This time 1t Ii
not European scientist, but an Ameri
can who makes the contribution tt
knowledge. He is professor Of physics
at Columbia College, New York, anc
his name is William Hallock. For {
long time he has been experimenting
with method, now at length per feoted
of making pictures of musical sounds by
m cans Of the camera. Such perfect re-
suits are obtained that the voice of a
tenor or soprano can be judged with alb.
solute accuracy as to it quality and range
without hearing it-merely by inspecting
a series of photographs.
In the near future the members OF a
on music from the voice photographs
submitted by the various candidat es.
The operatic impressario will decide on
the merits of prima donna by examin-
ing few pictures instead of listening to
the rendering of favorite selections by
WHO 4ods ALI LCE luCSu 40UCulAB gown
Prof. Hallook proposes to photograph
large number of the finest voices OBJ
talna5le; also to get as many more phot-
ographs of poor voices. By compare
tive study of the two series he expects to
be able to reduce the psculiarities of a
good voice to a basis Of scientific I'M
Outstanding. incidentally comes in the
interesting question Of artioulate speech
in man and the lack Of it in beasts.
The most essential part of Prof. Hal
locks apparatus is a series of hollow
spheres of metal. Those are Of different
sizes, each of them corresponding to a
must be understood, has particular
volume of air, which, if properly en-
closed, will vibrate in sympathy with
that note and only with that note. For
example, hollow ball of copper three
inches in diameter will contain an
amount of air that will vibrate in sym
pathy with the middle A on the plan o.
When that piano key ia struck the meta
sphere will be heard to give forth ring
ing sound. But 1t will not respond In
this way to the striking of any other
key.
The metal sphere described has a small
hole on one side Of it, Opposite this hole
is placed sort Of drumhead on the
farther side of which is a small lighted
jet of gas. Now, it is evident that when
the air in the ball vibratss, the drum
head will vibrate also. An arrangement
is made by which the vibration of the
drumhead causes the little gas jet to
jump. 1t follows then that one has only
to watch the gas jet in order to see when
the air in the copper sphere Is responding
to the music. The. jet will jump only
| when the middle A is struck, and not
in answer to any other note.
Prof. Hallock's series of metal spheres
of different sizes corresponds to series
of musical notes. One of them answers
to A, the next to B, the next to G, and
go on. Each of them has its drumhead
and jumping gas jet. The spheres are
| called ''resonatore, and thoy respond
| to the notes of the human voice as readi-
| ly as to those of the piano. When the
| sponsively, and SO likewise with the
others. A totally deaf person looking
| on might see by the jumping of the gas
| jets what notes were being sung.
| When tuning fork or an organ pipe is
sounded the tone Is pure and simple. AS
a musician would say there is only one
| pitch present. 1t is different when
of the string is complex. This is due TO
the fact that it is vibrating at many
rates at once. giving out the tones of
several different pitches. These tones.
| however, are all In pure harmony with
the lowest or fundamental tone, and
| hence produce the pleasing effect. The
higher tones are called overtones or thar
| monies"
| These harmonics are present in the
| singing voice. A full and rich bass voice
| singing All on bass @ would have az
overtones middle and g. treble @, E,
| GLIB fat and high G. This will serve as
| an example to illustrate the point. The
| singer, seated before the apparatus, sings
bass q, and Immediately sees from the
are present and their strength. A special
device Of a rotating mirror en-
abies him to see the jumping of the
| flames very clearly.
| But the human eye is not able to OBJ
| serve such a phenomenon with sufficient
closeness and accuracy. Accordingly
| photography is called into requisitiOn
| ton as to the correctness of the records it
gives The camera Is employed to take
instaneous notes of the jumping of the
! flames. Picturing not only the funda-
| mental voice notes, but also the over
| tones, it actually photographs the quail
ty of the voice. 1t makes complete and
perfect record by means of which the
poWeF, PURIFY anu sweetness OF any voice
may be judged.
Only through scientific study has it
been realized what wonderful instru
ment the human voioe-box or larynx is.
| With practically one string 1t may be
compared to the "harp with a thousand
strings" as the thickness, length and
tension are varied by the muscles so as
to produce almost infinite changes OF
pitch. Changes in pitch and quality
are also made by the use of the so-called
resonance cavities" These are varied
in size and shape by movements of the
tongue. Prof. Hallock declares that the
human voice ought to have but one reg
lister. If the vocal muscles be properly
used all the changes necessary to produce
any pitch may be brought about