Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-11-21
MECHANICAL SPEAKING.
Berliner HIS an Apparatus
Which Will Originate Vocal
Snoech-

Mr.. Berliner's first conception OF the
idea of making an instrument produce
| speech of itself, instead of reproducing
that Of persons, was due to the fact, so
he AYERS. that the mode of vocalization
in the human body can be almost en-
tirely counterfeited by mechanism. and
that it occurred to him that it would be
a useful thing to apply the principles of
human vocaliZation SO that the expensive
| choirs OF churches could be obviated by
machinery. That he has produced by ma
chinery such speech-in other words, that
! he has made an organ talk"-he asserts
is true. and thai the experiments, while
| yet in their infancy. show conclusively
that the completion of this apparatus is
but a matter of time ana study of the
human voice.
The method employed by Mr.. Berliner in
his experiment was extremely simple. Re
garding the organ and the body. it will be
act as a pair of bellows. that the wind
pipe is the organ through which the air
is pumped, and that the vocal chords give
the sound pitch. the words being formed
by the movement of the tongue. teeth
and lips combined. Now, the sound of a
tone, as it comes out OF an organ pipe IS
windpipe before the words have been ar
ticulated by the mouth. Hence. Mr.. Ber-
liner reasoned. if this pipe sound of the
organ could be conveyed to the mouth.
just back in the throat. and articulated
properly by the right motions of the lips.
tongue and teeth. the organ could be made
to talk.
With a bit of rubber tubing. which was
placed with one end in n pair of bellows
and. the other at the back of the mouth.
he found that by simply giving to the
mouth the motions 1t would use in uttering
certainS words the correct sound was pro-
duced on the volume of air coming out of
the tube in the mouth. just as it would
have been made by the mouth in speaking
with air from the windpipe. Though not
n sound was uttered by his own mouth.
which dumbly went through the pantomime
motions used in 3rticula,ionS, there Were
words spoken by the vibrations just as if
Of course. as there was no use of the vocal
chords which give the varying pitch. the
sound was all in the same key.
The use in church choirs would be a
great feature of the service. Mr.. Ber-
liner suggests hat for a choir there
lating from a different tube representing
different pitches or different voices. such
as bass. tenor. soprano and contralto.
Thus all the varying shades of music
could be cheaply produced at a third of
the present expense.
be the use to which the dumb can put
this new invention. The dumb are able to
move the lips in the motions used in
speaking. though they cannot utter a
sound Now If the sound be brought into
the back of the mouth. forced ont. and
and tongue of the dumb person. the re-
suit will be speech. With n simple and
cheap apparatus this effect can be OBJ
tanned. OF course. it will require time for
such = person to learn the correct mo-
tions to give to the mouth in order to pro-
duce the right words. bat that will come
readily with the practice. just as one learns
the typewriter or to ride the bicycle.