The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-04-28
DONE By TIE PAOIORlfH
UNIQUE rsEs 10 WHICH TALKING
MACHINES AXE NOW PUT.
History VIII Literally ~Repeat It
selr' fer DER observation-disclosures
tors Are Teaching by PhOno-
xraphs-Timekeepe for Races.


| More than Is, 900 talking machines are in
use in the United States alone and the
demand for them r. - great that the fac
tories are working night and day. The
photograph il constantly being put to new
ard unique uses The fact that Mrs. Bal
linxton Booth while lately confined TO her
house, made rousing addresses and sang
FOR many meetings in Washington, New
York and Chicago. simply by performing
beere her phonograph and distributing the
cylinders. Is Indicative OF the possibilities
of the invention.
one Of the largest phonograph dealers
In the country surprised the writer by his
account OF a few OF the machines latest
adaptations. Telephone companies In many
cities. 1t appears. now use an ordinary
monograph TO notify customers when
numbers called for are busy. When the
operator finds the wire in use she con-
meets the switch board plug with the
photograph. which promptly throws out
TO your ears the words: The wire is
busy; please cali on" The wei, known
blind organist'' OF Washington. tBlshoff.
finds the monograph Of valuable assist
ance in composing music, When he con-
ceives a score. he huns IL over slowly TO
the photograph. making sure that II VIII
not be forgotten, and he can write out
and perfect later.
It's Yses I'm Law. Courts.
A few weeks ago talking machine
saved considerable expe nse al 4 trial in
Terre Baute. Ind. where sfenographer
who Md taken the minutes of the suit,
refused to transeribe them, as she was TO
b. married and had no time. A phono-
graph was taken TO her and she finally
read the notes into il, and costly delay
was prevented. Many cases have come
In which photograph records have been
used as witnesses. A New Yorker recent
~ brought machine to court as a witness
In suit for damages against an elevated
railroad company. 1t gave very faithful
reproductions CT the noises made by the
trains. Tie value Of the phonograph to
newspaper office is now widely recog-
nized. At some Offices the reporters who
come n with news dictate the account
to monograph set up in the editorial
rooms, thus saving considerable time. In
some Offices typesetting Ia done direct
from such a Photographic diction, the
conpositor having a pedal by which the
phonograph is started and stopped, SO
that one sentence can be taken at a time.
During the last political campaign some
or the newspapers of the country were
able to print page after page Of speeches
delivered only a few hours earlier and
which could not have been made up but
for the help of the photograph. The
speeches were redictated to the machine
and typewriters had them written out
shortly after the speeches We're over. The
machine must have had considerable ef-
feet upon the campaign, toe. for many
thousands of campaign speeches and sell
ect,ons from speeches were talked into
them and repeated to big audiences
The use of the monograph in post
Offices has been practical to a certain ex-
tent, though 1t Is not developing very
rapidly, In spite of the recent reports that
France. Spain and Italy are adopting IL
for postal service People who can nei-
ther read nor write deliver their message
10 the cylinder. which IL put In a small
box and mailed rs an ordinary letter. de-
livered to the person addressed or its con-
. tents written out at the nearest postoffice.
Some time ago a representative of Edison
went 10 Mexico to establish such a sys-
tenn in the postoffiees there. While Yvette
Gilbert was travelling through the United
States last year she Dictated accounts Of
the interesting things she saw and her
impressions OF them to photograph, and
sent cylinders across the ocean by steam
er every Saturday and "Wednesday. A
week later her mother was able to hear
her daughter tell, in her own voice. of her
pleasant experiences here.
Preserving Indian Languages.
THE Smithsonian Institution is going to
do a unique thing with the talking ma
chine. Its directors have engaged repre-
sentat.ves of the various Indian tribes in
this country to give conversations, in their
own tongues. to monograph machines.
They win then be translated into English
so that the dialects OF these dying races
may be accurately preserved for poster
i;y.
A great number of monographs are now
In use in sick rooms and hospitals. where
they are found very valuable for anus
ing patients. The photograph has reached
the kindergarten. too. The little ones
readily learn from them such stories as
Little Red Riding Hood" as well as
simple songs. Many vocal instructors re-
produce by II the voices of famous sing
ers Of the day in illustrating tone, regis
ter. etc, 10 their pupils, and one well
known New York teacher had several tai
ented pupils who wished to secure Euro
peau experience, sing their best before
a high-class photograph and took the rec
ords with her to Berlin. The voices were
reproduced there for German managers,
and successful that engagements to
sing In German concert and opera were
obtained for some OF the pupils based
solely upon these Photographic reprodnc-
lions. Some OF our well known opera
singers employ the photograph In memoir
izing music. Collectors have also come
into this business, ana laboratories are
| now kept where the voices OF famous peo-
pie and all the leading opera singers are
recorded and fled away. The voices OF
many who have already died are to be
heard there. and these records have n
special value. becauses famous voices OF
the present generation may thus he COM
| pared With those OF their successors.
As Aids tn Instructors.
Many language teachers are buying
quantities of machines. some furnishing
home instruction thereby 70 as many as
! 500 pupils. Prof. X. u. Cortini. for ex-
| ample, has been teaching various langu-
ages by this method especially in South
| America and in Mexico. Briefly. his
method is this: He furnishes a text book.
arranged IN, say, twenty isssonss a phono-
| graph with twenty cylinders, on which
| the same lessons are given In HIS own
| voice. and twenty blank cylinders The
| pugsll thus equipped opens the book at the
! first lesson. puts the tubes 10 his ears.
| starts the machine, and with the eye upon
| the printed page follows the ear estab-
| fishing the perfect synchroaism. The les
! tou Is repeated more rapidly until every
accent Is familiarized Then a blank cyl