The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-26
VOICE MACHINE.
Frenchmap's Queer Invention 10 Re-
produce the Human Pronunciation.


From the Chicago Chronicle.
For generations past men have been
fascinated by the prospect of having talk
ing machines. Numberless scientists and
artisans have been lured on 10 years OF
toll and experiment by the hope of con-
structing q machine to initiate human
speech. Hundreds of them were quietly
at work on the problem when the inven-
ton of the telephone turned the thoughts
of the world in a new direction. Many of
the Investigators abandoned their task,
but some have remained faithful 10 their
IDEAL Among the latter is DR.. Marage,
a Frenchman He has confined his efforts
to the production of a machine that will
give forth the sounds of the French
vowels and there have been several Curl
| Gus results. These are described in tech
snieal. terms in La Nature, of Paris, by
NJ. a. da Cunha, ..t..
| with the help Of Dr. Roussel, NJ. Ma
rage has made models OF the inside OF the
| human mouth in the act of pronouncing
several French ,vowels These were con-
structed of the plastic material used by
dentists The cheeks as well as the lar
ynx and other organs Contribute TO form
the characteristics of the human voice.
but NJ. Marage has not attempted TO re-
produce all THESE DeculafitleS.
Most of these Investigations are based
on the principle of forcing air from a siren
against membrane, and then registering
the vibrations. The results have been va
riable, but M Marage has discovered that
stretched India rubber makes the ideal
membrane, because 1t does not modify
the voice i'm any way. He also introduced
a novelty in the system of registering the
vibrations of sound. Instead OF using a
needle, he caused acetylene gas, at a con-
slant pressure, to be delivered on the in
verse side of the membrane. This gas
escapes by a tube, and is lighted at Its
extremity. When the membrane vibrates
the pressure of the gas varies and tho
flame changes In intensity. BY receiving
the successive images on a moving band
/ of sensitized paper, he gets a graphic
record of the peculiafities of different
sounds. These peculiarities are set forth
as follows:
Certain vowels, T., u, OU Gin French)
are formed by series of vibrations of
different intensity and separation, but reg
ularly spaced; I'm other words, there ex-
lists for these sounds a series of continued
and similar vibrations. For Il and o
these vibrations are also regular, but each
is formed of two oscillations arranged in
a special manner for eacn. We thus have
groups of double vibrations. Finally, In
the case OF A, these groups have three
component vibrations"
M Marage admits that while the results
are interesting, they do not promise
system of reproducing the human voice.
He finds, however, that his discovery may
have useful applications. He purposes
TO modify the steam sirens on shipboard
so as to emit various vowel sounds BY
this means it will be possible to make a
series of phonetic sounds, which may
be combined into an International alpha
bet for signaling at sea. Another appli-
cation can be made in the construction
OF ear trumpets that win not fatigue the
deaf, because they will not modify the
grouping Of the oscillations adapted to
the ear. M. Marage- has also made an
"acouometer" giving typical sound, the
vowel A, for example, which may be used
as standard to which other sounds
may be referred. He also thinks his dis
covery may have several applications in
medicine.