Evening star., 1901-04-20
TO TRANSMIT SOUND
Wonderful Combination of Telephone
and Microphone,
4 FRENCH SCIENTISTS INVENTIONS
Machine Which Gives the Blind
an Idea of Motion.
MAKING THE DEAF HEAR

Written for The Evening Star
The late Edward Bellamy in his 'Took-
ing Backward described an imaginary tele-
| phone whereby a family. sitting in their
easy chairs at home. could hear in every
| perfection of detail the music of a concert
| performed in a distant hall. Such an in
strument has been recently perfected by
| brilliant young scientist of Paris, NJ. Dus-
| saud. His 'loud-talking telephone" as he
| calls 1t de telephone haut-parleur) is an
| automatic informer. a domestic secret
! agent, which misses no word or syllable
| spoken in the room where it is set on
! guard, and which. moreover, by a phono-
| graph attachment. may be arranged to
| preserve every utterance for future lefer-
| ence The wfde-reaching influence of such
an invention in business in politics, in in
| trigue in crime the detection Of crime
in fact. wherever mans intellect is pitted
! against his fellow mans intellect, chal-
| lenges imagination.
1t was as an agency of crime that the
| invention, never intended for such a pur-
| pose, first came to public notice A high
| police official of Lyons was arrested on
| charges Of misuse of the public funds. NAL
| administration of his office, blackmail and
| eXtortion. The development of the case
| brought out the fact that he had in some
| way. possessed himself Of information re-
garding municipal affairs which should
| have been strictly confined to a very few
| officials, one of them the prefect of police.
| whose office was in the same building.
| This information he had used for blackmail
| in some cases; in others he had sold 1t to
| contractors to whose interest it was to
have spy at the center Of affairs. In
! more than one instance it was proved that
| he had overheard and made use of con-
| versation held in the projects private
office, between the prefect and a person
| whose interests were jeopardiZed by the
revelation of the matter. This person was.
| for that reason, beyond suspicion; the pre-
| feet asserted his innocence Of diyulging the
secret Suspicion of a secret passage or
| closet used by the official on trial arose.
His office was thoroughly explored and
| wires connecting it with the projects prf-
vate room We're found. At the projects
| end of the wires was an instrument which
J transmitted to the suspected officials room
| every word spoken in any part of that
| Office, when connection was established by
| pressing button at the other end of the
wire. This was NJ Dussauds '1oud-talking
| telephone" which he had furnished to the
| dishonest official with no idea of the evil
| use to which it to be put
Scientific Prodigy.
Up to the time when the echoes of this
case rang through France NJ. Dussaud was
| little known to the public. Among scien-
| tihc men he was regarded as a promising
| worker in the realm of theory, but he had
| done little toward developing any of his
discoveries. Now. suddenly. his name be-
came known to millions; savants and cleo
| tr1clans tocked to his house, and he Is be-
| ing hailed as the scientific prodigy of the
| day, who will yet beat Edison and Tesla
| at their game.
At NJ Dussaud's house the visitor can
have the whole system explained to him
| by the inventor himself. The young savant
invites You to press any one of a series
| Of electric buttons ranged in a frame on
the wall of his study. BY pressing the but
ton. the visitor has established connection
between the study and some other apart
ment In the house, and until this connec-
tion Is voluntarily broken every word
| every sound in the room is heard distinctly
| in the study. The experiment gives one a
shiver the first time he makes it; 1t would
De awkward to live in such a house as
that, where at any moment every word one
says may be overheard by an invisible per
son in the cellar or attic.
MicrOphOne and Telephone.
This disauieting result has been achieved
by the combination of a microphone which
catches and records the slightest sound
even from considerable distance, and a tele-
phone to which the impression is transmit
ted automatically and instantaneousy, to
be by it repeated distinctly and loudly so
that 1t Is heard all over the distant room in
which the circuit-making button is pressed.
Not only can it be heard all over the ROOM
but the person using 1t can speak through
1t wherever 1t may happen to be-ne has
no need to hold the tubes. Once connection
is made he can talk freely, moving about
the place or sitting smoking in his arm
chair, hearing everything that is said at the
other end and making reply with the same
entire liberty of movement as IL he had his
fellow conversationalist in his office with
him. =
The principle which enables the talker to
dispense with the tubes is. of course, very
similar to that of Marconis wireless tcleg-
raphy. This silent, fncorruptible, infallible
spy is already being employed In police
no
to by the Lyons magnate), and it will soon
be applied also to the less sensational pur-
pose of making operas and plays, sermons
and other public discourses accessible to an
audience scattered far and wide, as Bel
lamy prophesied.
Records What Is Said.
An ingenious combination which NJ Dus-
saud has effected Is that Of the loud-taIk-
ing telephone with Photographic attach
ment. AS the talk goes on-say, between
New York and Chicago-every word said
in the conversation by either party is re-
corded for all time in the photograph at
tachment Of each. Both the Chicago man
and the New York man have q complete
record of the entire talk on both sides. The
phonograph has recorded what the New
York man said as he strolled about his Of
flee talking. and what the loud-talking tele-
phone brought from Chicago. Business men
will at once appreciate the value of this
ingenious combination which makes a tele-
phone talk just as formal. just as binding
and Just as producible in evidence as the
usual letter Confirming our conversation"
There is one .lnconvenience-thel loud-talk-
ing telephone doesn't pick its hearers; 1t |
will often be indiscreet. |
Some Of NJ. Dussaud's Inventions along |
other lines are as remarkable, though not |
as far-reaching In their effects upon every
day life, as the loud-taIking telephone. One |
Of those just brought out Is the cinemato- |
graph for the blind. 1t has beep spoken Of |
as q means Of making the blind see. That /
is, OF course, q highly metaphorical state /
ment of the truth. What It really does Is i
to give the blind q perception Of motion /
exterior to themselves, enabling them to /
realize by their extraordinarily refined and /