The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-12
Ingenious Combination.

An ingenious combination which NJ. Dussaud has effected is that Of the loud-talking telephone with a phono- graphic attachment. As the talk goes on-say, between New York and Chi cago-every word said in the convarsa- tion by either party is recorded fGr all time in the photograph attachment of each. Both the Chicago man anG the New York man have d complete rtcoi d of the entire talk on both sides. The photograph has recorded what the New York man said as he strolled about his office talking, and what the loud-talking telephone brought from Chicago. Business men will at once appreciate the value of this ingenious combination which makes telephone talk just as formal. just as binding and just as producible in evidence as the usual letter confirming our con- versat tion." There Is one inconven- ience-the loud-talking telephone doesn't pick ies hearers; it will often be indiScreet
 Cinematograph for the Blind.
 Some of M. Dussauds inventions along other lines are as remarka ble, though not as far-rea ching in their effects upon everyday life as the loud talking telephone. One of tfose just brought out is the cinematograph for the blind. It has been spoken of as a means of making the blind see. That is. of course, q highly metaphorical statement of the truth. What it really does is to give the blind perception of motion exterior to themselves, en- abling them to realize by their extraor- dinarily refined and delicate sense of touch those impressions of movement in natural things which we receive through the sight.
 The mechanism by which this effect is produced is exceedingly simple. so simple that one cannot but wonder that the cinematograph for the blind has not long since been an established institution. There is. to reduce the ma chine to its clements, a circular plate of metal, which is set in motion by a pedal like that of a sewing machine Around the disc are engraved curious curves and lines just perceptible to the finger tips when the hand Is passed over them. In these lines lies all the meaning of the new invention. They have baen made after a long study Of the forms of motion which each is to represent Thus, let us suppose, for example, that it is intended to set down for the pleasure and instruction of the blind the swaying of tree in the summer breeze. Well, a minute series of observation of this move- ment is made; a bough tossing and pIunging, rising and falling. ia made to yield to the observer the secret of it's line-that is, one of the curves and zig-zags it has described and the diff fenent places it has successively occu- pied. during some five minutes or SO. When all this has been patiently ob- served and exactly recorded in dia- gram, the note-taker formulates a long series of lines like those which repre- sent in scientific books the respiration of a man or the aurae of an electri- cized or magnetic bar of metal This diagram in all it's minute tracery is en- graved on the disc. Then the blind man is made to comprehend by means of a model the appearance of a tree in a state of rest. When the disc is set in motion at a rate of speed carefully reg ulated bv various mechanical' devices, so as to give an exact idea of the time occupied in each movement, there is conveyed through the finger tips to the brain a perfect reproduction of all the successive phases of the bough's turn ing and twisting. Thus this cinemato- graphical representation enables the subject to observe tree almost as we see it. nving. moving, playful thing.