The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-05
A TRULY woNDERFuL INVENTION.


 A TRULY WONDERFUL INVENTION.
 Among the many useful things which
 modern American inventiveness have given to the world the phonogrsph is by no means least important. They are now so common that few stop 10 think of the time when they were not, and we have ceased to wonder how such things can be, Constant familiarity, if it has not bred con- tempt, has made them only one of the many wonders of an age pf progress and achievement.
 It has been nearly or quite thirty years since the great master of elec- tricity. Thomas A. Edison. began his experiments with a talking machine. Ills first instruments were crude and imperfect. 1t is true, but he had the idea, inst as Stephenson. fin his first rude steam engine, had the idea of steam as a motive power. That idea has grown and expanded and improved until now the best of our marine and locomotive engines are among the wonders of human skill
 It was the same with Edlson's pho nograph conception. When he found that he could construct an instrument which would receive, retain and re- turn words or other sounds, he had laid the foundation for the almost miraculous instruments now to be found in almost every household. Though it is to Edison that we owe the conception and the first machine, others have added Improvements and accessories to make it what now ap- pears to be an almost perfect .inven- tion. As The New York Commercial tells us:
 It Is now several years since the first began to be seriously employed in connection with the study Of foreign languages. especially by the correspon dence method, and today hum dreds of thousands of machines are em- ployed in this branch alone. One of the leading photograph manufacturers is- German. Italian. Spanish, Russian. Po- fish, Hebrew, Canadian French, Mexi- can, Hungarian. Swedish. Bohemian, Chinese and Japanese selections and there are no doubt many more Ian guages than these for which consid- erable series Of records are available. For the study of a foreign language correct pronunciation is above all es- sential, and this can be imparted by only by means of the 
 As esaqs r fgE e prSTalnE Sma For 9SsiS SsaFan "na for invaiids, and for the millions upon millions of people living at q great distance from any large city, the pho nograph is, and will ever remain, un rlvalled. especially when its moderate | cost Is considered, From this to pro- | vlding entertainment for the general | public was small step, and enormous | numbers of machines are now installed | in amusement resorts where | .hey earn large sums for their propri- l etors-
 It is not at all probable that Mir | Edison anticipated the Wonderful out come of his invention. He probably bought he had constructed an inter- sting and amusing toy. but could lardly have conceived of the wide field hat his invention would cover. some if the uses of which are given in the xtract above quoted. That a person. n London. Paris, St. Petersburg or my other foreign country could make speech. sing a song or play a tune nd send a record of it over and have exactly repeated here. without hange of word, note or sound. is an which would have plainly cen considered witchcfaft but few enturies ago. Possibly the inventor rould have been put to death as lizard in the days of Puritan intol- rance. .-.
 Go where we will. in any city, town r village in the United States, and ,e will hear the photograph in some f its many forms. In many business ouses. hotels. saloons and other places 'here people congregate, they are in peration night and day free for all. 1hile in other cases they are on exhi- | ition for 6 small fee solo by ome great singer. an air played by a oted musician, "coon song" by a egrO minstrel, speech by a great rator, or the jokes and gibes of the lrcus clown--any or all of them are 1 iven out to us just as they left the ps of the original speaker or other erson. The more we think of the | fectiveness and usefulness of the in- and the more we read of it's most universal application. the more ust we wonder at its origin and it's ,larged uEe. (