The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1906-08-02
MUSICAL ELECTRICAL MACHINE
Generates Currents That Make Tel
ephone Full Band.

ephone a Full Band.
Another electrical wonder has been
given to the world. DIR Thaddeus
Cahill, in dingy shop at Holyoke,
Mass, after twelve years of unre-
a1tting toll, succeeded in finally per-
fecting what is considered by eiec-
trical engineers to be one of the most
remarkable devices in the history OF
| electricity.
In this little shop there now stands
| a 200-ton electrical machine called by
| it's inventor the telharmOnium, which
| combines in itself the musical power
of all known instruments, and besides
this can send it's music over telephone
wires for hundreds of miles in all
directions Any telephone subscriber
within it's radius can be supplied with
music in great or small amounts, as
his feelings dictate.
Future Paderewskis, says the
Electrical World, sitting in New
York may be heard in 10000 places
miles apart, and in each place the
original effect is heard"
The real wonder and novelty OF
Dr.. Cahills invention lies in the fact
that the telharmonium does not, like
the phonOgraph, reproduce music, but
actually makes it, and in an entirely
new way. What the operator plays on
are a number of little specially ar
ranged dynamos. These are so con-
nected to the keyboard, which is ar
ranged like that of an organ, that the
depression Of a certain note, A Tor
instance causes a current in the trans
hitting wires which produce vibra-
ton in the telephone receiver at the
other end of the line just like that
following the playing of A on piano.
The person with the receiver in his
ear hence hears the A as if it we're
played upon piano. In other words,
the note is not actually made until
the current reaches the receiver at
the end of the wire. So that this lit
tie twO-inch contrivance is the actual
music producer of the telharmonlum.
1t is wonderful enough that any
sort Of a tune can be played on sucn
a simple device, but when DR.. Cahlli
states that any note of any quarry
and timbre-violin, flute, piano, organ,
clarinet, etc.-can be accurately re-
produced by the telharmonium, and,
further, that the combined harmonies
of these various instruments, as they
occur in bands and orchestras, can
also be accurately produced by a sin
gle performer at the keyboard, ones
wonder becomes perilously near to
skepticism.
These claims, however, seem to he
we'll authenticated, and it is announc-
| ed that in about three months one
of the new machines is to be set M
in this city. If this is the case the
public will soon be able to test DR.
Cahill's claims
The telharmonium must, obviously,
machine. The one at present In DIR.
Cahills Holyoke laboratory is said
to have cost about 100000. This
excessive cost is seen to be of no
great Importance when it is rene n
bered that one machine will proba-
| bly, be able to supply from 1000 I'd
| 10000 subscribers.
In receiving the electrical music the
ordinary telephone receiver is screwed
into the end of a horn, like that used
on the phonograph. The music is said
to be loud and clear, one receiver fill
ing a good sized room, and entirely
free from the disagreeable rasping
and scraping Accomplishments so COM
mon in the photograph reproductions.
Lord Kelvin during visit to this
country is said to have examined
and been greatly impressed by DIR.
Cahill's instrument. A local electrical
engineer who has been UP to Holyoke
and heard the telharmonium describes
it's tones as beautifully clear and pleas
ant to the ear. AS to the genuineness
and revolutionary character of the dis
covery, therefore, there seems nc
doubt The current issue of the Flee
trical World speaks of it as the
birth of new art" one of the no
table achievements of our modem
day." the creation of another great
electrical industry
The Growth of Children.