The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-11
MUSIGNHHNA TAP is TURNED
DEVICE TO BENDTHE VIBRATIONS
ALL OVER A CITN

----
when They Strike . Diaphragm I'm Your
House You Get an Opera, Q Danoo or .
HyInR According to the Programme
-Inyenti6n Caned the TeIharmOnium.
The telheYmdnium has arrived. It Is
an invention for predicting music by cleo
tricity4 without strings, reeds or pipes
nothing but an ordinary telephone wire.
The idea Is that you can turn on music
hereafter in your house just as you turn
on On inoandescent electric light. The
musie' il transmitted over q wire In electric
waves from q central station. 1t is pro-
ducedS not Reproduced, at each telephone.
You don't have to put the receiver to your
ear to hear It. you let the waves into q
paper cone and the sound that rolls out
will fill a great auditorium. Tit inventor
says the music can be produced a thousand
miles from the place where the performer
Ia depressing the piano keys that set the
Z Currents going, and the performer has
to have one Of the cones in the room with
him to see il he is playing the music right.
The inventor is Dr. Cahill, whose work.
shop is in Holyoke, Mass, where he has
assembled a machine weighing 200 tons
Md costing $ooo, 900 after many years Of
work. The Electrical World Of this week
tells the details OF the construction OF the
Aapparatus and the results obtained. The
plan is to set up o central station and supply
each large city with music waves built
IN into harmonies and the imitation OF
the most delicate Of all musical instru-
ments in any kind OF musical competition
To Amusement halls, stores, auditoriums
or private houses for all those who can
pay for 1t. 1t Is not to be like the phono-
graph in any way, because the tones come
hot off the wire in their original form.
A generating apparatus Of ~alternators OF
different ~frequenoies Ia provided. The
performer presses a key and produces what
is called the ground tone. Other har-
monies are added to the ground tone and
thus by a building up process Of tones the
human voice, brass Instruments, the iolin
the cello, the flute, olarionet and other
tones are produced 80 accurately, IT Is said,
that they seem to have been made by. the
= Electrical World has been up to Holyoke
to see how the machine works. he writes:
1.-The system of mixing with the ground
tone one or many harmonics, with any,
strength desired, opens up a new field OF
@timbre control. The wood-wind, brass
and string tones Of the orchestra are easily
Produced by mixing harmonics in the re-
- uuired proportions. A musician in DR..
SaDlll b hDOIdIOiJ SilONOh u Vol oAiO-
spondent that a mere ground tone pro-.
duceB q clear, pure flute note, a ground
tone with the third or fourth harmonios, Of
suitable strength, produces the sound OF a
il t~clarionet, while to initiate the violin all
: the harmonics up to the eighth were neces-
= sary. Another combination OF harmonics,
: in which the seventh and eighth are strong,
/. gives the characteristic b!are OF brass. In
addition to reproducing the leading or
chestral tone a skilled performer can mix
the harmonics SO as to produce musical
Z tkmbfe4 unknown heretofore. These quail.
titles are a striking feature of the electrical
J music
It. Is declared that the information Is re-
/ markably fine and that the most delicate
! d~iminuendos and powerful creecendos are
2 produced. The Central plaHe in Holyoke
hhasn l45 directly coupled ind ceor a%lterna-
tors in use. These are arranged in eight
~ ~ections, each inductor mounted on an
,l1-inch steel shaft. The bed plate Of the
. machine is biilt up on 18-inoh steel girders,
Oh brick piers and is more than 90 feet long.
The switchboards are in ten sections and
contain nearly 1000 switches controlled
by electromagnetic action from a key
board. One Of these machines Is declared
to be In active operation in Holyoke and
/ tahother is building. One will be put in
f~auperation In this city in the coming summer.
The Electrical World treasures musicians
In, this way;
I 'eNo matter how much we may industrial
lie and commeroialize any product, there
: will, of course, always be a demand for
the original individual, separate and ex-
elusive work OF IN artist"