Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1906-04-19
A WONDERFUL INsTRu=
MENT.
The Latest Discovery In Music

The Latest Discovery In Music
From the Scientific American, Marcel
81, 1906.
BY means of a system proposed bl
DR. .rhaddcus Cahill. music is general
cd al a central station in the shape o
electrical vibrations and thence dis
tributed by means of Wires to Il thous
and, or several thousand, hotels, clubs
and parors. in each as which music i.
heard as if the performers were prcsen
in the room. The music is produced a
a central station entirely by means O
electrical apparatus, and without the
Intervention of pipe, reed or string
And il may be heard wherever wire
can be run The music rendered il
hotel or parlor is not the whisper Of tho
telephone nor the characteristic Sound
Of the graphophonc or phonograph, bu,
pure, clear notes and chords, as loud as
| if an orchestra were on the spot.
Objcctivcly, sound is merely a vibra
ton OF the air, and it has long beer
known TO scientists that there is a def
mite relation between the frequency oil
vibration and the pitch of the result
ing sound or note Ills possible alsc
to produce electrical vibratations that
shall correspond in frequency with q
given note
DIR Cahill, the inventor of electrical
music. appears to have combined tho
principles of acoustics and elcctricit,
and SO used them rs to produce what
may he call electrical music. His mus
ic generating system differs from pre-
vious means of producing music in that
| it is purely electrical Heretofore mus.
ic has been produced by strings, reeds
pipes or other tuned sounding bodies
which set the air in vibration BY
the Cahill system however, the music
is initiated by electrical vibrations; the
expression is controlled by electrical
means, it is distributed in the form OF
electricity, and finally is turned into
aerial vibrations or audible music on
the premises of a thousand different
subscribers many miles apart, it may
a visit TO the laboratory and factory
of DIR Cahill in Holyokc, Mass, reveals
an elaborate electrical apparatus He
has been engaged in perfecting this APP
paratus for years, with the assistance
of his brothers, Mcssrs George l'rcder-
| lex and Arthur T. Cahil, and it seems
now to have reached the commercial
Standpoint That the installation has
long since passed the experimental
stage will be appreciated when it is
known that there is now in use i'm tho
in the inventors laboratory at Holyoke
a central station plant containing ono
hundred and forty-fiNe directly-coup-
led altcrnators.
These altcrnators are arranged in
eight sections or panels, each nductor
being mounted with AN ecvcn-incf
steel shaft. The bed plate of the ma
chine is built up OF cightccn-inch stce
gi1dcrs, mounted on brick piers, and i,
more than sixty feet long. The switch
boards are in ten sections and contain
nearly 1000 switches. These are CON
trollcd froma distant keyboard through
electrom magnetic actions. There arc
numerous transformers. ono of which is
seen in one of the accompanying illus
trations, and many rhcostats and other
regulating devices, including the aggre-
gate thousands of coils and sections
The whole plant weigrs more than 2O(
tons and has cost approximately 5000
600 a second large apparatus is alsc
we'll under way
The inventors first complete appara
tus. parts of which are shown in the il
Illustration, was built in Washington
some years ago The larger work ha:
been done at lIolvokc, where the Cahil
Laboratory has been located for the last
| four years.
1t is not possible in the present ar.
ticlc to describe the mechanical detail.
embodied in the constructions of SC
large and complicated Il mechanism. A
mere outline of the general features car
be given in ono article. The generating
set consists OF a number OF alternating
current generators-onc tor each note
of the musical scale. Each of these
generators produces as many electrical
vibrations per second as there are aerl-
al vibrations per second in that note oil
The generates are lnductor- alternatcr:
and OF very simple construction. The
fixed or stator part OF each carries boil
the field and the armature wlndings
The rotors are mounted upon shafts
the shafts are gearcd together and the
number OF teeth or poles IN the severa
rotors and the angular velocity of TIN,
shafts are suitably arranged SO as to
produce the notes OF the compas
through live octavcs. The tuning il
remarkably good, and from the nature
Tot things, absolutely Interchangeable
I is interesting to note that while in
the past 1T has been difficult TO measure
with scientific accuracy, the energy o
any note or sound, the power of these
generators can be easily determined
with the ordinary electric measuring in
strument. Several OF the generators
for single notes are said to have an out
put OF from 10 to - horsepower. Wher