The Washington herald., 1907-03-15
POSSIBILITIES OF
THE PHONOGRAPH
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

There are about 100000 young men and
women in this country who make their
living as stenographers; and several thou
sand other young men and women who
earn a livelihood by teaching stenography.
They have a competitor in the form OF a
machine which is threatening to get
their jobs away from them. The ph0no-
graph threatens to do for the stenog-
rapher what the automobile has done for
the horse, It's makers claim that the
talking-machine is going TO branch out
from being a mere musical toy and
become a factor in business.
The use iof graphophones and phono-
graphs in business has obtained TO some
extent for several years, but it is only
lately that the movement to develop
the idea has been undertaken on a large
scale. The sales of commercial talking
machines have increased five hundred
per cent in twelve months, and this
despite the fact that advertising has
been limited TO one or two class publi-
cations The factories are making ar
rangements to increase the output and
then a campaign Of general advertising
is TO be begun. which the manufacturers
believe will put talking machines in al
most every Office IN the country, and
practically eliminate the use Of short
hand in business correspondence.
The ordinary stenOgrapher in a busi-
ness Office does not take on an average
of more than ninety words minute.
Nearly every man who dictates can
think faster than the stenographers can
write shorthand, so he has TO hold back.
In debating 10 a phonograph there is
no time wasted, nor interruption 10 his
thought. because the machine goes right
ahead at any pace he can set.
The reporters of debates in the two
Houses of Congress have for years read
their shorthand notes into monographs.
from which they are written out on type
writer's. Court reporters have also been
using the machines in this way for years
with great success. Commercial talking
machines cost less than typewriters Of
standard makes. and Il is not impossible
that the tremendous increase in their
sale In the past year is the beginning
of q business campaign which will make
them almost as common as typewriters.
Another new use for the talking-ma-
chine Is for newspaper reporters. A
small machine has been invented which
may De carried about ike a camera box.
When person consents TO give an in
teryiew he viii be permitted to talk il
into the machine. and the statement will
come out verbatim. This will be an ad-
vantage 20 two sets of people, those who
have suffered by having their words
wrousIy quoted in newspapers, and those
whose reports are denied when the man
interviewed finds out. too late, that what
he said didn't have the proper effect.
one of the oldest contrhances in which
the phonograph figures is an automobile
horn. II is fashioned in the form of
grotesque dwarfs head. and is operated
i1 the same way as the ordinary "Honk,
honk"' nuisance. Inside is photographic
attachment which yells; Look OUT
Clear the road
The very latest suggestion for new
use Of the talking-machine was made by
"a railway publication just after the wreck
ON the Southern Railway which resulted
in the death Of President Samuel Spen-
Ger. Tn the inquiry into the causes of
the wreck there was dispute between
the telegraph operators about what mes
sdges had been sent governing trains.
The suggestion is 10 have a recording
talkng-machine in every railroad tele-
graph office 1t would make a complete
and absolutely correct report of every
message sent, whicn could be read by any
operator
In connection with this it is interesting
TO note that it was while. experimenting
with a telegraph instrument Improvement
that Mr. Edison stumbled onto the princi-
pie of the phonograph. He was attempting
10 perfect a telegraph-sending instrument
which would send the dots and dashes OF
the Morse code by the opening and clos
ing Of the circuit through perforations ~
"a sheet wrapped about a cylinder O.,
metal He found THAI the peTforations
representing dots and dashes produced
the same effect upOl the needle when
the cylinder was again revolved under it,
Thus the phonograph was born.
When Edison invented the phonograph
in 1877 there were many brilliant predic
tious for his crude machine. 1t was
claimed that the phonograph CoulI lie
ntted with a horn which would throw the
sound very far. and that "a machine
mounted ON the Statue of Liberty in New
York Harbor could be used for warning
signals 10 mariners. AT first talking
machine music was not of a very nigh
oiCer. There was a scratching. metallic !
accompaniment that was anything but
pleasant but the many improvements
. 7d additions To the machine nave re-
moved these disa greeable features to such |
an extent that il now gives most credit |
able reproductions. In one Nebraska |
town large graphophone is doing the
work OF a church choir
The use of the graphophone and tele-
phone in conjuction has been discussed |
as a method OF solving several problems !
of the growing business of the country
but with the talking machine dealers the /
union is an accomplished fact. One agent |
in a New York town has regular weekly /
concerts over the telephone. He has "a /
score of his record-buying customers con-
nected with his store, has a large funnel /
on the telephone receiver, gets out sam /
pies of new records received, and turns
on the talking machine. After the con
cert he calls up each customer and takes
orders.
The best singers Of the world are en-
ployed by the talking machine companies
to make records and those lovers of
music who live in remote sections OF the
country and can never hope to see the
Metropolitan Opera House may for a
small outlay hear Eames and Sembrich
and Carusa sing. Making records Is the
most interesting part Of the talking-ma-
chine business TO the public. The proc
ess CT making the cylinder or disc. which