Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-12-02
RECORDING ANGEL
HERE FROM PARIS
Wonderful Invention For
Writing Any Word Spoken
by Man
KYMOGRAPH IS IT'S NAME
1t Uses a Real Feather Wing
in Its Graphic
Flight.

A yeri,a bi, recording angel which
writes with Almost superhuman ac-
curacy every solnd uttered by man,
whether he be a EostOnian, or resi-
dent of Canton, China; whether he
speak with peuotrating accent or
in a mushy, muffled tone, is in the
city. The angels tel. stial abode IS
in the Office of the d,partment OF
languages at the School ~ American
Archaeology in the Old Pal and its
custodian is John p HARRINGTON, the
linguist of the school,
The machine is not phonograph,
graphophone nor talking machine. It's
name is kymo-graph, or ''wave-writ'
er." and is the marvellous invention
of French Catholic priest, Liable ?.
J Rousselot. who spent twenty years
or more perfecting it and in writing
an elaborate treatise on its use. Faith
er RousselOt is professor at the Cath
olic Institute of Paris, and director OF
the experimental phonetic laboratory
of the college of France. He design
ed the kymo-graph because there was
need of some instrument TO recora
rcorrectly a strange tongue. Hereto
fore. when a language without litera-
| ture was studied, native was en-
ployed to talk the language and the
student wrote it down as accurately
as he knew how. But as no two peo-
pie could reproduce this spoken
tongue in exactly the same way, for
no two pairs Of ears heard ii just the
same, there was bound to be wide
difference in the records making the
study of the language extremely diff
cult for the present generations and
probably impossible for future genera
tiOns
With the kymograph, however, ev-
cry sound is caught by the wonderful
feather wing" of the angel, and
graphically shown on a glazed paper
wound around a cylinder IL inches
| long and > inches in diameter, the
paper having first been smoked by
lamp black, so as TO let the feather
raise the DUST and leave white or
/ silvery thread in its wake.
To make the record permanent the
paper is dipped into some kind of
varnish and can be photographed and
printed for the use of students for all
! time.
In this way no language will ever
really die. for complete record can
! be had Of its pronunciation and with
the key furnished by Father Rousselot
almost any one can learn what those
rlyster X Hooi,lng silver traces y'fal
ly mean.
The "Angel" Talks.
A representative Of the New Mexi
can called on the angelic reporter at
the Old Palace this morning and
coached by Mr.. Harrington and en-
couraged by Jesse L. Nusbaum, the
angel exhibited some OF its marvel
lous writing. The speaker takes the
tube familiar to everyone who has
made a phonograph record and talks
into it. The mouthpiece is called an
ear (or "oreille" by the inventor, fol-
it is ear-shaped). The feather wing
is adjusted much as a phonograph' S
reproducer or its recorder and il
makes straight line when there is
silence but the instant the student OF
linguist speaks, then the wing takes
flight, to the right or left. If word
is begun with the vowel E, for in
stance, the feather jumps to the right
and then to the left, making wedge
When the speaker rolls his RS in SaI
Francisco style, the feather fairly
huns. and leaves a spider web of silv
cry marks. Other vowels seem also tC
act as irritants, though, of course, the
recording angel does not possess ever
a chemical trace of the sin of i'm
patience, but the feathery wing seem:
to have that fault, cultivated to higf
degree.
MarceIle and Other Waves.
Finally the speech is recorded anC
Mr.. Harrington stops the machine, b!
turning a screw which controls tn,
''focault' or regulator which increase
or diminishes the speed of the angelo
scribbling. There, before your aston
ished eyes, is your speech in thi
writing, more curious than Hebrey
Chinese or Arabic. You have no
touched a pen, pencil or crayon: yol
have had no stenographer, no typis
The recording angel has performe
. the work, all you had to do was t
talk, which is no labor for many An,
such interesting work. Truly you sa
as you leave the machine, it has bee
well named the wave writer" fo
there you see every conceivable wave
even the marcelle with all it's poetic
rhythmic beauty; the curves of tn
great pitcher are there, too, inshoots
. outshoots, drops.
Who Will Read It?
But who will read it? Well, F'athe
Rousselot has provided for that tas
by writing two immense volume
which cost sixty francs and which ar
: labeled "Principes de Phonetique e,
perimentale" or Experimental Phone
ic Principles. Glancing through tn
book you muse: rs this traine
nurses graphic chart showing til
l. rise and fall of the patients temper
ture? Or is it one of DR.. Kellogg
g famous stomach analysis charts sho,
.