Evening journal., 1910-07-19
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Invention That Edison
Thought Would Beat the
PhOnOgraph Com
merCially
Rv "HOIIand.v
BY "HOIIand."

Yesterday told the story of the late
Charles A. Dana's doubt of Edison's
good faith in claiming that he had in
vented a talking machine after the
late Amos j. Cummings and myself
had reported to Mr.. Dana that Edison
had demonstrated the machine to us,
even going so far as TO make It re-
produce Mr.. Cummings own voice, in
Election and all with distinctness.
After he had shown us the talking
machine, explained its mechanism and
made IT perform for us. Mr. Edison
went on to say that he had got the
idea for the machine while he was at
work perfecting his microphone trans
mitter. extensively employed in the
earlier telephones.
zone invention almost invariably
suggests another" he went on. All
sorts of notions came to me while |
was working out this talking machine.
One of them you will see in that big
! funnel up there" He pointed to a
shelf upon which rested or hung, a
! looking object resembling a
! gigantic funnel of about tall man
height And I'm inclined to think,
| he went on. that there's going to be
more profit in that thing than in this
! talking machine here / have about
made up my mnd that I won't work
on anything unless IL seems to me to
have some commercial practicability.
7 can make hundreds of toys, but any
fellow with a little ingenuity and pa
thence can do that. Maybe this talk
/ ing machine is going to be not much
more than a toy, after all, but that
/ thing over there-well I'll show you
how IL works.
He called two of his assistants to bis
side and directed them to take their
station on the crown Of hill about
half mile away.
While they we're doing so, Mr.. Edi-
son had the big funnel shaped thing
! taken out I'm front of his shop. Then,
when the men had posted themselves
on the hill and stood facing us, an as
sistant, getting under the big end of
! the funnel. held It up while Edison
called through the other end From
time TO time the men upon the hill
made gestures to indicate that they
had heard and understood what Edi-
son was saying. Finally Edison beck
oned TO them to report in. and when
they had done so they repeated practi-
cally word for word what we had heard
their employer say to them through
the funnel
Mr.. Cummings and | were almost as
much astOnished over this demOnstra-
ton as we had previously been over
the talking machine. What do you
call the thing?' | asked Mr.. Edison.
well, it makes a big sound, and /
think I'll call it the megaphone,' re-
piled Mr.. Edison. 'As I have already
told YOU | sometimes think there will
be a great deal more in 1t for me tinan-
cialy than in the talking machine. 1t
will be a great thing on ships; with
its aid one ship at distance can hail
another ship easily, and captain can
shout his orders clearly and distinctly
through it to the uttermost ends OF his
vessel Il can be used on land, also,
/ for conversing at great distances, In
| short, this megaphone Of mine en-
largcs the zone of action of the hui
| man voice, and for this reason | am
inclined to think at times that it will
be a more profitable invention thar
the talking machine. You have seer
what IL can do, and it does II just as
easy as rolling off a log"
presume that this was the frs
public demonstration of the Edison in
vention that has passed into universe
use under the name megaphone-s
contribution of human progress tina
has brought its father cents where the
photograph has added to his wealth
by the hundred thousands OF dollars
Copyright 1910, by z. j. Edwards
All rights reserved.
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell o.
"Ihe Invention That Edison Was Paif
for Mostly in Experience"