The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-15
Phonopticon Designed by Or. F. G.
Brown, Makes 1t Possible for
the Blind to Read
Print
EMPLOYS ELECTRICITY
This Device win Help Soldiers Who
Have Been Rendered
slghtless Through
Wounds.

To an American and an Iowan has
come the honor of inventing an cleo
trical mechanism which removes all
barriers between the blind and the
world of print. Germany, Italy and
England have already taken note OF
the invention Of the phonopticon by
DR.. F. C. Brown, a professor in the
physics department OF the State uni
versity of Iowa. With the war blind
ing so many of its soldiers, scientists
OF Germany have been endeavoring to
invent something that would make
possible the reading OF newspapers
and books aside from the method now
used by the blind, the raised letters,
an expensive procedure and necessar-
lily very limited.
The only phonopticon in the world
DR.. Brown sent to the western Elec-
trio company, which Will manufacture
the new invention that promises to
make him world famous.
New Eye" for tho Blind.
DR.. Browns invention has been
written up in many scientific publica-
lions and several newspapers. Dr..
Brown says he can see no reason why
the phonopticon cannot eventually be
perfected so that pictures Jean be
readily distinguished by the blind
The instrument seems destined to rev.
olutionize the education OF the sight
less. DR.. Brown for two years has
been working to perfect an instru-
ment which would convert sight I'M
pressions into sound sensations.
In reading with the instrument the
operator moves little box, called the
"eye" over the line Of print. Then
through telephone receivers fastened
to his ears he hears musical tones.
Each letter gives out certain comDt-
nation of tones, a sort OF melody, and
the more complex the shape of the let
ter, the more complicated will be the
tune" "W' for instance, sounds like
mi, Do. Mi, Do, Mi" or, in the key of
C like "E c. e. c. E."
The machine was given its first
thorough test at the Berkeley, Cali
fornia, institute for the deaf and blind.
Here. out OF twenty blind pupils only
two failed to distinguish letters with
the phonopticon. Hugh Buckingham,
Jr., an honor graduate OF the UNI
yersitv of California and blind man
and DR.. Newell Perry, president OF
the National Society for Higher Edu-
cation Of the Blind examined the ma
chine and were enthusiastic over ITS
possibilities. Since then number OF
blind persons, one of them an Iowa
lawyer have asked DR.. Brown for an
equipment
The device consists Of the box
shaped "eye," set of electrical con-
nections and a sound producing ap-
paratus with telephone receivers. The
electrical circuits are 80 regulated
that when the ''eye" passes over
white paper only, no sounds are
heard. This is because the sound pro-
ducing devices are put in a branch
circuit, and the current goes into THIS
branch circuit only when resistance
to its flow is introduced into the main
circuit. The resistance is Furnished
by selenium crystals. When the eye
moves over the black line OF letter,
this cutting off of light from the crys-
tails increases their resistance to the
current so that part OF the electri-
CITY is shot into the branch circuit
where the tones are produced.
How Tones Are Produced.
The tones are produced Dy passing
the current through segnneneeu
wheels which are similar to the COM
mutators on ordinary electric motors.
The current is made and broken or
Uninterrupted" several times a second
by the rims of the wheels. The rapid
interruptfons OF the current are
changed into definite musical tones
In the telephone receivers. There Is
ono selenium crystal and one seq
mented wheel for each tone the ma
chine gives out. The upper part or
letter affects crystal number one. A
current ia shot into the wheel hav-