Evening star., 1937-03-28


Is being offered. Their quiet ploddlng
in secluded laboratories has just
Welded the discovery that the human
ear not only can listen to loud
speaker, but can itself act as loud
speaker.
Working behind the ivy-clad walls
OF Harvard University building, DR..
S. S. Stevens has been finding out IN
teresting things about the appendages
that protrude from the side of the
head. Starting with the already
known fact that the ear generates an
electrical wave when it is struck by
sound, DR.. Stevens wondered If the
process could be reversed so that the
ear would send out sound when It was
struck by an electrical wave.
THE Harvard Savant borrowed few
pairs of ears, along with their
owners, and went at the job of max
ing them do new tricks. He rinsed
them out nicely so that wax would
not gum up the works and then
filled them with mild solution OF
salt water In this solution he stuck
a bit of copper wire coated with solder,
inserting it about quarter OF an inch
in toward the eardrum. To obtain a
ground" connection he ran wire to
An aluminium disc strapped to the
subjects arm.
With this setup in place, DR..
Stevens connected to a radio set be-
tween the tubes and the loud speaker
so that the human loud speaker would
receive the same electrical impulses
that are fed into the radio loud
speaker.
The radio set was turned on and the
experiment was under way The whole
process, like all scientific inveStiga-
tions, was done over long period and
repeated in different forms, but the
results can be summarized briefly.
Tones were heard by the owners of
the ears, but they were not pure like
the tones that pour forth from the
modern dynamic loud speaker They
were tones, nevertheless, and the
pitch could be identified. Music was
heard and popular tunes were recog-
nlzed, but the quality was poor-tln-
panny, the subjects told DR.. Stevens
Speech could be recognized as speech
but only occasional words could be
understood
THE professor has decided the elec-
trical currents that go from the
radio tubes into the loudspeaker set
up mechanical vibrations in the ear
lot ,-ih lo
ear mechanisms just as sound vibra-
tons affect it. He concluded there
must be membrane in the ear which
is electrically charged so that it is
set in motion when an electrical wave
is introduced. In other words, the ear
acts like the condenser microphone
that is used in many studios picking
up sound waves and transferring them
into electrical waves. Condenser mic
rophones also reverse this process and
so does the human ear, which thus
can be either nlicrophone or a loud
speaker
The next trick is to find out why
the human ear acts as such a poor
loudspeaker. If the ear can be con-
verted into good loudspeaker, then
1t is hoped that electrical impulses
can be made to improve the hearing
Of deaf persons. These possibilities
remain to be explored" says Dr.
Stevens.
NTETROPOLITAN OPERAS con-
clusion of its New York season
yesterday does not mean the end Of
its full-length broadcasts over the
National Broadcasting Co.'S network.
When the famous operate troupe
moves to Boston for its April 3 and 10
performances the broadcasts will again
be carried over the red network, with
Milton Cross continuing to announce.
Whether the opera will be carried
from other cities on the Metropolitan
Spring tour has not been decided.
Lovers of the better music April 3
will have to tune to new network for
the Sunday night General Motors
concerts, N. B. c. announces. In
stead of being heard on the red net
work thereafter, it will be shifted to
the blue network and the time will be
to 9 pm. That period on the red
network is occupied by the DO You
Want to Be an Actor?' program.
Carnegie Hall will continue to be the
originating point.
ID DICHARD BONELLI, baritone Of
the Metropolitan Opera Company,
will be the soloist during the Sunday
Evening Hour on WJSV and other
Columbia stations tonight at o'clock.
The orchestra will be directed by Alex
ander Smallens. The program fol-
lows:
Russian Easter Overture
Rimsky-Korsakow
Orchestra.
"Danks srln, Sci dir Gott'" from Israel u.ldd2 in
Bonelli and Orchestra
"slegmund,s rnU1s;, Love Song from Die Die
Talk '''e'-' -1-NA',0' Gnu " w j, Cameron
"seheszo" from "A Midsummer Nishss snss
Urea" Orchestra. Ne"0e'SSoin
.., lBonelli and Orchestra.
. Bonelli and Orchestra.
"Hanelujah Chorus from THE Mes
slah' Handel
Chorus and Orchestra.
'Trana' Albeniz
Orchestra.
Easter Hymn" from 'Lyra Davidica"
Chorus and Orchestra.
CONGS, music and drama and COM
edy of so years ago will be con-
trasted with those of modern times in
ut Rings True" a new radio drama
tization to be broadcast by WRC at g.