Year: 1877

'o In q recent number of the Scientific
american an instrument Is described as
the invention Of Mr.. Edison, Of N. j., by
means OF which the words of man may
be audibly reproduced at will years after
they have been uttered. As is the case
In Mr. Edison's speaking telephone, the
tones are propagated from q vibrating
metallic diaphragm, but In the phono-
graph, as the new contrivance d called,
the vibrations Of the plate are recorded
by indentations in a strip Of paper which,
by simple piece of mechanism, may af-
terwards be made to communicate the
original vibrations to another diaphragm,
and thus bring out the words as they
were at first heard. If it shall ever be
possible TO reproduce the quality of a
voice, upon which the recognition of a
speaker largely depends, the phonograph
will place 1t in our power to listen to the
voices of the dead long after the lips
which uttered them shall have crumbled
into dust. Even now mannerisms of
speech through which friends unmistak-
ably recognize each other even when the
voice of the speaker is disguised, and
which are therefore most intimately con-
nected with personality, can be reechoed
lat least In plausible theory-by means
Of this instrument, through which any
man may If he chooses make for himself
q C0mtean sort of immortality which at
any moment may be quickened at the
pleasure of his survivors. This, howev-
er, he might do as effectually by simply
committing his precepts to writing, CHI
rography being quite as characteristic as
peculiarities of diction. We imagine
that 1t will be long time before we
shall be able to preserve the voices of
our ancestors in our houses, as the Egyp-
tians kept the mummied bodies of theirs;
but the promise and potency Of the pho
nograph point to day in which there
shall be faint approach to the unlock
ing Of that vast library, the air, Of which
Charles Babbage said that it contained
in indelible characters all that s'man has
ever said or woman whispered People


who wish to put themselves on record


will have only to7breathe into the phono-
graph, and then when they, are dead they


may be made to speak as if they were


actually in the flesh, only that they must


be content with repeating all and origl-


mating nothing. ~ ..l -.aI-lr
A further development in the re-


production of men whose bodies and


forces have been dissipated In various
forms of energy ana matter will be


their presentation before our eyes as
they looked when living. Possibly


this desirable object might be accom-


plished by taking great number of
life size photographs of the, subject
from different points of view coloring


them properly and then reproducing


them in relief by, means of mirrors
whereupon the man would appear to


us rs he did In life; and since one set
of photographs might be rapidly or
gradually changed for others, bodily


movements might be represented


which would be quite as natural as
the tones of his voice resounding
through the phonograph in keeping


with the movements of the pAantas-
magory. The production of historical
plays in which the phantoms Of the
real actors OF the scenes depicted
should walk the stage and speak with
the very echo of the voices of the
long dead would be easily possible,
provided only that IN life they had
suited the action to the word and the
word to the action in the presence of
the camera. Great men, unless also
they were very good men with q heart
for the future entertainment and in
struction of the race, might refuse to
mouth their words before the phono-
graph, but when ence one of them
had been induced to do so all the
rest would follow and the giants
among us would be, reproduced for
our children's children unto many
generations. There seems to be
nothing absolutely impossible in this
notion, but we can conscientiously
say that we trust it will never be
made real.