Year: 1878

While it is not safe to limit the possibilities
of science and ingenuity in the future, we
may well doubt whether there will be more
remarkable inventions in the remainder OF
this century than the telephone and the pho
nocraph. In the history of their invention,
the two instruments are intimately con-
nected, one having doubtless suggested
the other. We shall not undertake to
say which is the more wonderful, but Profess
sor Arnold, whose lecture of Saturday even
ing we print in full to-day, in other columns,
gives the preference to the phOnograph-the
machine which stores away speech and re-
produces At when wanted. Perhaps the next
step of inventive ingenuity will be
To combine the two contrvanccs. so that
message uttered at distance through tclc-
phone will be recorded for use at leisure. hy
the photograph, at the receiving station This
would obyiate some Of the present inc0nye-
nicnces in using the telephone, and might
help to make it of more general service.


The mechanical theory of the phonOgraph is
so exceedingly simple, that the wonder is that
it was not invented long ago. The fact that
a thin plate or membrane vibrates to sound
that strikes il, was recognized many years
since as a possible means OF transcrib-
ing sound. Many attempts to dccipher
the record have been made. The re-
cord itself has been obtained, just
as it is in the phonograph, by means of steel
point attached to the vibrating membrane.
In Mr.. Edson's invention, the vibrating point
impresses its record upon a sheet of tin
foil, which is wrapped on groOycd cyl
indcr. The cylinder moves lcngthwise rs it
turns around, SO that the record is spiral
upon it, like the thread of a So far, there
is nothing surprising. The extraordinary per-
formance is that when the cylinder is set back at
its starting point and turned again, the eeva-
tions and depressions i'll the tin-fol move the
vibrating point back and forth, and with il the
membrane setting w anew the vibrations OF
the ar, and thus reproducing the sound itself !;
giving back words, speech, laughter OF music,
with startling fidelity.


II is too soon to say what may be the uses
of this strange instrument. AS yet its tone is
metallic and its enunclatOn hOarse and obscure (;
but already il is improving in these partcu-
lars as the causes of its defects are discovered.
Methods will undoubtedly be devised for max
ing its voice louder Us well as more distinct.
Obviously this can be done by any means
which enlarge its record, the impression on
tin-foil being now almost microscopic. Per-
haps this may be done directly, if the
vibrations can themselves be enlarged by
mechanical connections like those of a penta
graph. Perhaps it may be done by means of
electrotypes from the tin-foil, which will be
Increased in all their dimensions by some of
the recent processes OF photO-cngravng.
Among the results hoped for, or suggested
is that the actual song Of prlma
donna may thus be transferred TO the
hand organs though whether street music
will be thereby improved, is at least
doubtful. more useful device, if it can be
perfected, will be to attach machine with
abundant power of sound to each lighthouse
so that from the dangerous rocks their own
name, loudly aud continually repeated, may
warn the approaching navigator. For such a
SIRENS song, the whole world would be thank
ful