Year: 1878

NY NulCu llo CuKSS du lIlSUuu tullCOltS
photograph. Let lis suppose that
he photographs DR.. Chaplin every
second, and we tako down his ser
mon on the matrix Of the phono-
graph. The pictures and gestures
of the orator, as well as his voice,
could be exactly reproduced, and
the eyos and ears of the audience
charmed by the voice and manner of
the speaker.


"Whole dramas and operas,
continued Mr.. Edison, his eyes
sparkling with excitement, ''can DO
produced in private parlors Tho
instrument can be used in u thous-
and ways. Say I hire good clo-
cutionist to read David Copperfeld
OF any other work. His words arc
taken down by machine, and thous-
ands Of Eiatrixes Of David Copper
field produced. A man can place
them in the machine, and lie in bed
while tho novel is read to him by
the instrument with the finest grade
of feeling and accent. He can make
it read slow or fast, can stop it when
he pleases, and go back and begin
again at any chapter ho may choose.
[ could fix q machine in q wall, and
by resonations any conversation in
o room could be recorded Politl-
cal secrets and the Vaccinations of
Wall street pools might bo brought
to light, aud the account charged to
the devil. Kind parents could lie in
bed and hear all the spooney COURT
ship of daughters and their lovers.
A man who loved the music of the
banjo or the fiddle could buy his
matrix and listen to Horace Weston
or Mollenhauer whenever ho liked.
He could have tho whole of Theo-
dore Thomas orchestra if he
wanted it.


"To certain degree" said Mr..
Edison, "the speaking phonograph
would do away with photography.
A man could dictate to his machine
Whenever he pleased, turn the ma
chine over to an amanuonsis, and
let him write it out A lawyer
through the machine might make an
argument before court, even if he
had been in his grave a year. An
editor Or reporter might dictate a
column at midnight and send the
machine up to the compositor, who
could set the type at the dictation
of the machine without scrap Of
manuscript. One Of the most re-
markable features of tho invention
is the fact that the diaphragm can
be placed in steam whistles and
made to talk like calliope. Tho
captains of ships at sea miles away
from each othor could converse
without trouble, and correct their
chronometers. The steam whistles
would throw any voice into articu-
late speech. With q metal dia-
phragm in the whistle of locomo-
tive the engineer could roar out the
name of the next station in q voice
so loud that it could be heard by
every passenger on tho train and by
every man within distance Of two
miles.


"Why," said the professor, "I
could put a metal diaphragm in the
mouth Of the Goddess of Liberty
that the Frenchmen are going to
put up on Bodloe's Island that
would make her talk so loud that
she could be Leard by ovory soul on
Manhattan Island. I could drop
one in calliope and set it talking
80 that men could hear it miles
away. One might be used as an
alarm clock. If it's owner wanted to
got up ut certain time in the morn
ing, ho could set tho alarm, and at
the appointed hour tho machine
would scream Halo, there Five
o'clock ! What's the matter with
you Why don't you get up ? "


elbow did you discover the prin
ciple ?" asked the writer.


''By the merest accident" snid
the Professor. II was singing to
the mouthpiece of telephone,
when the vibrations of the voice
sent the fine steel point into my
finger. That sot me to thinking.
If could record the actions of tho
point, and send the point over the
same surface afterward, T saw no
reason why the thing would not
talk. I tried tho experiment first
on strip of telegraph paper and
found that the point made al alpha
bet. I shouted the words 'Halloo
ho1loo 4 into tha r,outh,,ioca ron