The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. t. No. 4 11 '(Btapbs, phones anb 'Scopes The Spectroscope The largest spectroscope in the world has just been completed by Prof. John A. Brashear, the famous instrument maker of Allegheny, Pa. It has been made especially for Dr. Hans Hauswaldt, a wealthy scientist of Magdeburg, Germany, where it will be used in physical research, and it is expected that many important discoveries will be made with its aid. The two most powerful spectroscopes now in use are at the Royal University, of Diiblin, and the McGill University, of Toronto, Canada. These instruments were also made by Professor Brashear. The powerful concave grating instrument is 21 feet long, and will require a room about 28 feet square in which to operate it. It is to be used for physical investigations of a very high character, and the design and construction were settled upon by Professor Brashear and Dr. H. Kavser, of the University of Bonn. It is also very probable that Dr. Hauswaldt will have other powerful instruments of research made by Professor Brashear, as correspondence is now going on in regard to great physical and astronomical instruments that are to be placed in the new laboratory now being equipped by him in Magdeburg. Dr. Hauswaldt has gained considerable fame in Germany by his experiments, and he is sparing nothing in the equipment of his laboratory, which, when complete, will be one of the finest in Europe, and will far excel any in this country. The grating to be used on the powerful spectroscope has a six-inch aperture, and is ruled with 1 10,000 lines. So accurately are these lines ruled that there is no difference an) greater than threemillionths of an inch between any of them. This instrument is so powerful that where an ordinary spectroscope would show from 100 to 200 lines belonging to the spectrum of iron, it will reveal more than 2,000. It used to be considered that a spectroscope that could show the sodium lines double was one of great power. The great instrument to be sent to Germany not only shows each of these lines double, but with the sun low in the meridian as many as fifteen lines may be seen between the sodium lines. The new spectroscope has its greatest power, however, in the way of photography. The spectrum of the sun has been photographed to a length of over sixty feet, literally crowded with lines from one end to the other. It is so arranged that no matter what part of the spectrum it is desired to photograph the photographic plate is always in focus for every part of the spectrum. "This large instrument is also valuable in making comparisons of anything that may be burning in the sun," said Professor Brashear, in speaking of his great work. "Suppose, for instance, w'e wish to determine if the metal calcium is in a state of gas in the light that is coming from the sun. We have only to turn the sunlight into the slit of this great spectroscope and photograph in the center of our plate the centre of the sun. "A bar is now placed over this part of the plate which has received the impression of the solar spectrum, and now we turn on an electric light, in which we have placed a small piece of pure calcium. In a very brief time the spectrum of the calcium is photographed above aud below the spectrum that came from the sun. The plate is now developed, and here we have a picture of the solar spectrum, running as a narrow strip between the photograph of the metal we have taken. We can see at once the coincidence of the lines of the metal with any lines that may be in the sun. If the lines are in absolute coincidence we may infer from the law of probabilities, which increases as the lines increase, that the metal we have burned in our electric arc is burning in the great fire of the sun. "Many hundreds of these photographs have been taken, and we are now almost as certain of the elements that are burning in our great luminary as those that we burn in the furnace of the metallurgists. So it is with the gases and, indeed, all the chemical elements. Yet, strange to say, while we here on earth recognize oxygen as the great supporter of combustion, the most careful researches with the spectroscope have failed to show the existence of oxygen in the sun. I have in my library an elaborate little manual giving Professor Draper's scientific reasons and proofs that oxygen is burning in the sun, but it has been strongly proved the opposite. "Extraordinary care has been taken to make the instrument as absolutely perfect as is possible for human hands. The German physicists are the most exacting scientists in the world, and their tests of the great spectroscope will be most rigorous. Dr. Hauswaldt has established one of the finest laboratories of its kind in the world, and he has associated with him in his work the best German physicists of the day. He intends, I understand', to devote his fortune and the rest of his days in making advanced researches. His laboratory now far excels those in this country, and the instruments he is talking of adding to the equipment will make it even more admirable. I look for important discoveries in physical science from the famous little town. The circumstances and surroundings certainly favor it. "It has been my great regret that I have been unal le to photograph the instrument just made. I have tried, but it is so large that some parts of it is always placed out of focus in an exaggerated fashion. A camera would have to be placed fifty feet away to get any results at all, aud then they would be very unsatisfactory. I have always had to be satisfied with a mere recollection of the instruments made." The Microphonograph A brief description of an apparatus to magnify the voice just as a lens magnifies objects to the eye ; (the analogy does not seem to be a good one, as the magnification seems be more like that produced by a telegraph relay ) ; it is intended to be used for the deaf and for the study of feeble sounds given out by healthy and diseased organs of the body. The register appears to be a modified phonograph, the diaphragm of which is vibrated by small electro-magnets, the currents for which are obtained from a microphone ; the repeater is a somewhat similar instrument with a microphone attached to the membrane ; the current for this is obtained from one to sixty cells and thence passes to a telephone ; thus the intensity depends on the amount of current passing. The education of deaf mutes by means of this instrument is now being carried on ; it is admirably adapted for studying the action of the heart ; a ten months' treatment of a young deaf mute has shown that the auditory nerves and auditory apparatus have been greatly stimulated to activity by the use of this apparatus, the number of cells required having been reduced from twenty-two to two during that time. A large apparatus of this kind is being constructed, and is intended to make the voice heard by 10,000 persons ; it is intended for the Paris exhibition of 1900. The Phonoplex The operation of the phonoplex is very simple. It serves the purpose of giving any company that uses the instruments an additional telegraph line without being put to the expense of constructing one. The duplex and the quadruplex now in use by the telegraph companies separates the currents that travel along the wire, but they cannot be used except on trunk lines. If a way wire— that is a wire that is used at the various stations along a telegraph line — is wanted for duplexing or quadruplexing all the offices along the line except the terminal points at which the duplex and quadruplex instruments are located, must cut out, that is, must disconnect their instrument from the wire in order that it may be serviceable for duplex or quadruplex use, but with the phonoplex all this is done away with. The way stations can keep their instruments cut in, can telegraph to all or any of the stations, and yet at the same time the wire they are using can be used for entirely distinct service by the phonoplex instrument. What is more, the phonoplex can be used at not only the terminal stations, but at each and every one of the wav stations. A Kitchen Telephone Service A novelty in the extention of the telephone, introduced in San Francisco, may be called a kitchen telephone service. For fifty cents per month the local company will supply an instrument by which orders may be given to the butcher, grocer or other tradesman, but through which no return answer can be received. A further concession is to allow communication with one other subscriber, but any other communication must be paid at the rate of five cents per call. The limit upon the service makes it improbable that more than two calls a day will be made, and these can be provided at the low rate. It is inferred that the service is introduced for the purpose of educating the householder as to the advantage and convenience of the telephone, with the expectation that the trial will lead to a demand for the unlimited service at the higher rate. A Horseless Carriage That which attracted more attention than anything else in Galveston, Texas, last month was a horseless carriage. It traveled over the paved streets, wound in and out among vehicles and street cars and otherwise did the same as any other carriage with horseflesh in the shafts guided by a skillful driver. The lever of the vehicle was handled by Mr. J. Frank Pickering, traveling advertising manager for a Chicago firm. Mr. Pickering arrived in Galveston with two cars, the sides of which were covered with words telling the merits of Mr. Pickering's house. One of these cars is filled with catalogues, posters, paint, signs, etc., and the other is used for an office and living apartments of the six men who travel with Mr. Pickering. In this car are an organ, a phonograph and various other appliances for amusing people in small towns in which the cars are side-tracked while the men decorate walls and buildings. In the bill car are also the electric apparatus which charges the motors in the carriage and which furnishes the light for the cars. The vehicle is not bulky or cumbersome aud its pneumatic tires make riding over the uneven .pavement as pleasant and easy as though the vehicle was gliding along the beach. In appearance it looks very much like a drag or brake. During an exhibition of the vitascope in Elizabeth, N. J., last week considerable excitement prevailed owing to a threatened fire, caused, it is alleged, through the thoughtlessness of the exhibitor. It is said that he used benzine instead of machine oil on the quickly revolving parts, and the great friction caused it to ignite.