The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

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10 THE PHONOSCOPE May, 189? THE PHONOSCOPE Copyrighted 1896 published monthly bv THE PHONOSCOPE PUBLISHING CO. 4 EAST 14th STREET, NEW YORK, U. S. A. SUBSCRIPTION: United States and Canada .... gi.oo per year Foreign Countries 1.50 " Single Copies 10c. each ADVERTISING RATES FURNISHED ON APPLICATION THE PHONOSCOPE is the onhjournal in the world published in the interest of Talking Machines, Picture Projecting and Animating Devices, and Scientific and Amusement Inventions appertaining to Sound and Sight. Correspondents in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, Alexandria and Constantinople, Australia, South America, Central America, Canada and 108 cities in the United States. Recently there have appeared upon the market certain novel and amusing scientific contrivances, the identity of which has been almost completely hidden from the general public under their respective foreign names. For apart from their names, and apart from certain immaterial details of construction, the} are all based upon the same principle, performing their work in more or less the same manner. These are the kinetoscope, vitascope, biograph, verascope, cinematoscope, trioscope, zinograph, projectoscope, mutoscope, phantographoscope, vitagraph, animatoniscope, eidoloscope, cinematograph, and many others too numerous to mention, each and all devised to project on a screen pictures full ofjife and action. Why the inventors should resurrect the dead languages in giving names to so startlingly modern inventions is surprising. The great evil resultant from unclean competition is the general discredit it throws upon a genuine article by the faults which generally are possessed by its imitations. Instead of placing on the market a number of imperfect machines to perform the same work, it would be a great deal more to the interest of science, if the elements at the back of these were to combine and concentrate all their efforts upon the production of one absolutely perfect machine. For nobody can deny that, although the results so far obtained are marvelous to a degree, the 'scopes and all their kin are still in the cradle of infancy. There are yet many drawbacks and imperfections, especially the jerky movement of the films, which no amount of self adulation will ever remove, but which might easily be overcome by frank and loyal co-operation The future of these machines is so great, and their possibilities so limitless, that the sooner they are brought to absolute perfection, the better. A perfect moving picture projecting device cooperating harmoniously with the talking machine would bring about a social revolution; its effect upon all classes of society would be as great as that of steam and electricity have been. From the cradle to the grave, all the actions of man could be shown and preserved for future generations. The lullaby at the cradle, the wedding ceremony, the dirge at the grave, with all their surroundings, pomp, and pagentry could then be supplied to order at so much a roll of films or record cylinders. To amusement caterers, it would be the opening of the millenium; no more disappointments with star-actors or singers, no more wrangles over contracts. The theatrical caterer of the future, no mutter where located, would command the best talent, scenery and stage effects included, just as readily as to-day he is able to buy a score-book or a sheet of music. The centers of art will become even more fixed than herebefore, but not for the same reason. They will then be the printing stations and foundries, from which will issue the best productions with a cast of the very best artists, forming a permanent staff, just as prominent writers and correspondents are to day permanent members on the staff of leading newspapers. The system of education now in vogue will undergo a complete change. Misunderstandings will become less, if not impossible. Lying and falsehood will have a tendency to fly, and the whole world will become a little purer and better. Mires Xflp*to*S)ate The Hartford Courant refers to a new invention in telegraph} by which, instead of, say, 200 words a minute, something like 9,000 a minute can be sent. "This," says the Courant, "is interesting and wonderful, but it isn't up to what other brains are working at and are expected in time to develop." From any center of the Associated Press news is sent to numerous cities by a single operator. In each of the receiving cities a skilled operator takes the letters by ear, strikes the keyboard of his typewriter and puts in print the words as they come along. There is no writing done. As the Courant says, bright minds are now at work trying to perfect a machine that shall be an automatic operator. This idea is to have the telegraph current itself work the keyboard and let the operator who starts the dispatches over the country operate typewriters automatically in every office on the credit circuit. Every few months come reports that this is worked into shape, but as yet the rumors, not the machines, have appeared. Following this we may expect another marvelous change. The copy that comes from the typewriter is taken to the composing room and there the operators upon the linotype machines, reading it over, play upon the keyboards of their machines and turn the text into type ready for use. Some people are predicting that before very long not the typewriter, but the linotype itself will be attached to the news wire, and that the operator afar off, nimbly fingering the delicate telegraphic instrument, will at the same time and by that very action be setting type in every office on the line. When all this and more is accomplished we may expect some material changes in the present method of discriminating the news. Citizen who can afford it will have machines in their own homes to grind out the happenings of the day as they occur while the stuff is red hot. Of course, other lines of progress will not be left down. The telephone will carry into the parlors of the people the music of the concerts, the speeches in congress or in the city council, sermons of the great preachers, the songs of birds in southern lands of perpetual spring. If cannonading is then indulged in along the Milouna pass an American will adjust his keyboard and hear the great guns. Not only so. It is contended by some that animated pictures will soon be transmitted over the wires, and that one will then be enabled to see and talk to his friends and relatives in distant states, or even those across the pond, at a most trifling cost. Distance will thus be annihilated, and, though separated by continents or seas, we shall all talk to each other, see each other and hug and kiss each other at will. No young man will then have to go a hundred miles to see his sweetheart. He will not have to go to see her at all. What will be the use, when they are able to look into each other's faces and sigh by wire. As for the X-rays, nobody can ever predict just what they are going to do for us. They, or other rays equally wonderful and helpful, may yet enable us to look through other planets and to see the queer creatures that inhabit them. We are great wireworkers. Our own ingenuity astonishes us every day. ©oils move at mm An apparent manifestation of an entirely new force in nature is attracting attention among the scientific men and the curious people in the neighborhood of East Providence, R. I. Out of the road leading to Rumford stands an odd-looking onestory frame house. In it resides an old man, John Nelson Sherman, who has mystified many scientists by his wonderful performances. Except the abnormal size of his hands, there is nothing remarkable in the appearance of the old gentleman himself. He is 78 years old, with long, snow-white hair and beard. His kindly blue eyes light up a face which shows but slightly the wrinkles of time, and his pleasant smile bids all welcome to the "museum," as it is called, because of the number of archaeological and geological specimens exhibited in the yard surrounding the house. A queer collection of oddities in wood and stone is arranged in the front of the house. Besides the odd lot of stones, some queer roots and knots of trees had also taken his fancy, many of them representing snakes, birds and other animals. There were huge fern stalks, relics of the carboniferous age, and a petrified fish. Several stones were painted to represent faces. A stone owl perched on a gnarled root was very curious. One bench held pieces of quartz, including masses of white crystal. There were also whales' teeth, with curious pictures engraved on them — the work of sailors; a quahaug which had been turned to stone; a piece of cloth made from the bark of a tree from the Sandwich Island, and a sharks' tooth which had been found at the bottom of an artesian well. A sign outside, painted on a slab of stone, reads: "Free museum, walk in." The old gentleman describes with pleasure the various curiosities outside, the house, but his hobby is to invite visitors inside. Passing through the parlor and kitchen, one is ushered into the "holy of holies." There one finds placed upon a table a puzzling array of bottles and tumblers of all descriptions. Suspended from the corks by a pendulum, finely balanced, is a brass rod, which hangs down inside the bottle. At the bottom of the rod is a small brass ball. These are so arranged that vibrations cause the pendulum to swing upon the sides of the bottle. Some 18 or 20 of these bottles are placed upon the table. The old gentleman seats himself at the table, placing his hands upon it lightly. He will ask vou to designate any particular ball which you would like to see swing, and without any perceptible motion on his part, it will commence to vibrate, very slowly at first, gradually increasing in force, until it obtains sufficient momentum to strike the sides of the bottle. It seems to be sensient, for on asking it to knock a certain number of times it will respond accordingly. The curious thing is that all the other pendulums remain perfectly still while the particular one is in motion, thereby precluding the idea that it was caused by vibration imparted to the table by human hands. On being asked: "What does it?" his reply invariably is: "I don't know, and should be very pleased if any one could inform me. I do not w ish to deceive myself, but I believe it must be the work of a disembodied intelligence. I was impressed with the idea ten years ago, and cannot explain it any better to-day." The suggestion of electricitv is impossible, for every child knows that glass is a non-conductor.