The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

8 THE PHONOSCOPE June, 189? THE PHONOSCOPE Copyrighted 1896 published monthly by THE PHONOSCOPE PUBLISHING CO. 4 EAST 14th STREET, NEW YORK, U. S. A. Russell Hunting, Editor. Emil Imandt, Manager. All the "moving picture" machines are operated upon the same general plan and all depend for their success upon the well-known fact that the retina of the human eye does not instantly lose visual impressions made upon it. A series of photographs are thrown upon a screen in such rapid succession as to deceive the eye. Before one photograph is firmly fixed on the retina, another, slightly different, succeeds it, and the two, blending, give the beholder the impression of motion. They made a mad rush for the exits, and it looked for a little while as if some of the women and children would be crushed in the stampede. Sergeant Daily and Patrolman Rohry of the West Thirtieth Street Police Station, were at the doors, and they cried to the excited crowd to be calm, assuring them there was no danger. They restored order, and the audience then filed out in an orderly way. The fire was extinguished within a few minutes. The Edison Vitascope Building at Boynton Beach was burned last month. G. A. Boschen, who had charge of the place, went out to see a fight between two colored women in the street. About ten minutes later W, H. Smith discovered flames pouring out of the building. Help was summoned and the flames were soon put out. The whole place was gutted, causing a loss of about $i,ooo. Xooktno at Btgestion The Ri'intgen rays have just been applied to the study of the processes of swallowing and digestion by Moser and Cannon, two students in the Harvard Medical school. The following account of their methods and results is quoted from an abstract in Science, June nth, of a description of the experiments read by Prof. H. P. Bowditch before the American Physiological Society: "Moist bread, meat, mush or viscide fluids were mixed with subnitrate of bismuth. Food thus prepared is visible during the process of deglutition, and, if given in sufficient quantities, serves to outline the stomach and to render its peristaltic movements visible. Observations on a goose showed that a bolus of such food, swallowed without water, moved slowly and regularly down the esophagus. There was no evidence of squirting. The movement was slower in the lower part of the neck. When water was given with the boluses the movement was irregular. Viscid fluids were swallowed in the same peristaltic way. Experiments with a cat showed that a bolus of meat moved down the esophagus regularly with no interruption or shooting movement. In the neck and from the level of the apex of the heart to the stomach the rate was lower than in the intermediate region. When the water was added, the bolus shot down at irregular intervals, but at the level of the apex of the heart the rate always slackened and the bolus moved showly into the stomach. Thin mush and viscid fluids were also carried down by peristalsis. Large boluses stopped in the lower half of the thorax with each expiration, and descended with each inspiration. The examination of a cat's stomach filled with food mixed with subnitrate of bismuth, showed the occurrence of a constriction at about the middle of the organ, which slowly moved toward the pylorus and was followed by other peristaltic waves at intervals of about ten seconds. The food thus pressed onward the pylorus did not pass into the duodenum, but returned apparently through the central portion of the organ, since the wave of construction was never sufficient to obliterate the whole cavity The possibilities of a method of this kind are quite evident, even to the casual reader and it seems propably that the Rontgeu rays are to reveal to us not only peculiarities of the bony skeleton but many of the movements and processes that take place within the soft parts of the body — a result hardly hoped for a year ago. SUBSCRIPTION : United States and Canada Foreign Countries Single Copies ji.oo per year 1.50 ioc. each Danger ! ADVERTISING RATES FURNISHED ON APPLICATION THE PHONOSCOPE is the only journal in the world published in the interest of Talking Machines, Picture Projecting and Auiruating Devices, and Scientific and Amusement Inventions appertaining to Sound and Sight. Correspondents in I.oudon, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, Alexandria aud Constantinople, Australia, South America, Central America, Canada and 108 cities in the United States. No business in the world has a greater share of ' "advise-givers" 1 ban that connected with the phonograph and graphophone. The man who never took areeoid in his life is the first one to advise how it should be done. The party who hears a talking machine for the first time thinks he or she knows th-i course to follow and what should be done to improve the quality or tone of the record. People who give advice may be divided into two classes — those who volunteer advice and those from whom it is sought, The one class is universally disliked, and the other is highly esteemed. The main difference between the advisers who are loved and the advisers who are detested is that the aim of the one class is to help and shield any who trust in their judgment and good will, while the aim of the other class is to assume an attitude of superiority to the people to whom they are speaking, and so glorify themselves. Although the world at large may not consciously make this analysis of advisers' objects, it recognizes its truth in the practical foini of detesting the meddlers. Try to bring up before your mind's eye the people you know who ate til ways advising and instructing others as a personal indulgence and gratification, and you will notice that at least half of them are ignorant aud incompetent in more than an ordinary degree. In a company of workmen it is generally one of the least capable who has most to i-ay about the manner in which work has to be done. The very self-satisfaction which makes a man proudly "knowing" is a bar to the highest achievement. He has persuaded himself that he is easily master of his business, and so neglects the effoit which would increase his skill. The old saying about "great talkers" being "little doers" holds good in advice giving; and it is a safe rule to regard with watchfulness, if not with su-picion, people who pour out their offerings of information and direction unasked. Since our first issue of The Phonoscope we have been overwhelmed with good wishes and advice. We were the first in the field to start a legitimate journal devoted to talking machines, picture projecting devices, and kindred inventions, and now that we have started, the ones that were crying for an impartial sheet, show their appreciation of our efforts by showering us with good advice. We are willing to accept our share in this direction, but our friends and others should remember the fact that a subscription blank properly tilled out, accom. panied by one of Uncle Sam's vouchers would make us much better iialurcd , and serve to "further the good cause," Our printers seriously object to being paid with advice. Operators of the various projecting devices should use extreme care during their exhibitions and guard against "over-heating," "short-circuits," etc. Reports have reached us from various parts of the country where the Insurance and Fire Commissioners consider the machines dangerous and are condemning their use. Fire Wardens Miller and Reif, of Cleveland, Ohio, have made the following report on the subject to Director of Fire Service Hechler: "We would respectfully report that we investigated fire report of June 7, in one-story frame and brick building, 22-24 Public Square, owned by Hull & Dutton, occupied by O'Donnell & Quinn, and found cause of fire to be a spark from the arc light in the kinetoscope machine to celluloid film, and in our opinion said machines are very dangerous in any building. We also inspected other kinetoscope machines in the city and found them to be dangerous, even when handled with the utmost care by a skilled operator. The distance from the lens to the celluloid films is about eight inches, and if the film is not kept moving and the cap is off the lens, the film will ignite immediately. It is so powerful that you cannot hold your hand before said light when cap is off, and what makes it more dangerous is that they have the films, which are not iii use, hanging up alongside of the machine, and everything about the machine is inflammable. We condemn the use of said machines in any building in the city, and especially in places of amusement." "If those kinetoscopes are as dangerous as the fire wardens represent, I shall have to exclude them from all the down-town buildings. No such dangerous risks can be taken as that. Of course an investigation will have to be made before any action is taken." Secretary A. I. Truesdell, of the Cleveland Board of Underwriters, says that the board's electrician, Mr. Cleveland, is investigating the kineto-. scope and similar machines with a view of gaining a thorough knowledge of their workings, in order to determine whether or not they are apt to cause conflagrations. "If we find, as I think we shall," says Mr. Truesdell, "that they are very dangerous, we shall take active measures to keep them out; not by raising rates of insurance, but by prohibiting their use in buildings insured by members of the board." i Sparks from the sygmograph, the projecting machine in the Eden Musee, in Twenty-third Street, N. Y., one evening last month ignited one of the curtains, and there was a panic. No one was injured, aside from the effects of the fright, and the fire was put out after destroying #250 worth of property. The motor which operates the sygmograph is on the stage, and sometimes the machine becomes too hot. This was the case last night, and in an instant the curtain was ablaze. The house holds about 2,000 persons, and about 1,500 were present when the fire occurred.