The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. III. No. 9 THE PHONOSCOPE 13 Xegal IHoticee The Edison Phonograph Company of Cincinnati, O., has filed suit in the Superior Court to enjoin Ilsen & Company from renting or selling any of the Edison Phonographs, Graphophones or talking-machines in this city and state. It is alleged that under the contract and rights acquired from the owners of the patents of the machines the plaintiff has the exclusive right to rent and sell the machines in this state, and that the owners have been disregarding the rights of the plaintiff under its contract. C. W. Baker, attorney. E. H. Friend, attorney for Jeffries, Sharkey, Thomas O'Rourke and William Brady, got an injunction from Justice Bookstaver restraining George H. Huber, of Huber's Museum, in East Fourteenth Street, New York City, from showing moving pictures of the big fight on November 3, last. Friend alleges that less than eight per cent, of the pictures are genuine ; that the managers of the fight were under heavy expenses for the illumination of the building and that arrangements had been made with the fighters for reproducing the fight with the biograph. It is contended that the taking of the pictures was a part of the sparring exhibition. This the first injunction ever served on the exhibitors of any moving pictures. Proceedings have been begun in the United States Circuit Court by Fred. C. Hieronimus against Frank P. and George Leffingwell to recover $10,000 damages. It is understood that Hieronimus, invested between $5,000 and $10,000 to aid Leffingwells in the promotion of a device for taking and exhibiting cinematographic views in a manner much more rapid than the method now in use. The declaration, which will probably be filed soon, will allege that the device in question is not in reality patentable and that Hieronimus was induced by false representations to invest his money. No patent has been issued, though a caveat had been filed, and the issuance of the patent has been pending for over a year. H ILibrai^ of IDofces The Phonograph as a Cure For Throat and Vocal Troubles A brand new use for the Phonograph has been discovered, and this now quite common household toy will henceforth become an implement of medical scientists. The doctors — those at least who make a special study of throat affections — have opened up a new field of usefulness for the little instrument. There are in New York a number of medical laboratories where the tables and shelves are laden down with every type of Phonograph into whose funnels for several months past the coughs, hoarse whisperings and all the labored sounds of diseased throats have been poured and fixed permanently upon cylinders of wax. Every malady of the palate, throat, chest and nasal cavities has been registered in this way and all for the advancement of science and the ultimate benefit of afflicted humanity. One doctor — a man of national reputation and one of the most progressive physicians— has a collection of these curious Phonograph cylinders that is worth a medical college education for the student of that delicate organ, the throat. Marked, dated and described, this doctor's Phonographic cylinders can be brought out at any time, slipped into one of the little talking machines and the whole study of the case reviewed. One of the pioneers in "medical phonetics" — that's what he terms it — has over 600 cylinders with records of coughs and at least 1,200 others, carrying the voices of some of the world's greatest singers. It is a part of this physician's practice to minister to the imported song-birds of the Metropolitan Opera House, and the slightest disorder of the vocal chords of any of these singers is fixed on a cylinder of one of the more delicately constructed Phonographs in his possession. Nor has he confined himself to the registry of affected throats, for he boasts whole passages from noted German, French and Italian operas as sung by the foremost musical exponents of these several schools of song. This collection of human voices makes what is undoubtedly the most curious library in the world, and one of the most valuable, too, from a scientific standpoint. Strange, indeed, are the stories of disease told by these cylinders of throats and vocal organs only slightly affected, of throats in somewhat advanced stages of various maladies, and finally, examples in which disease has reached its worst form and no cure is f ossible — the last hacking cough of a consumptive, for instance. There is tragedy in many of these tiny rolls of wax and the voice of the dead speaks from many of them with grewsome interest. With the familiar tubes of the Phonograph at his ears, the medical student or physician can hear as plainly as if the patient were before him, the exact sounds accompanying all sorts of throat troubles. Comparing, by the use of different cylinders, disease with disease, and cough with cough, it becomes possible now to gauge the exact intensity of the ailment that is being studied and to map out more effective cures. With the greater perfection of the Phonograph there is likely to be a complete revolution in the way of treating all throat affections. If a patient returns for treatment, even after years of absence, all the throat doctor has to do is to turn to his box of cylinders, listen to the noises they give out and have the case as fresh in his mind as if it had been intrusted to him only yesterday and he had been thinking about it all night. It is easy to see that this Phonographic system of keeping records of cases will, in a few years, become as useful as the old method of surgeons of preserving parts of the human body in alcohol. It matters not how weak the voice is ; even the hoarest breathing out of a sound records itself upon the cylinder and can be reproduced in its precise intensity. This is the great scientific value of Phonographic registering of vocal sounds. To take down the record of any talking voice, all that is needed is to have the Phonograph carefully adjusted and to see that the record is clearly and distinctly made. The Phonograph in everyday use does not give this, conveying only the general impression, rather than the exact tone quality which is necessary for scientific investigation. To obtain the precise results he wants, and to make sure that the record shall be set down without deviation, the Phonographic doctor uses a special diaphragm which moves a delicate needle that cuts more deeply and yet more lightly than does the needle on any ordinary machine. Two or three minutes of talking or whispering is all that is necessary to complete a record. So finely balanced are these medical Phonographs that the buzzing of a fly or the "singing" of a mosquito can be perfectly recorded and reproduced. It is a difficult matter to register a singing voice with exactness, but an improved apparatus is employed, which is so finely adjusted that if the singer be tired or "out of voice" — as musicians say — that fact is made perfectly apparent in the reproduction. It might seem that a collection of so much that is delicate, brilliant and perfect in the way of sound would be unnecessary and superfluous in scientific records that concern diseases of the voice, but these examples have a special value for the purposes of comparison, representing, as they do, the possibilities of the vocal chords in exceptional instances. There is now in use among a few New York throat specialists a microphone which will take the heart and chest sounds and set them down upon a cylinder in such a manner that they can be heard and distinguished by any layman. This is a remarkable contribution to modern medicine. Other uses of the Phonograph among doctors are its employment for correcting the errors of speech — stammering for example — and by this means persons afflicted with any vocal impediment can be trained out of their faults. While not in any way connected with a consideration of the Phonograph as a medical applicance, it is interesting to know that the talking-machine is to be largely used during the next Presidential campaign as an easily controlled political arator. The plan is to scatter Phonographs over the country, putting one in the principal Square of each town. The men who will push this project say that Phonograph cylinders will make excellent campaign thunder and will take the place of printed pamphlets and stumpspeakers to a great extent. People will listen to a political Phonograph because of the novelty of the thing and because they can drop the ear tubes when they are tired or disagree with the sentiments expressed by the machine. The Phonographs will be loaded at the headquarters of both of the national parties with campaign songs, both patriotic and comic, and with brief speeches talked into the machines by the candidates of both sides. Only a small fraction of the men who will cast their votes will be able to see or hear the great leaders, and the Phonograph, it is thought, will be a satisfactory substitute. ©ur battler Reports are received from North, East, South and West that would indicate this to be the banner year in the talking-machine line. It is wonderful how the business has grown. How well the old timers remember when genial "Rus Hunting" called to see them with the latest product of his versatile brain, and how Len Spencer would astonish his friends by telling them how he attended church regularly — he did not explain it was to take chime records — ah! those were good old days, but do we not all agree that these are better? In one of the city resorts where Phonographs are used to entertain the throng while it unloads its wallets, the crowd grew very dense — too dense to facilitate business. Then the proprietor put another piece in the instrument and the words rang out with that peculiar music hall intonation : "If you hain't got no money, you needn't came 'round. " It was a very pertinent hint, and the visitors took it, many of them filing out into the street and leaving the others to be entertained and to buy or to bluff it through, as they wished.