The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

6 THE PHONOSCOPE H (Sailer^ of Echoes A Collection of Historical and Artistic Interest —Actors Can Listen to Their Speeches and Singers to Their Own Songs — Tones 1 hat Are Carried to the Antipodes Lieut. Gianni Bettini is a collector. He collects echoes. He is an ex-officer of the Italian army, decorated by the king of Italy. In his studio on Fifth Avenue this connoisseur of fleet and fading sounds has a collection of great historical and artistic value. It is not a collection of paintings, of sculpture, of porcelains, of orchids, or of dwarf Japanese trees, but a collection of beautiful voices. The voices of Eleanofa Duse, Sarah Bernhardt, Ellen Terry, Calve, Nordica. Sembrich ; of these and many great actors, singers and well-known men of the day. Lieut. Bettini is the custodian of these famous voices for posterity. Of course, one may hear the voices of ballad singer and broad comedian in any Phonograph for a penny ; but these are of somewhat fugitive interest. It is the distinction of Lieut. Bettini s collection that it comprises voices which will interest a.11 time. Future singers will hold their ears to listen to them. If a prima donna wishes her notes to float to the borders of the earth and linger to the end of days, she takes her silveryvoice to Lieut. Bettini's studio. If an am bilious actor desires to be Hamlet when he is dust, he drons into the Bettini school of immortality. \Vith the early Phonograph, the voice went in silver and came out brass. Golden speech was returned in copper change. In 18S9 Lieut. Bettini devised a diaphragm that took away the metallic resonance. It now became possible for the Phonograph to render the song of a prima donna with' lit creating the impression that she was accompanied by a village brass band. That the voices of the great actors and singers might not fade with them, Lieut. Bettini began to collect those that thrill the theatre or charm the opera, for other times to hear across the centuries. Sarah Bernhardt visited his studio. She bequeathed her silvery voice, in two selections, Passage dans le Drama Izeyl and Un Peude J/nsiqiie, by Victor Hugo. Sonnenthal, the great German tragedian, came and gave to the Phonograph a selection from Schiller's Wallenstein. Mme. Ri'jane repeated for the instrument the Tirade dans Divorcons, by Sardou. Yvette Guilbert sang for the gayety of future cycles "I Want You, Ma Honey" both in English and French, and. also, three vivacious French songs. The great Tommaso Salvini left his mighty voice to thrill coming generations. Ele^nora Duse and Ellen Terry gave records of their voices. Preserved here are the voices of Mark Twain, John Drew, Nat C. Goodwiu and Henry E. Dixey. Many of the actors and singers heard their own voices, for the first time, in the micro-Phonograph, with intense interest. Sarah Bernhardt listened intently to Sarah Bernhardt ; Duse lingered on the words of Duse ; Semhrich heard Sembrich sing. Each had an attentive audience of one, and that one herself. The Phonograph is to the voice what tne mirror is to the form, and stage people have sometimes availed themselves of it to study the character and quality of their voices. While visiting the studio recently an assistant placed a wax cylinder in one of the micro-Phonographs, and the instrument poured forth the rich voice of Campanini. The great Italian tenor has lost his voice, and in all the world there is no place he may find it except in Lieut. Bettini's studio. Many an actor, or singer, may drop into this studio, in his old age, and pay a visit to his vanished voice. He may listen to the tones that thrilled in his youth, and in imagination he can place himself behind the footlights when the audience broke into applause at some high and exquisite note ; or was held spellbound by some fine dramatic passage. A song imported from China was rendered. It had, perhaps, been sung in some theatre or tea garden of the Flowery Kingdom, and was accompanied by an orchestra of Chinese musical instruments. It was in a minor key, and sounded like the wailing of a cat. The stringed instruments could be distinctly heard. There was a strange, but genuine, melody in it, and perchance it was a little masterpiece, which had produced a furore in the Chinese opera houses of the rural circuit. Already an international trade in voices is springing up. The notes of the great singers go, unfaded, to every' part of the world. The fine dramatic speeches of the actors echo across distant seas. The melody sung at New York is heard at the antipodes. The lines of the actor that earned him an encore in Broadway echo in China. Lieut. Bettini exports voices to Europe, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan. Voices are also imported by him from Europe, Japan and China. The business is extending, and soon we may have the Basuto war song, or the folk song of the Fuege n, singing on a glacial mountain in Terra del Fuego. The Bettini device knows all languages. It is a polyglot. It can discourse in Sanscrit or Yiddish, Zingari or Zulu, Burmese or Bulgarian. In the collection are Spanish songs, Russian melodies, hymns, in Greek and in Hebrew, and innumerable songs in Italian, German French and English. The micro-Phonograph also renders the music of many instruments. Bottled in the studio for future uncorking is the music of the piano, the violin, the violincello, the flute, the clarinet, the zither, the brass band, the cornet and the banjo. The piano music includes classical selections bv Signora Eugenia Castellano formerly pianist to the Queen of Italy. An Improved Nickel=in=the=Slot flachine Invented It has been noted how many coin actuated machines are of a scientific nature the Phonograph, the mutoscope, the galvanic battery, the lung tester, the kinetoscope, the kaleidoscope, the cosmorama, etc. Most of these inventions it will be noticed appertain to either sight or sound, but a new one has recently been invented by a New Havener, Mr. E. A. Reeves, that combines both seeing and hearing. It is called the stereophone, and is a combination of the Phonograph and cosmorama or automatic stereoscope. It sings songs and illustrates them, or shows interesting views and describes them. One series, for instance, is called "Going to the Circus." Looking at the first scene you see the circus procession approaching and hear the band play, gradually becoming louder as if growing nearer. The next scene is a near view of the elephants, and you hear street cries and the band in the distance. Then other procession views are shown in regular succession v ith accompanying street noises, the tramp of horses' feet, etc. Then a view of the circus grounds is shown and you hear the hucksters cries and other well known circus sounds. Then a view inside the first tent, and you see the animal dens, with near views of the lion and hippopotamus, and a good imitation of the growl of the lion is heard. Then inside the big tent you see the old familiar scenes and hear the old familiar cries, "Peanuts five a bag," predominating ; then "Tickets for the grand concert" is heard, finally ending with a chorus supposed to be sung by the concert troupe, and all in about three minutes and for five cents. Everything real as life except the odor of the sawdust and the animals, and doubtless this might be added. Popular songs of the day are utilized, sentimental songs with appropriate scenes, comic songs with comic views, etc. Views for the stereophone have been in preparation for the past nine months as an enormous number are required, for when the machines are placed in public resorts the scenes and Phonograph records are changed frequently. The stereophone is manufactured in New Haven at the factory on Whalley Avenue, where the cosmorama is also built. It is expected that thousands of these machines will be placed throughout the United States and it is understood that the various cosmorama companies located in New Haven are about to consolidate to form a larger company to operate the stereophone as well as the cosmorama. The Board of Directors of the American Graphophone Company, by E D. Easton, President, have just published a report to the stockholders of the company, a large number of whom reside in this city. The report covers the period from May 1, 1893, to September 30, 1899, and is in the form of a twenty page pamphlet with artistic cover, handsomely illustrated with views of the factory in Bridgeport, Conn., and the several officers of the Columbia Phonograph Company in the principal cities of the world. The report is the first one made by the present management and recites the successive steps by which the company was brought from a state of bankruptcy to its present dividend-paying basis. The first step in the new direction, the report states, was to form a closer relation with the Columbia Phonograph Company, organized originally to do husiness in Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, but whose work had spread over most of the world In 1895 there was a practical consolidation of the American Graphophone Companv and the Columbia Phonograph Company, the former assuming the position of a manufacturing company only, with the latter as the distributor of its product. Successive increases of capital stock were made until its present capitalization of $3,000,000 in common and preferred stock was reached and in 189S additional capital to the amount of 5100.000 was secured by the issue of five per cent twentyyear debentures. From the earnings of the capital over $370,000, it is stated, have been paid back to stockholders in dividends, the stocu now paying eight per cent, while the surplus account is $279,960.77. Dating from the consolidation of the two companies, a most rapid and substantial growth is remarked upon in the report. In 1895 a sales depot was opened in New York, followed by similar establishments, in 1896 in St. Louis, in 1S97 in Philadelphia, Chicago, Paris and Buffalo in rapid succession, and in 1S98 in San Francisco. In 1899 the doors of the Berlin office were thrown open. Equally rapid was the growth of the factory, which in 1893 employed but a mere handful of men, while at the present time, on the authority of the report, over a thousand names are carried on the pay roll, which amounts to over $10,000 per week. Large additions were made to the plant, and new machinery, both standard and special, installed, together with standard tools and a vast number of special tools required for the economical manufacture of the goods. In addition to manufacturing operations in Bri geport. the report mentions the establishment of record making plants in Prance anil Germany, and a factory near Paris for the production of blank cylinders..