The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1908)

The Talking Machine World Vol. 4. No. J. New York, February 15, 1908. Price Ten Cents MUSIC OVER THE WIRES. G. R. Webb, of Baltimore, Experimenting Witli New Device — Telephone Subscribers May Eventually Profit by His Inventions. Telephone subscribers may soon be able to have ■as much music, vocal or Instrumental, as they desire in their homes, if a series of experiments now being made by George R. Webb, prove successful. All that will be required will be to call up Central, ask for whatever selection is desired, attach a specially constructed receiver, and the music fills the room. Already much success has been attained by Mr. Webb in his experiments, and patents have been applied for the devices designed in connection with the transmission and receiving of the music. Mr. Webb declined to have anything to say about his plans for sending music out over telephone lines from a central station. He has been experimenting with various devices to accomplish this for the last two years. The music is of the disc-record character and the apparatus used in reproducing this music is of Mr. Webb's own invention. The central station is equipped with a device to operate the disc and there are specially constructed transmitters and receivers. The discs are operated on turnstiles, which are operated by electric power. This takes the place of the mechanical working of the ordinary talking machine. At first there was a grating sound to the music, hut Mr. Webb has kept at work with his experiments, and those who have heard the music declare that he has completely overcome this objection. Some of those who have heard of the apparatus have compared it to the telharmonium, the invention of Dr. Thaddeus Cahill, now being, exploited by a company organized for the purpose in New York, but there are many points of difference about the music. The most important is that either vocal or instrumental music can be furnished, whereas the telharmonic music is instrumental only. Then, too, it is to be used in conjunction with telephone service, ' the same wires being used for the double purpose. Mr. Webb has been making recent experiments with his new device in Wilmington, where he is the principal factor in the Delmarvia Telephone Company of that place. The apparatus invented by him for transmitting the sounds to telephone ■wires was installed in the telephone exchange and the patent horns for receiving the music placed in houses of subscribers miles away from the station. The operator was called up, asked to place a certain record on the machine, a key turned and almost instantly the music began to fill the room. The new music is paid for as is telephone service. It might be possible to give unlimited service or the service can be measured, just as telephone calls are now counted, and charged to subscribers. As yet Mr. Webb has given no demonstration of his new device in this city. He had planned to spring a surprise on the guests he has invited to attend a dinner at the Belvedere on Saturday night, but owing to the fact that his plans leaked out he is undecided about giving it. The demand for the music is principally at night, when telephones are little used, hence the 'Claim is made that by installing the apparatus a telephone company will increase its revenue. The telephone company is obliged to keep its operators at work every hour in the twenty-four, though by far the bulk of the calls are made during the day. It is claimed that telephone companies throughout the country will welcome any device which will increase the use of telephones, especially during the hours when the operators are seldom busy. — Baltimore, Md., News. The optimistic talking machine dealer is the ' man who is coming out ahead these days. AIDS SPREAD OF CULTURE. The Talking Machine Proving Effective as a Musical Educator — Has Brought Opera to the Masses and Made Stronger the Desire to Hear the Originals. The daily papers have had much to say about "canned music" since 'Sousa introduced that now famous expression as applied to records used in talking machines. It has been used in a humorous, and more often in a libelous way. but in spite of the yards of weird stuff that is so often handed out hy writers in the daily papers, there is no doubt in the minds of intelligent, fairminded men that the talking machine has aided and will still aid in the spread of culture in this and every other country. Only recently a prominent Philadelphia jobber spoke as follows on this matter: "Why, there is not the slightest doubt in the world about the talking machine being one of the greatest factors in the musical culture of the public. That is so far true I am constrained to go so much further and say that without the education in music the public has received from the talking machine, and I am willing to admit also the share that the piano players and other music-producing machines have had in the same direction, there would be no such thing possible as a grand opera company in Philadelphia and visits of grand opera from New York. "As it is now, the public has become so farniliar with Ihe great grand opera singers and the music from grand operas from hearing them on the talking machines that a desire to hear the originals has been created that will make the grand opera ventures in other cities successful. "Just look at the thousands of records we have here in this place. They are almost exclusively of grand opera and symphony orchestra, or, in other words, classic music. We sell 1,000 records where the prices range from 50 cents to $6 to every one that sells for less than those prices. Do you suppose such a thing was possible before the phonograph came and exerted its educational influence? . I know positively that it was not. In fact, we have no room here, large as it is, to carry a very large stock of popular music, and when people come here after it we usually refer them to some of the other establishments handling records if they do not want to wait until we can send after them." VICTOR CO. BRING ANOTHER SUIT • Against the Duplex Phonograph Co. of Kalamazoo on the Conn Patent. A second suit was filed by the Victor Co., against the Duplex Phonograph Co., of Kalamazoo, in January, 1908, in the United States Circuit Court at Grand Rapids, Mich., and was based on the Conn patent No. 624,301, May 2, 1899, the entire interest in which is now owned by the .Victor Talking Machine Co. This patent covers the so-called Duplex feature, or in other words, the double horns connected with and carrying at their smaller ends the sound box. The suit is in Equity No. 1644. TALKING ILACHINE CLUBS THE LATEST. Advices from Kansas City, Mo., state that talking machine clubs are the latest fad in that city, the members exchanging records with one another, thereby giving each member the advantage of using far more recoi'ds than he would very likely be able to buy. Of course the advantage of the scheme from the talking machine dealer's viewpoint is not so apparent. Advertising is like any kind of sales talk. It's not how much you say that counts, hut what you say and how you say it. THE FLOOD IS COMMENCING. The Ebb Tide in Prices, in Business, in the Hearts of Men Has Passed — Now Is the Time to Get a Hustle on and Buckle on the Armor That Will Insure Success in the Battle for Trade — Not the Time for Pessimism or Indecision. Everyone knows that Shakespeare said: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune." But not everyone knows that tide in his life when he sees it; and fewer know how to take it at the flood. Now and then a man sees it and takes it. He gets rich and others wonder how he did it. To-day there is an ehb tide in prices, in business, in the hearts of men. It has just passed and the flood is commencing. The merchant who does not study the situation as to how he may buy what he needs at best figures, and start humanity running after what he has to sell, does not deserve a fortune. Moreover he will not keep store very long into the beginning of this goahead century. Competition is growing hotter year by year. The man who does not study his job will soon have no job to study. You must know more than your father did or you will never make half the money he did. Time was two decades ago when a man could get rich running a farm in scrub fashion, hecause if he existed on the farm his land increased in value fast enough to make him rich. In slavery days a planter might fumble with his farm and still grow rich on the growth of his slaves. In those days a store keeper might sit on his goods and grow up with the town. He can't do it to-day. People have been educated to something better and they want the best in the land. If you don't furnish it along comes a smarter man that you, and you wake up to find yourself sitting in his shadow. Get a hustle on. Spit on your hands. Buckle up your belt. Keep step with the progress of the world, if you want to get a slice of the earth. Otherwise sit and drift with the drift-wood of humanity, washed out of sight beneath the flood tide of brighter men than you. SAPPHIRES BY THE POUND. Eugene Maret Promises to Turn Them Out of His New Electrical Furnace. A despatch from Paris, Prance, says that Eugen-e Maret, the French engineer, has this week established an electrical furnace with which he says he will be able to manufacture several pounds of sapphires daily. These artificial stones will be harder than the natural gems, and can be graded to any shade desired. The raw material used is Roman alum and chromatic acid. SUPERSEDING THE PASTOR. In a small town in the West there is a cozy little church, but the membership is so small they cannot afford a pastor, consequently they have had no preaching for a long time, and the members were getting cold in the performance of their religious duties. Not long since a man visited the church with two talking machines, one did the preaching, the other the singing. They were a perfect success in every way, and the society bought both machines, and the congregation is growing so fast that an addition has got to be huilt on the church. The sermons are sent them every week by express at a cost of sixty cents a piece for every Sunday in the year. The second year they can repeat the same sermons and the same songs. When there is any baptizing to he done it is left to the deacons who handle the finances, and everything moves right along like clockwork.