Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 6 (1931-03)

178 The Phonograph Monthly Review were used early. By 1890 the College of Milwau- kee was employing the phonograph as an aid to the Professor of Languages. The phono-toy and music box are familiar to all. The Braille sys- tem is still the blind's medium. The phono-clock has not superseded the chimes in the home or the whistle in the factory. The museum use of rec- ords came almost with the perfection of the in- strument. In the '90s, Dr. J. W. Fewkes, who died recently, recorded the songs, tales and con- versations of the Passamaquoddy Indians. The British Museum early preserved matrices of the performances of famous artists. In Austria in 1903 a public phonogram office was opened for the preservation of folk-records. The Guimet Oriental Museum in Paris has organized a disc- collection and given disc-concerts, and a Museum of the Word has been endowed in Paris for the purpose of recording and cataloguing vocal ut- terances the world-over. The Phonogram, now defunct, said in Novem- ber 1892: “We have passed the stage in pioneer work in which the phonograph only elicits the curiosity of the music seeker. The public now recognize it as a potent factor in the transmis- sion and expedition of the day's labors." Utili- tarian America saw the phonograph only as an accessory to the typewriter. Edison made much of the possibility that “authors can register their fleeting ideas on the phonograph ... at any hour of the day or night, without waiting to find pen, ink or paper, and in much less time than it would take to write even the shortest memoran- da." Authors “can also publish their novels or essays exclusively in phonogram form. Musical composers in improvising compositions will be able to have them instantaneously on the phono- graph." The oral novel has been realized, at a crude approximation, on the radio, but the phonogram-improvisation is still an idea. There has been talk about the phonograph as an instru- ment in its own name. The phonograph recital over the radio removes the performer another step away from the audience. But the phonograph- as-instrument has not been respected by compos- ers even as much as the electric piano, the radio, the tonal film. In the latter—where the disc is the sound medium—there have been some good things done by Edmund Meisel who recently died in Germany, by Dershenov in Russia (for the animated cartoon) and by Wolfgang Zeller in Germany (his post-synchronization to Walter Walter Ruttmann's “The Melody of the World"). The lack of complete anticipation of the phono- graph's uses recalls the fact that Mr. Edison dis- counted the practicability of the motion picture because it lacked phonographic utterance. Mr. Terry Ramsaye, in too-simple psychanalysis, at- tributes this to Mr. Edison's deafness. Phonographic Echoes Electric Arc Loud Speakers D EVELOPING a discovery of Alexander Bell and H. V. Hayes, Sergius P. Grace, assistant vice-president of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, has evolved a loud speaking electric flame that he successfully demonstrated to a meeting of the New York Electrical Society. Bell and Hays had found that when a telephone transmitter was con- nected across the terminals of an electric arc between carbon rods, the flaming arc itself would reproduce the works spoken into the transmitter, and at the same time beams of light were sent out which could be used to transmit speech up to a distance of several miles. On account of the limitations of the amount of power that could be handled by a carbon transmitter in those days, the voice of the arc was scarcely audible, but Mr. Grace has developed apparatus embodying modern amplifiers which give the “talking arc” a voice al- most equal in volume to that of modern loud speakers. There are no moving mechanical parts: the air vibrations being set up directly from the varying motion of the flaming electric gases. A demonstration was also made with some experi- mental high quality records made by the “hill-and-dale” process and utilizing a new type of pick-up to obtain more perfect reproduction of the higher musical registers. Whether these experiments will lead to important commercial contri- butions remains to be seen, but they point the way to in- teresting further developments. Broadcast Advertising Programs An ingenious series of broadcast programs of electrical transcriptions advertising Columbia products has been used with good effect by Columbia dealers in recent months. Four programs have been recorded, each consisting of three single- face twelve-inch records, each set of three discs comprising a complete program of fifteen minutes’ duration. Paul White- man, Ben Selvin, Paul Tremaine, and Ted Wallace provide the music, each with a complete program to himself. Each program opens with Columbia’s radio motto, the “Magic Notes.” Louis A. Witten, a leading announcer, tells some- thing about the music to be played. At the end of each dance selection there is a brief advertising description of the Columbia Tele-Focal Radio and Radio-Phonographs. New Victor Models T WO new radio models and a new phonograph-radio combination have been announced by the Victor Divi- sion of the RCA-Victor Company, ail designed to meet the current demand for rock bottom prices with no diminu- tion in quality. The two radio models are Nos. R-14 and R- 34. The former is identical in mechanical operation to the R-15 (described on page 81 of the December 1930 issue), with the additional feature of Victor tone control. It sells for the lowest list price ever suggested for a Victor instru- ment—$91.50, including Radiotrons. The R-34 employs the five-circuit, screen-grid, micro-synchronous principles of the earlier Victor radios; it also has the Victor tone-control, super-dynamic corrugated cone loud speaker, full vision tun- ing dial, etc. List price, including Radiotrons, $121.00. The new combination is the RE-17, a combination of the radio found in the popular Victor R-15 and a Victor Elec- trola. It employs a four-circuit screen-grid radio, a Victor pick-up and inertia tone-arm. There are seven tubes, four of which are screen-grid, and the cabinet of early English de- sign, patterned in front with walnut finish, measures 41 7/16 inches by 26 Ya inches by 17 Ya inches. The list price, in- cluding Radiotrons is $189.50.