The Phonogram, Vol. 1:10 (1891-10)

A magazine devoted to all interests connected with the recording of sound, the reproduction and preservation of speech, the Telephone, the Typewriter, and the progress of Electricity. PUBLISHED MONTHLY. . TERMS* ONE YEAR, $1.00 SINGLE NUMBERS, .10 Pottage Prepaid . V. II. McRAI), Matuiger, Pulitzer Building. Room M. NEW YORK. ADVERTISEMENTS. The Phonowiam. having special facilities in its circula- tion through the vast commercial system occupied by the Phonograph. Telephone, and other Electrical Devices, pre- sents an exceptionally valuable advertising medium. The rates are reasonable and will be furnished on application. CORRESPONDENCE relating to the Phonograph, Typewriter, or Electricity, in any of their practical applications, is cordially invited, and the cooperation of all electrical thinkers and workers ear- nestly desired. Clear, concise, well-written articles are especially welcome; and communications, views, news Items. local newspaper clippings, or any information likely to interest electricians, will be thankfully received anil cheerfully acknowledged. MR. EDISON’S ENTHUSIASM. Among the principal forces of nature known to man under the appellations of heat magnetism and electricity, and subject to his control, the lat- ter seems to have reached, through the directing influence of scientists, the position of supremacy; that is to say, it may be forced to perform the most delicate and subtle, as well as the most di- verse and stuj>eiKlous duties. It is a steed whose qualities must lx? thoroughly understood in order to prove its capacity; and to this high standard of usefulness it is at present called through lhe untiring efforts of the chief apostle of the cult, Mr. Thomas A. Edison. Discussing the most recent victories of mind over matter obtained by this untiring experi- mentalist in the electric domain, we find that he can apply electricity to an}' sort of car, and uses rails, picking up a current through two inches and a half of mud. Electric mining has also lx?come the order of the day in his demesne, whereby the poorest quality of ore can be purified and rendered profitable, and that, not by working the veins, but “ by blasting down the whole mountain and crushing with, powerful machinery the matter, from which the ore will be extracted by magnet- ism.” With the kinetograph likewise, progressive movements arc in the course of accomplishment which to the uninitiated seem a marvel. To bring out in life*si^> the pictures of a man mak- ing a speech is the end for which these efforts arc nmde.aind the diflicyjtxof taking forty-six photo- graphs an inch square in a second is great. Alternately serious find buoyant in his manner and speech! the Sage of Menlo Park talked en- thusiastically of his ]*>wor to change the pathway of commerce, by saviifg to his country four or five million dollars. nOSv paid yearly to Spain and Cuba, for ore which he can produce at home by the electric process. HUMAN pESTINY. The human nice is neither whollv selfish nor wholly cruel. International enterprise's and movements, even wars, apparently and ostensibly undertaken for national protection or aggrandize- ment, art* in reality the means of affording an out- let to ambition, to genius, to the expansion of population, and especially to the unification and spiritual elevation of humanity. It is true that war is the definition of cruelty; l '<V'r