The Phonogram, Vol. 1:1 (1891-01)

Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee. Here we are!-Job nxv&.is. A ma a/ine devoted to all interest connected with the re- cords i ot sound, the reproduction of speech, the Telephone, the '.ypcwriter, and the p rot;rcss of E lectricity. PUBLISHED MONTHLY. TERMS: ONE YEAR. - - - - *- - - Sx.oo SINGLE NUMBERS. Pos tagr PrtfiaiJ. V. H. McRAE, Manager, Pulitzer Building, Room 137. * NEW YORK. ADVERTISEMENTS. Thk Phonogram, having Special facilities b its circulation through the va>t commercial »yMctn occupied by the Phono* graph. Telephone. and “thcr Electrical Devices. presents an exceptionally valuable advertising mnlium. The rates arc rea- * liable and will be furnished on application. Communications on the above subjects from persons practical- ly acuuainted with them will be gladly received. from the moment when its feeblest accents were heard, merely recording the echoes of the human voice, until now. when it has become of supreme practical value in many of the most urgent affairs of life, not an iota of the interest that marked its introduction has been abated. Whether it be the statesman who has discovered a new method fot formulating the speech he will deliver on the morrow; the scientist who would reproduce grave problems; the inertlu»nt win* dictates his letters; the lawyer who prepares his briefs; or the family who would preserve the fly- ing whisper of the loved ones—all who have used the phonograph recognize in it an agency with which they would not willingly dispense, and feel a concern in its development that justifies a pub- lication of this character. It is also a part of our plan to keep pace with the progress of electricity in its application to the most useful ends; and. if improvements shall be made in the typewriter or the telephone—hand- maids. so to speak, of the phonograph—they, likewise, will find a place in the columns of our magazine. Furthermore we can make no promise, save that we shall every month endeavor to present, in sprightly garb, all topics of current value per- taining to our special field of labor. V. H. McRae. Salutatory. . One of the miraculous products of human in- ^.nuitv which is now revolutionizing business methods ami causing the credulous to exhaust t£rir vocabulary in expressions of amazement is the little instrument from which our magazine ’d^iVos its name. That the phonograph should ha>ic introduced, itself to the public, and quickly taken its-place among the Libor-saving devices of ihf^age, is no marvel, though literally it speaks to the lew. Its audience is limited ; its voice does not reacVOic multitude. Although an or- gan ijself. it is not so widely represented in the world of public opinion as it should be by an organ that visits the offices and homes of the people, and tJTls its story there. The object and scope of the Phonogram in its present shape, therefore, may easily be inferred. It is to familiarize the pufclic with the good quali- ties of its namesake, to preserve the record of its growth while it moves forward to the achieve- ment of *hc highest possible good, and to illus- trate the part it performs in the work of human progress. Since the appearance of the first machine the phonograph has undergone manv changes; but. As we go to .press wc learn that the executive committee of the North American Phonograph Company ha» ordered.that on ami after December I?'. 1S90. the public shall be given the option**/ purchasing phonographs and phonograph-grapho- phones. This is a step in the right direction, and wc predict an immense increase in the use of talking-machines from this time forward.