The Phonogram, Vol. 1:2 (1891-02)

3 « * THE PHONOGRAM. To descend from gravity for an instant, I must confess that what I have read of the wonders of the phonograph suggests to my mind a train of terrors that may spring from it. When the instrument is in as general use as the pen and ink are, fancy what may happen. Fancy the anguish of a hot-tem- pered man who, when he explodes with wrath over a torn buttonhole, or chides his wife for giving his oldest, and therefore his ~ * ^ best-beloved, coat to the poor, is called into her boudoir to hear the family phono- graph reel off the very language, the very voice he used when, in plighting his troth to her, he swore by Dan Cupid that he would never—or that he would forever—you under- stand. According to the Phonogram, sweethearts will have these instruments by them, and they will treasure and use them as wives. Fancy, too, the state of mind of the wife of the. future when^her husband, after rejecting her pancakes with contempt- uous language, hies hiip to his phonograph to read to her the recipe for buckwheat cakes which his dying mother spoke into the machine with her last brdath. But to be serious: If the Phonogram gives one person in ten as much pleasure or knowledge as its first isaie gave me it will indeed meet a long-felt wont, and all who are concerned in popularising the invention will have reason to bless the day that the little messenger was started.' A Phenomenal Feat In Reporting. Th k following fr< >m t he Commercial A </- vertiser of January 20, is interesting, show- ing as it does how great an aid the phono- graph is to stenographic reporters. It may not be generally known, but it is a fact that the phonograph has been in use in l»oth Houses of Congress for over two years, as an auxiliary to the regular reporters. The greatest feat of reporting that has ever been performed by the official report- ers of Congress was that of preparing ttle Senate report for the Record Wednesday night. The chief reporter is ill, and only two men were available to do the work. The Senate was in session for fourteen hours, all of which time was spent in an active discussion of the Silver Bill. It was after 12 o’clock at night when they ad- journed, and during the session they had talked over 120,000 words. Two stenog- raphers took the report and, by dictating their notes into phonographs, for typewriters to transcribe, they had all the copy ready for the printers by S o’clock in the morning, and the Record was on the desks of the Senators when Congress convened. — ■ - • ♦ • — - The Manufacture of Musical Cylinders. % EING requested by the man- ager of one of the local companies to give some points on the making of musical records, we cheer- fully comply. In order to be able to do so, we have carefully in- vestigated the subject, and find that there are no new features in this business, ex- cepting those which Mr. Edison has de- veloj>ed, and which he proposes to put into practical use at some future time. He has been experimenting for a long time in this direction, and can now make musical and other records such as orations, Jectures, et^., far superior to anything that has ever* heretofore been produced. In order, how- ever, to prepare for doing this business properly, it will be necessary to invest a large sum of money in a plant, which would not l>e justified by the present condition of the musical-record business, owing to the fact that so many of the local companies are trying to make these records for them- selves; this being the case, the parent com- pany does not see its way clear to take ad- vantage of the improvements Mr. Edison has made, but we are told that if the local companies should unite in a request to the ixirent company to do so, and would agree to desist from the manufacture of the same