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THE PHONOGRAM. in position, and then talk into the month- fore, and the needle, follow ing in the piece in your ordinary tone, as if you were groove, will cause the diaphragm to vi- talkiug to a stenographer. brate. The operation is the reverse of the The sound waves—vibrations of the air other. In the first case, the sound-waves created by the voice—cause the diaphragm caused the diaphragm to vibrate, and to to vibrate, and the needle to vary its cut- operate the needle; in this, the needle, fol- ting iu the was. lowing in the groove, will cause the dia- Thus the sound is recorded by the needle phragm to vibrate and create sound-waves, upon the wax and cylinder. Under the These sound-waves, or vibrations of the microscope the fine groove in'the wax shows air, being confined in the rubber tube, will great irregularities; it goes deeper and reach the ear, and, in plain English, will shallower; shows long dashes and irregular bo turned into the exact sounds that were, dots; however that may be, a faithful rec- originally delivered into the speaking-tube, ord of the sound is fchere, aud it cau be re- Thus the letter is repeated into the ear produced immediately, or years hence. of the corresponding clerk,’au<l ho writes A strange feature of this sound record is it out on a type-writer. He can run of! a this: that a skilled operator can, by way of sentence or two and stop the phonograph, experiment, dispense entirely with the if he pleases, while he writes them out, by speaking-tube, diaphragm and receiving- simply pressing upon a lever and disengag- tool, and by holding -one end of a sharp- ing the sliding arm from the diaphragm, pointed pencil, for instance, between the and then go on at his convenience. He can teeth, aud resting the point- on the wax, run it back, or the reverse, and repeat as record the sound of the voice on the cylin- much or as little as he pleases, or he may der nearly as accurately as with the perfect repeat the whole if he wants to assure him- machine. self that he has understood the record cor- llaving dictated a letter, or several let- rectly. ters, you surrender the instrument to a This is the cold, practical use of the clerk, if you wish, or slip otT the wax cvliu- phonograph, and that it is really practical der (phonograph-blank, Mr. Edison calls is demonstrated by the fact that all of Mr. it), and hand it over to him to place on an- Edison’s correspondence is done in this other instrument, while you go on dictating way, and has been for some time, and that other letters on a fresh blank. of hundreds of business houses throughout In place of the speaking-tube you can the land. The genial manager of the Edison United Phonograph Company delivered in person the message intrusted to him by Cardinal Manning, of England, to Cardi- nal Gibbons of the United States. The message, when reproduced from the phono- graph cylinder, read as follows: “'Your Eminence, —The Catholic Church in England sends its greetings to you and to the Catholic Church in Ameri- ca. and to all the citizens of the United