The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vot. I. No. 3 The phonoscope (Beneral flews A dividend of I per cent, on the common capital stock of the American Graphophone Company has been declared, payable February 27, to stockholders of record February 20. This is the third common stock dividend since October, 1896. The quarterly dividend, it will be remembered, of i^ijf per cent, was paid February 15 on the preferred stock of the company. The Hartford Graphophone Company, under the management of Mr. C. A. I. Norton, have established permanent offices in the Auditorium Building and are doing a rushing business. Mr. F. J. Root, electrician, of Binghampton, N. Y., was in New York last month buying phonograph and graphophone supplies. Mr. Frank D. Zimmer called at The Phonoscope office last month. He is about to go in the talking machine business under the heading " General Agent for All." Mr. C. G. Childs, late of the Ohio Phonograph Company, has taken charge of the New York laboratory of the Gramophone Company, and has already begun to show his exceptional ability by adding some excellent new records to their stock. We understand Len Spencer has left the United States Phonograph Company's employ and will be hereafter associated with his brother in the 'phone business. The Empire State Phonograph Company has moved from No. 4 East 14th street, New York and has secured an excellent location on University Place. Mr. Frank D. Thayer, the prominent Western exhibitor, writes us that business is better this year than ever before. The Edison Projecting Kinetoscope, as supplied by Maguire & Baucus, New York, is meeting with a great sale, especially in foreign countries. This machine for simplicity and practicability has not a rival. Mr. V. H. Emerson has resigned his position as manager of the Uitned States Phonograph Company. His resignation will be a severe blow to the company, as he had exclusive charge of the record department, and the wonderful records put out by that concern were the result of his theories and experiments. The local views exhibited by the cinematographe at the Schiller Theatre, Chicago, last month proved a great drawing card. The following from the Sharon, Pa., Telegraph is " quite cute " : Charles Service has lately added to his musical outfit a new Columbia Graphaphone. It is a neat instrument, and has both the tube and funnel connections. Charley can now give parler entertrinments and please his hearers with anything from a brass band concert to a Romeo and Juliet tragedy. Mr. Moore, who invented the Multiplex phonograph, is experimenting on a diaphragm which he claims will record and reproduce the female voice in a marvelous manner. The Universal Phonograph Company have succeeded in getting some excellent records of Miss Lottie Gilson, "The Little Magnet." The International Film Company are doing a phenominal business. They are kept busy night and day to supply the increasing demand for their new machine. We understand that a Boston Phonograph Company is about to go out of business. There will be a new talking machine on the market in a few weeks that will sell for $10. It will be fitted with a graphophone reproducing diaphragm. Russell Hunting shipped some of his Casey records to Norway last month and to Australia the mouth before. " Casey " is indeed booming. The Rev. Dr. A. L. Boyle created a furore at the Carmel Babtist Church, New York, one Sunday last month by using the phourgraph during service. He read a short chapter from the Bible and then the phonograph was turned on to sing Psalms and recite extracts from the Old and New Testaments. The effect was queer ; lots of members were offended and a number left the Church, ©ur jforetgn Corresponbence Ootacamund, India, January 6, 1897. My Dear Sir : Your interesting letter of the 1 2th with all its charming enclosures and encouraging news reached me in the midst of idllic surroundings on the ever beauteous Nilgherry Mountains, in the very center of Paradise, India. To escape the tremendous heat of the plains everybody who can rushe*s to the hills as soon as June appears, and, having found a good substitute to keep things going in Bombay, I have likewise hurried to these health-giving evergreen hills, flecked with cool and commodious bungalows. And here I am now at dear old Ootse, ensconced in a comfortable cane chair, whilst a coolie keeps fanning me by ceaselessly moving a huge punkah attached to the ceiling of my sitting room. We are here quite a respectable lot of us, young and old, business men and Government officials, our life being just now one round of recreation, picnics, games concerts, and balls. Fortunately, I have brought my phonograph with me, and I need hardly tell you that I lost no time in trying the new records you sent me. Casey's are stunners. The whole place is full of him. In the majestic silence of an Indian night we now hear his puns and ingenious refreshing remarks thousands of miles away from the man who originally uttered them. Science, science, what next? I am really delighted, don't you know, to see you forging ahead in the right direction, and I am sure The Phonoscope is just the paper we want. How in the world are we poor fellows, located in out-of-the-way corners, to keep in touch with this particular branch of science, unless we have somebody disinterested in the manufacturing and mercantile part of the business make it his sole duty to tell us from time to time all that goes on and all that is best in the market, as The Phonoscope intends to do. Amongst my acquaintances here there are at least three who own a phonograph, but whose interest has fallen down below luke-warm point, simply for the want of proper fuel in the shape of ii ~" new and interesting matter. To depend solely on manufacturers and commission agents is to build on sand. They all want to foist upon us poor outcasts that which they cannot dispose of elsewhere, and therefore we all hail with delight the appearance of The Phonoscope. I gladly accept its representation for the Presidency of Bombay, and I shall attend to the business part of this arrangement as soon as I return to Bombay. There is undoubtedly a vast field in this country so densely peopled with nature's softsouled children, fond of amusement and full of kindly spirit. The mysteries of the phonograph keep them spellbound. I have to give an exhibition each time my Mahometan barber comes to shave me. He looks upon it with awe as something too uncanny to touch, whereas my Buddhist servants regard it as a new incarnation and pay to it divine honors. Mr. Edison's gifts to humanity in the shape of phonographs, kinetoscopes and similar inventions will prove a great boon to all the collectors, magistrates and officers holding sway in the name of Her Most Gracious Majesty over the 300,000,000 human beings that inhabit India. Life in the great cities, such as Bombay, Madras or Calcutta is attractive and pleasant enough, but there are thousands of posts where the magistrate, collector, minister and officer are the only white people. They are all well paid men of culture," and always eager to possess scientific novelties, especially when they are as wonderful, useful and entertaining as those which issue from the head of our Jersey wizard. Now, my dear sir, I want you to do me a great favor, and that is to personally select for me a really first-class recording diaphragm, mind you, a first-class one. I don't think there is such a thing in all the Indian Empire. Send it to me as speedily as you can and receive herewith my best anticipated thanks. I intend to leave here for Bombay about the end of the month, when I shall at once attend to your business, in which I promise you splendid results. Till then farewell. Sincerely yours, H. D. G. *> The Phonograph as an Aid in Teaching Languages A professor of languages in New York City has brought the phonograph into use as an assistant. He uses it to teach his pupils the proper pronunciation. His method is to send with his textbook a phonograph and twenty loaded and twenty blank cylinders. Each lesson in the book is arranged in questions and answers, and the pupil puts the proper cylinder in the phonograph before beginning a lesson. With the book before him and the tubes of the phonograph in his ears, he reads the lesson and also hears the phrases repeated with the proper accent. This he can repeat until he has acquired the proper pronunciation and thoroughly understands the lesson. Then he uses one of the blank cylinders and repeats what he has learned for the purpose of sending it back to the professor and having it corrected. The professor places the tube in his phonograph, listens to his pupil, and writes out such criticisms as are necessary and sends them to him. By this means many are enabled to study at their homes, and the professor to have pupils in any part of the country. The professor has over 500 machines out. Mr. Frank Idner, a jeweler, of West Palm Beach, Fla., has just completed a perfect phonograph or "talking machine," which, in distinctness of tone and in the reproduction of the human voice, or other sounds, is the equal of any.— -Jackson ville TimesUn ion.