The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. I. No. 5 THE PHONOSCOPE 13 Hnswers to Corresponbence We have had many inquiries relating to the cause and result of the late legal trouble between the Phonograph and Graphophone Companies. We print the claims of both concerns as put forth in circulars issued by their parent companies of the rival parties during the recent controversy. We are pleased to say, however, that the trouble has been amaciably settled, and both concerns are now working for the general interest of the talking machine. American Graphophone Company, Washington, D.C., October 15, 1896. The American Graphophone Company owns the fundamental patents which created and cover the talking-machine art as it is known and practiced to-day; and every so-called "Edison Phonograph," unless it indents on tin-foil, infringes these patents. All of the so-called improved Edison Phonographs manufactured in 1889 were made under a license from the Graphophone Company and paid the Graphophone Company a royalty until Jesse H. Lippincott, President of the North American Phonograph Company, became brankrupt. Since then suits for infringement, injunction, accounting, etc., have been vigorously pressed against the Edison Phonograph Works, the United States Phonograph Company, the Ohio Phonograph Company, the Kansas Phonograph Company, the New England Phonograph Company, and others. Already several judgments have been entered in our favor, the latest being against the Receiver of the North American Phonograph Company, who voluntarily submitted to an injunction and paid damages. The suit against Edison, the United States Phonograph Company, and others was argued in September, 1896, before Judge Green in the United States Circuit Court in Trenton N. J. , although the defendants did everything in their power to retard trial, and or a time succeeded in postponing a hearing by urging upon the court that no phonographs had been made since 1889, and that they were doing substantially no business. Shortly after final hearing Judge Green died suddenly, leaving the case undecided. This delay has emboldened the infringers, and they are now reembarking in the business with a hastily-constructed type of phonograph, some of which tkey hope to market before another judge can rehear and act upon our suit, leaving the purchasers of these machines to settle with us. We are pressing the matter with all possible haste in the courts, and meantime give public notice that every individual, firm, or corporation who sells or uses the so-called Edison Phonograph, or appliances therefor, does so unlawfully and will be legally accountable to this Company in damages. AMERICAN GRAPHOPHONE COMPANY, E. D. Easton, President. National Phonograph Company. Orange, N. J. Our attention has been called to a circular letter dated October 15, 1896, and signed and distributed by the American Graphophone Company, warning the public against the use or sale of Edison phonographs and appliances. It is generally known and beyond dispute that Mr. Edison, and not. the Graphophone Company, invented the phonograph. Most persons and concerns interested in the talking machine enterprise understand the controversy between the two interests too well to be misled by the Graphophone Company's reckless statements. As to the Graphophone Company's claim, that its "fundamental patents" created and cover tiie talking art, it seems sufficient to call to mind the dismal failure which met the graphophone, made some years ago under those patents — a failure which continued up to the time the Graphophone Company appropriated the Edison improvements which made the phonograph a success. The entry of the "several judgments" in the Graphophone Company's favor, as referred to in the circular letter, was upon consent and in no wise affected the merits of the Graphophone Company's patents. Particularly is this true as to the decree against the Receiver of the North American Phonograph Company, which was consented to in order to expediate the distribution of the assets in the receiver's hands. The Graphophone Company has never yet obtained a judgment at final hearing and upon a full showing of the facts. It did obtain, in Chicago, a final decree upon two of its claims, but this case was tried on affidavits, and not on the customary oral evidence, and the whole case was manifestly so incomplete that on November 10, 1896, the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York refused to follow the Chicago decision, and denied a motion made by the Graphophone Company for preliminary injunction under the same claims. The Graphophone Company has never sued Mr. Edison nor the Edison Phonograph Company, as stated in its letter to the public. One of the suits argued before Judge Green in September has been pending nearly four years. If the Graphophone Company had had any confidence in its pateuts this case would have been tried and decided long ago. Suits are now pending against the Graphophone Company's factory and selling agents for infringements of the Edison patents on the phonograph improvements which the graphophone was forced to adopt to keep before the public. We believe that a decision on these suits will set the present controversy at rest for all time. Then the only persons or concerns "legally accountable" will be handlers of graphophones who have invaded our patent rights in the Edison Phonograph. NATIONAL PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, W. S. Mallory, President. -» > ♦ £=1Ra£ Uterus X=ray of a Woman What is in many ways the most remarkable achievement yet in X-ray experimentation, and certainly in X-ray photography, has just been accomplished. Ever since this new science came into notice experts in every country have been hoping to be able to get a skiagraph, or X-ray photograph of the entire body of an adult, made with one exposure. This has at last been done, and by a New Yorker, Dr. William James Morton. The negative, of course life size, of a woman five feet four inches in height has just been developed, and is very nearly perfect. The film or plate is six feet long by three feet wide; and on it stands out clearly and distinctly the framework of bone of the woman's body, with all its joints; the casing of flesh, indications of rings, bracelets, hairpins, shoes and garters, and even more interesting yet, lines and markings that show the folds and texture Of her dress just as it rested when she lay on the film with the Crookes tube suspended on a bracket over her. It took half an hour's exposure to make this negative, and the result gives the body in perfect detail, except that the hips are very faint, and the film needs to be held in certain lights to make them plainly visible. Dr. Morton has been planning this scientific coup for some time, and realizing its difficulty, devised new apparatus for it. But without any technicalities about it, the scientific point Dr. Morton got over was this: — Ordinarily, in X-ray photography the source of the X-ray (or the "Crookes tube) is about a foot away from the film or plate, with the object in between. To "skiagraph''' an object of the size of a grown man or woman, how ever, the light must be much further off. Otherwise the shadow the object makes would be indistinct, exaggerated and wholly inaccurate. Dr. Morton found that to get a perfect shadow corresponding to the actual outline of the body it would be necessary to have the Crookes tube four and a half feet away. The law of radiography and skiagraphy is that the intensity of the X-ray diminishes inversely to the square of the distance. That is, it is twenty and one-quarter times as difficult to take a picture at a distance of four and a half feet as it would be at a distance of one foot. To arrange this Dr. Morton had a Crookes tube especially constructed for the occasion. An Eastman film was used for the complete experiment. This was stretched on a board lying on the floor and had been covered with three layers of black paper to prevent ordinary daylight striking it. Flat upon it the subject was laid, upon her back, fully and completely clothed, care being taken even that her dress covered her shoes. Four and a half feet above the floor, suspended over the subject on a long armed bracket and midway between her head and feet, was the Crookes tubes. It was an induction current of high potentiality that fed this, and an interesting fact is that it was precisely the same current as Dr. Morton makes use of in all his experiments in this field, the additional intensity of the X-ray being gained by the improved mechanism of the tube. When developed after half an hour's exposure it was found, as has been said, that the negative was perfected in all parts except the hips. Fifteen minutes, more exposure would have made these come out very clearly and the balance of the film would not have been injured at all. As it is, it is quite possible to distinguish the complete outline of the spine (it must be remembered the woman was lying on her back), the heart, stomach cavity and collar bone. In the photograph the most interesting points to any one not a scientist are the clean cut and beautiful outlines of the .bones of all four limbs, the feet and the hands, with the flesh surrounding them. The figure stands out a sort of ghostly white as the huge film is held up to the light, the background being black. In this white figure the bones are clearly defined in a sort of tint, which varies, as the bones do themselves, in penetrability to the X-rays. The science of this is that the bones, being less penetrable than the flesh, cast a sort of shadow — intercept, in part at least, these strange rays. The coil of hair shows distinctly, and a dagger pin and a bunch of hairpins stuck into it. Two diamonds in the rings are indicated plainly by white spots, while the gold bands are dark, showing that the rays passed through the gems and were obstructed by the gold. As regards the shoes, not only the nails stand aut clearly, but also the lacings of metal. Before Dr. Morton proved that the taking of a radiograph of an adult in one exposure was possible the nearest that any one had come to it was to take the human body in sections (five or six exposures) and, having made prints, to piece them together into some sort of skeleton. One use to which X-ray photography may be applied to the advantage of the archaeologist will be in determining the composition of mummified remains, which it is claimed are now in many cases manufactured by skilled workmen and palmed off on the eager enthusiast as relics of antiquity. The application of the X-rays speedily determines whether these remains are manufactured or are bona fide.