The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. I. No. G THE PHONOSCOPE 9 General Bevps The Edison Phonograph Works has elected Thomas A. Edison, President, and John F. Randolph, Secretary and Treasurer. The Lyrophone, which is of similar construction to the Echophone, is the invention of Lieut. Bettini and shows a marked improvement over all lowpriced machines. The House of Representatives at Lansing, Mich., lately passed a bill to prohibit reproduction of prize fights by vitascope, kinetoscope, etc. The penalty is a fine of $500 to $i,ooo, or two years' imprisonment, or both. It is now generally conceded that the X-ray is injurious in a greater or less degree to the human skin and hair. This fact should be borne in mind where experiments are carried on by any other than experienced workers with this light. Mr. Peter Bacagalupi, of San Francisco, visited New York last mouth, intending to purchase the Verascope Corbett Fitzsimmons fight rights for California. As the Verascope Co. want a small fortune for the right, Mr. Bacagalupi has concluded to "think it over." Among the prizes that were awarded by John Welderburn & Co., of Washington, D. C, for the most valuable inventions submitted to that firm by its clients during the past month was a gold medal, presented to J. N. Crown, for an improvement on the graphophone. Lieut. Bettini's Micro-Phonographs are meeting with popular favor. William K. Vanderbilt recently purchased three outfits, including over 100 records of famous artists. One machine will be placed aboard the steam yacht "Valiant". Exhibitions of kinetoscope pictures of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight is to be prohibited in Pueblo, Colo. On petition of the W. C. T. U. unions of the city the aldermen last month instructed the attorneys to draw up such an ordinance. The petition was granted without discussion. Robert Fitzsimmons and James J. Corbett were burned up in verascope films last week while await, ing the opening of the afternoon performance at the Academy of Music, New York city. Rounds three, four and five caught fire from a lighted match. Slight damage was done, there being several duplicate films to replace the others. William L. Skinner, of St. Louis, Mo., has a patent by which he proposes to make the deaf hear clearly. It is an invisible electrical device, thoroughly tested, and which he is willing for the Government to say whether he is correct or not. There are already three people in St. Louis who will testify to its efficacy. Mr. Skinner asks bat the royalty of a patent. C. A. Q. Norton, manager of the Hartford Graphophone Company in that city, has sold five large commercial machines to the Pope Manufacturing Company, for use in their offices. The correspondence of the company will be dictated into the graphophones instead of to stenographers. The records will then be given over to expert typewriter copyists, who will transcribe the letters. The cinematographe is recognized as one of the most perfect picture projecting devices; and the inventors Messrs. Lumiere & Sons, of Lyons, France, have been particularly successful with their films, which produce a very clear, sharp, gray picture, which is very pleasing to the eye. Messrs. Maguire & Baucus have recently purchased the American stock of Lumiere & Sons, consisting of over 1500 films of various subjects, which they are offering to the trade at a liberal reduction from the standard price. The Ohio Phonograph Co., of Cincinnati, O., has been succeeded by The Edison Phonograph Co. with offices at Cincinnatti, Cleveland, Chicago and Indianapolis. They are making a high grade of records which they are selling at a very nominal price, including Brand's Orchestras, Brand's Band, songs by Alexander, Weston, Newton and Watson. Mr. James L. Andem, formerly President of The Ohio Phonograph Co., is General Manager of the new company. Headquarters at Cincinnatti. The Columbia Phonograph Company announce the speedy appearance on the market of a new photograph projecting machine, which, they claim, is not only more satisfactory in its operations and results, but can be sold cheaper than any yet made. The machines are being manufactured at Bridgeport by the American Graphophone Company, in whose enlarged factory an extensive plant for making projecting machines and films has been installed. Their experts have given a great deal of study to the subject and promise an apparatus that will do more efficient work than any yet produced, and yet be simpler in its operation and cheaper in price. While experimenting on some new composition of paraffine for making phonograph cylinders, Mr. Cleveland Walcutt, of the firm of Walcutt & Leeds, and Dr. Metcalf, a chemist of Brooklyn, were badly scalded about the face and bruised about the body. They were taken to the New York Hospital. After having their wounds dressed they returned to their homes. The cauldron in which the composition was boiling, burst and broke into flames, which communicated with the woodwork, setting the whole place a-blaze. The damage to the stock, however, was not very great. William Scribner, Secretary of the Verascope Company, which shows the CorbettFitzsimmons pictures at the Academy of Music, was instantly killed on the evening of June 6th, by falling from the sixth floor through the elevator shaft to the cellar in the building of No. 244 West Twenty-third Street. Scribner had an office at that address. It was seven o'clock that evening when he started to return to his home. He rang for the elevator, but the elevator boy was not in the building. The doors which open into the shaft on each floor have no locks on them, and when no one responded to his call, Scribner opened the door and started the elevator running. The cable, which is a new one, works hard, and when the car reached the sixth "floor he could not stop it. After it had passed to the floor above he made another effort to stop it, but missed his hold on the cable and fell down the shaft. An epoch in the development of the entertainment feature of the talking machine is marked by the successful reproduction upon it of operatic choruses. It has been regarded as difficult, if not impossible, to make satisfactory talking machine records of female singing voices. Some upper notes, especially, have lost all their music in the process of recording and of reproduction. These difficulties have been largely overcome by experiment and improvement, and now there has been added to the talking machine repertoire operatic choruses sung by fully-trained operatic companies. The effect produced is remarkable. The members of the chorus are grouped in front of the large amplyfying horns that conduct the musical sounds to the diaphragms of the recording apparatus. The soloist, of course, has an advanced position, just as he or she would on the stage. Considerable study has been expended on the matter of grouping and posing the singers, so as to get the best effects and most perfect blending of voices in the record. During the past week such work has been going on in the musical record department of a leading phonograph company's headquarters iti New York, under the direction of Mr. V. H. Emerson. It is possible now to have not only band and orchestral performances and vocal solos reproduced at will at home, but also vocal selections from the popular operas. ©ur ^Foreign Covvesponbence Sydney, N.S.W., Australia, May 10th, 1897. The Phonoscope Publishing Co. Gentlemen : Yours of the 19th of March and also the journals came safely to hand. There is very little to report in the way of Phonographic and Cinematographic doings. There are three cinematographes open to the public in this city, but they are not having any great rush on at present. We have in one the Edison Vitascope, in another the Wemch.es Cinematographe and in the other a French make of machine that uses a picture more than double the size of the Edison Standard Film, but to my mind the results are anything but satisfactory. There is a shutter and the flicker is something awful. There is no doubt that so far as animated photography goes the best machine run over here has been Lumieres. No doubt Edison's would produce equally good results in the hands of a capable operator, but from what the writer has seen of it, it lacks much to be desired. Now for some news pertaining to the supply houses over on your side and what brings them in bad odor with business firms here. There are firms here worth thousands, and yet they are required to put the cash in New York before they see the goods, and when they arrive here they are not what they have been represented to be. For example ; a friend of the writers ordered an Edison Spring Motor Phonograph and a lot of records, etc.; in fact a good sized first order. He receives his goods and when he unpacks them, the first thing that greets his eye is an old, well shop-worn Phonograph, not even touched up with a bit of Brunswick black, but the motor never saw the inside of Edison's workshops, but came not far off from where the writer was born, on the shores of Long Island Sound. Now, had the goods been such as ordered and paid for, an extra large order would immediately have gone forward; as it is, no order, and perhaps a law suit. Records! the circulars that are sent to parties known in the trade (and how they get the names is a wonder) each claiming to make the best, and fromfirms, that I confess I have never heard of, is one of the marvels of this part of the world. • S<md me on some more sample copies of your valuable paper. I will put them where they will do you good. Those names I sent you are good financially, for all your advertisers can sell them. Will write you more fully by next English steamer. Wishing you success, yours faithfully. W. H. L