The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

8 THE PHONOSCOPE May, 1898 There are several different mechanical devices on the market that will reproduce music in a fairly successful manner, but the tonograph in this one respect alone, is superior. Where the others give reproduction that somewhat resembles the original, this instrument gives an exact copy. The greatest benefit in this method is that every style of playing can be carefully noted and all slurring, attacks and accentuation can be reproduced with much greater perfection than is done in regular manuscript. A composer can think of some theme at a time when he has not the patience to sit down and write it out. All that he has to do is to play it on a piano or organ that has the tonograph attached and at any future period he can reproduce it exactly as played originally. The printing process is really a musical short-hand or tonography, which records not only pitch and general duration, but all the requisites of perfect musical ideas. During Alexandre Guilmant's recent visit to Brooklyn he played for Mr. Gaily and on a recent visit to the studio of Abram Ray Tyler, where the invention has been exhibited, a reporter had a chance to hear the same piece played in the precise manner that the great organist composed the improvisation. At the time that it was reproduced Guilmant was on his way to his home in Paris, yet no one could have told the difference in tonal effect if he had been sitting at the organ himself during the rendering. The playing of the instrument with the invention attached has no effect on the keys in the least and the organ or piano can be used with equal facility in every way. It will not only attach itself to a portable instrument, but can be attached to the largest church pipe organs. It is particularly desirable for teachers as an aid to the instruction of scholars. The teacher's style of playing a piece or an etude can be taken and the pupil's rendition can be compared with that in order to make the latter more perfect. All attacks, such as arpeggio, broken chords and perfect time, are also shown, as the length of the marks and the perfect symmetry are evidence whether the composition is perfect or not. The invention was produced in a rather unexpected manner, as Mr. Gaily did not expect to bring it to the notice of the public for some time to come. When Alexandre Guilmant gave his first organ recital at the New York Avenue Methodist Church he was asked to inspect the invention. He seemed so pleased with it that he played an improvisation for the device to record. Upon his second visit to this borough, in the presence of William C. Carl and Abram Ray Tyler, he heard his original composition played. The success was so marked that it was decided to have the public in general know of the invention. The record of his composition is now kept by Mr. Gaily and will be one of the leading examples of the work that the tonograph can do. The inventor, Robert A. Gaily, is a musician of considerable experience. He has studied harmony and thorough-bass with Otto Floershein and composition and orchestration with Horace W. Nichol. For the past ten years he has lived in this borough at 15 Kosciusko street. The tonograph may be described as an amanuensis, which will preserve themes that can afterward be improved upon and as a machine that will analyze all technical details of phrasing. Upon the organ that has more than two manuals the stop and swell work is recorded as perfectly as every other part. ■» • » Those interested in Scientific and Amusement Inventions, Sound Reproducing Machines, PictureProjecting devices, Automatic Slot Machines, and other inventions pertaining to Sound and Sight will do well to advertise in these columns. Hrounb tbe Corner Can People Now Look Without Being Seen Themselves? Kirby Fitzpatrick, of Hartsville, Tenn., a student of the University of Nashville, who has a scientific bent of mind, has made an invention, which, to say the least of, is very novel and unique, and when properly perfected will no doubt place the young inventor on a plane with Roentgen, with his X-rays or Tesla and his telegraph)' without wires, etc. Mr. Fitzpatrick calls his invention the refractroscope. At the request of a reporter Mr. Fitzpatrick prepared for the following interesting article, enumerating and illustrating the various uses in which the refractroscope can be utilized : "I do not claim, in inventing the refractroscope, to have made any great or startling discoveries, but only to have made a new application of the old law of refraction. Every student, I presume, understands this law, how and why rays of light entering a denser medium from a less dense, as from air to glass, or vice versa, are refracted in proportion to the difference of the density of the mediums and to the angle at which the light entersIt is this principle that makes a dipper handle ap" pear bent when in water, and apparently elongates the discs of the sun and moon when near the horizon. This principle of refraction as applied to the refractroscope is illustrated by the following simple experiment : When the sunlight enters a dusty room through a small hole, it may be observed that it passes in a straight line to the opposite wall. Now, hold a prismatic lense — a wedge-shaped paper-weight will serve — in this line of light, and it will be bent by the prism, throwing the light spot on the wall at a different point. Place your eye at this point and you may see the sun through the opening, but remove the prism and the light spot will return to its former place, so that you can no longer see the sun without moving the eye. Applying this principle to a bent tube, with prism at the joints we have the refractroscope. The rays of light are omitted by a candle entering the tube and at the first prism thus enabling him to see through a bent tube — "to see around the corner." This has been accomplished by reflection, where you see the image, but never before by refraction, where you see the actual object. By increasing the number of joints and prisms, you may bend the tube to any extent, and by reversing the prisms, bend it in any direction. The refracting power of a prism is one-half the strength of the prism ; therefore, a tube bent at a given angle, as five degrees, must have a prism of twice that strength — ten degrees. A tube with sixteen joints of twenty-two and one-half degrees each, each joint having a forty-five degree prism, would complete a circle ; thus we can actually see the back of our own head. Now, theoretically this circle may be of any given magnitude, providing the prisms are in the proper ratio. A tower 985 feet high overcomes the curvature of the earth seventy-six and three-tenths miles, i. e., a man on a tower of this heighth can see thirty-two and three-tenths miles in either direction. Three hun dred and twenty-six such towers, seventy-six and three-tenths miles apart, each surmounted by a huge prism, two and three-fifths degrees stronger, would make a chain encircling the globe, by means of which an observer with a powerful telescope could actually ^see around the globe. Of course, this theory on so large a scale is wholly impracticable, because the prismatic coloring, diffusion of light and the cost of erecting such a line would go to make it so. The Eiffel Tower of Paris is 985 feet high, costing $1,300,000; 326 such towers would cost $423,800,000 ; then, further, the ocean depths are practically impassable, but our mountain peaks, 15,000 feet in heighth, would serve well for towers. Diffused light can be focused ; a prism two and three-fifths degrees strong gives practically no prismatic coloring, all of which facts go to show how and to what relative cost the theory may be applied, and practically on a smaller scale, especially in surgical, military and secret service affairs. Cuba is ninety-five miles off the coast of Florida. Would it not be highly practicable at present to have a tower half way between Florida and that island, so that a commander on our own shores could look down upon a battle in Havana harbor, and by telephone communication personally direct the fight? Placing a large prism on a neighboring hill-top the spy, with field-glass, could watch the rnanoeuvering of an army on the opposite side with more dispatch and safety than by climbing the hill-top in person. Likewise, in naval warfare, where to climb the mast were too difficult, slow and hazardous, the prism could be placed to incalculable service in the making of observations. The prism could, of course, be raised and lowered at will to protect it from the shot of the enemy. Also, we might easily construct our warships by the use of prisms so that every vital point of the hull could be under the commander's eye, and thus he might instantly see when and where any breach was made. I think that the prism would be of the greatest efficiency in the secret sen-ice ; for by silently elevating a strong prism to an upper window the detective could look into the interior of a dive as if his face were at the window. Thus, too, the festive serenader could take his bearings and often avoid pouring his sentimental cata-walls into the ears of unoffending parties. The refractroscope, I think, reaches its highest practical value when applied to surgery. The present sestascope can only be used in the bladder, because it must have an open cavity in order to secure the proper angle for the light, but the sestascope could be greatly improved by inserting prisms into the shaft so as to make the tube properly curved. Theoretically, the application of the law is unlimited. By taking Omaha as a central observatory, and utilizing our mountain peaks for towers, a line of prisms might be constructed to each of our ports, so that a spy could at one glance sweep our whole coast, catching sight of a vessel while still far out at sea. Or by extending a line along the Atlantic seaboard from Cuba to New York we might allow the lolling money kings of Wall street to gloat over the blood and carnage of the Spanish wars. Then, again, the sailor by looking back at a huge chronometer on shore, could determine his longitude, or by looking far over the horizon see the approaching storm-clouds in time to shift his sail in safety. Astronomers often take long journeys for the purposes of placing themselves in a position to observe a transit or other phenomenon. Then why not utilize a line of prisms for such observations? Dr. Nansen, in 1S95, went within 360 miles of the North Pole. If navigators would exert their energies upon a northern tower, might we not hope from the warmth of our own fireside to look down upon the frozen bosom of the polar seas? Then, too, the lover in a foreign land by wire could call his lady-love before the refractroscope, thus communicating the contents of his little head, saving his railroad fare. But owing to the quality of nineteenth century courting, I should think it unethical to facilitate the process. Then finally, placing the giant prism in the west and focusing the sun's rays on it, may we not in some visionary age hope to refract the sunlight around the earth, to light the cities of the midnight world, or by turning our prisms to the northern zone, robe the bleak Laplands of their grewsorne darkness ?