The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. II. No. 5 THE PHONOSCOPE 9 '©rapbs, pbones anb 'Scopes The Antiphone Interest in an invention called the antiphone has been stimulated by the present war. The antiphone, which is extensively used in the German army and navy, is an ingenious device contrived especially to protect the hearing of men who have to do with the firing of heavy guns, and used as well by others who would avoid the ill effects of loud noise such as cannonading. The inventor is Capt. Plessner, a gallant officer of the German army, who, by the way, is a brother of Mrs. Louise Pollock, of Washington, who has been so prominently engaged in the introduction of the kindergarten policy in this country since 1863. The Meteorograph An unusual phenomenon occurred while the weather bureau at Topeka, Kansas, was making some examinations of the conditions of the atmosphere in regard to temperature, humidity and pressure. The instrument used for this work is called a meteorograph and its mechanical workings are as complex as its name. It was fastened to a kite which was about a mile high when a very strong bolt of lightening struck it and started viciously down the steel wire for the operators on the ground. As it traveled at its usual velocity, the men had not decided just what course to pursue when the unexpected shock arrived. It was so strong that the wire could not carry it and it divided near the ground striking G. H. Noyes and his assistant, C. H. Bushnell, the operators. Mr. Bushnell was severely shocked but was not injured as the current was broken by the rubber boots which he was wearing. The part of the bolt which struck Mr. Noyes was more severe as it was conducted to the earth through nails in his shoe and the platform on which he was working. The current burned his foot quite severely and also burned a hole in his stocking. He says the current was of sufficient strength to kill him instantly if it had been constant. The conducting wire was about the size of ordinary broom wire but was too small for the current although it is sufficient for ordinary currents. It was so badly burned that it would break like a lead wire although it is made of the best of steel. treatment of the subject is especially interesting as showing that it is approaching a more familiar and popular phrase, says the writer of the Popular Science Monthly. Suppose the mechanism of our camera to be altered in such wise that successive exposures may be made at relatively long intervals of time, while the duration of each exposure can be varied at will. With this end in view, the camera should be provided with clockwork capable of running for twenty-four hours continuously. Thus equipped, we should be ready to experiment on objects — such as growing plants — whose changes are of too gradual a nature to be perceived by the eye. * * * The experiments might extend over a period of weeks, or even of many months, according to the nature of the plant selected. But the resulting film, when placed in the cinematograph for exhibition, would be 'reeled off' in the course of a minute or two, so that we should have, as it were, a greatly magnified representation of the movements involved in plant growth. * * * "Such views could not fail to produce an effect at once marvellous, unique and instructive. As pictured upon the canvas, the plants would grow and develop before the eyes of onlookers, throwing out leaf upon leaf, and visibly increasing their dimensions. Here and there a flower or flowtrcluster might make its appearance, the individual blossoms bursting forth suddenly and remaining visible bursting forth a brief period only. The process is clearly applicable to greenhouse or indoor plants of every description, from stately palms or tree ferns down to the most delicate mosses or lichens. Thus, the general phenomena of plant growth may be illustrated with a vividness never before realized. As object-lessons in botany, such motion pictures would be invaluable, while the general public, not less than the advanced student of science, would regard them with feelings of the keenest interest. * * * "This graphic method should theoretically be applicable to insects and animals as well as to plants. In practice, however, it can be successfully applied only to the lower and the higher forms of animal life. On the one hand, we could picture the growth of certain lowly organisms in the borderland between the animal and vegetable worlds ; on the other, we could portray the development of a child, or even the life changes of a human being from chidhood to old age. "Turning now from the earth to the heavens, we shall see that similar methods are applicable to the most prominent of celestial bodies — viz., the sun. The photographic art has long since been applied with conspicuous success to the glowing solar disk, with its dark spots and brighter patches or 'faculae;' and such photographs are now taken from day to day at leading observatories in various parts of the globe. During recent years, moreover, astronomers have contrived to photograph, under ordinary conditions, the surroundings of the great luminary^including the chromosphere and prominences, but excepting the corona, which cannot as yet be studied in the absence of an eclipse. . "I shall not attempt to describe the many interesting features shown in such photographs; nor is it necessary in this place to indicate the precise means whereby solar picture films can be produced. The chief point to be noted is that changes — often . of a rapid and striking character— are continually occurring both in the sun's photosphere and its gaseous surroundings. The cinematograph will enable us to actually see such changes taking place; and it may be possible in this way to obtain new light on certain fascinating, though recondite, problems presented by the sun, while the complex solar movements may in any case be pictured in a manner that cannot fail to prove deeply interesting and instructive." flew Electric Sebsteab Xamp Novel Device is the Latest Which flakes Reading in Bed a Real Luxury The lamp is of English design and is just the thing for invalids and bad sleepers. It is of but two candle-power arid is intended for use with a small accumulator, or can be operated directly from the electric light mains where they are available. The lamp can be turned or swiveled in any desired direction, and gives a very gentle light, which can be instantly lighted or extinguished. It is made in several styles either for attachment to an iron or brass bedstead or a wooden one. The consumption of current is so small that a charged battery of medium s;ze would feed it almost indefinitely, while the absence of any odor and the ease with which it is lighted, by a simple key or by a screw, makes it very convenient and desirable. {Two jfamous IFnventors Thomas Alva Edison, "the Wizard of Menlo Park," was thrown upon the world at fifteen years of age. He became a newsboy on a railway line, but he found time to edit a little weekly paper, read Newton's "Principia" and make experiments. He became a telegraph operator and one of his clever inventions was a device which he called into play when he wanted to take a little nap. This automatic device would answer the central office with the assurane that Mr. Edison was awake when he was dozing peacefully. Edison also invented an automatic repeater to transfer messages from one wire to another. His first invention that brought him in anything was an improved stock printer, for which he received $40,000. Everybody knows about his phonograph, incandescent lights, kinetoscope and Rineto-phonograph. Edison sa3Ts that the time is near "when grand opera can be given at the Metropolitan Opera House at New York without any material change from the original and with artists and musicians long dead." Nicola Tesla is considered by many scientific men to be a more original genius than Edison. He was born in Servia and came to America and was employed by Edison. Tesla does away with the filaments inside the bulbs of small electric lights and makes diluted air do their work. Tesla sends currents of high pressure through space without any conductor at a voltage many times greater than that employed in electrocution. He sends currents through his body that vibrate a million times a second or two hundred times greater voltage than is needed to produce death. Tesla's aim is to hook nature's machinery directly to man's, pressing the ether waves directly into man's service without the generation or intervention of heat. By so doing an enormous proportion of energy could be saved that now goes to waste. Tesla's polyphase motors were adopted for converting into electricity the power of Niagara Falls. It is thought that the Niagara Falls Power Company can before very long furnish Chicago with energy at less cost than the steam made here by coal is furnished. Electricity is carried to Frankfort from Laufen, where it is created, with a loss of only four per cent. Electricity is generated at the falls at Folsom, Cal., and is taken by overhead wires to Sacramento, twenty-four miles, with a loss of not over twenty per cent. The Stethophone The March Stethophone, invented by Rev, D. B. March, Ph. B., of Black Heath, Ont., is now patented in Canada, United States, France and Great Britain. The latter patents arrived last week. The German patent is also granted and will be forwarded in a few days. The stethophone is being sold to physicians in Canada by Messrs. Lyman, Sons & Co., of Montreal and S. B. Chandler & Co., Toronto. It is said to be an instrument possessing the merits the inventor claims for it. _v Scientific ffiotan^ In an article on "Animated Pictures" J. Miller Barr, after describing the kinetoscope, cinematograph and other types of machine for producing the moving pictures now so familiar to the public, suggests some lines along which they may be made useful in scientific investigation or demonstration. The facts involved are well known to students and their application in one of the directions suggested, namely, the study of a growing plant, was described several years ago in this department ; but Mr. Barr's