The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

12 THE PHONOSCOPE May, 1898 of his picture lo the size of the sceen at any distance. The great value of these objectives will at once be appreciated when it is understood that an operator who is forced to use his machine in a small hall or on a stage behind the curtain, say twenty or twenty-five feet from the screen, can at once adjust the objective to make a large life-size picture. If in his next exhibit he must use his machine at the back of a large hall, say, fifty, sixty or seventy feet from his screen, he can instantly re-adjust his objective to make the required sized pictures. These objectives can be used on any machine, provided they can be brought near enough to the moving film. The operation of the lens is so simple that anyone can use it. To make a large picture it is only necessary to push the inside sliding tube in as far as it will go, with the lens end innermost. To diminish the size of the picture, gradually draw the tube out, focussing the lens in the same way as with anv other objective. To still further diminish the picture, draw the inside tube all the way out, reverse it with the lens end out, sliding it backward and forward to get the proper size image. When it is drawn all the way out the smallest size picture is produced. Mr. H. W. Schroeder, of Kansas City, has hit upon an idea, perfected it and made successful records of a woman's voice. May C. Hyers, known as the "Black Patti," sang several solos into the phonograph, which were afterwards reproduced with good results. The method by which Mr. Schroeder has regulated the diaphragm to a woman's voice is very simple. Near the base of the horn, which conveys the voice into the machine, is a valve operated by an air bulb connected with it by a small hose. The bulb is held in the singer's hand and when she reaches particularly high notes in her song she presses the bulb, which opens the valve, allowing part of the volume of sound to escape. Thus the excessive vibration of the diaphragm is reduced and the needle properly records the tones. That the voice may not be interrupted by the piano, a separate horn, with the opening close to the back of the piano, conveys the accompaniment to the recording machine. Ever} sound that agitates the needle of the diaphragm makes its own individual record in the wax. An expert can read by the lines in the wax whether it is of an orchestra or the voice of a man or woman speaking or singing. Edison expects to be able to compile a code for the reading of wax records, whereby one can read a message spoken into a phonograph by examining the lines. Mr. Liepman Kaiser, of the Excelsior and Musical Phonograph Co., has just returned from a trip amongst the merchants interested in talkingmachines, records, etc. He stopped at Pittsburg, Pa., Wheeling, W. Va., Zanesville, Columbus and Cincinnati, O., Indianapolis, Ind., Detroit, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Mich., then sailed by boat to Chicago having a pleasant ride on Lake Michigan; from there to St. Paul and Minneapolis and home. He claims that during his trip he learned people were becoming more educated in the talking-machine business and wanted higher class records then heretofore. For the benefit of others who go out on the road to sell original records, Mr. Kaiser would advise to give Cincinnati, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo a wide berth as he claims the majority only handle duplicates. Business was quite brisk in all the other places visited, especially Chicago, and the firm he represented were very much pleased with the result, making it doubly interesting to him. Mr. Andem, of Cincinnati, O., one of the heavy-weights in the business out West is a very pleasant gentleman. He says he reads The Phonoscope regularly. Another energetic phonograph man with whom he was very much pleased to meet was Mr. Mansfield, of the Michigan Electric Co., and also Mr. H. H. Myers, of the Ohio Graphophone Co.> of Cincinnati, 0. Xetters This column is open to any of our patrons who have a complaint to make, a grievance to ventilate, information to give, or a subject of general interest to discuss appertaining to Sound Producing Machines, Picture Projecting Devices, Slot Machines, Amusement Inventions or Scientific Novelties in general. The Phonscope Publishing Co. The machines for recording and repoducing sound are certainly a marvelous invention and so regarded by all persons who have seen or heard them; but how few have stopped to consider what an old machine it is and how many years it has been invented before it was put to its present use of talking as natural as a human being or of reproducing a full brass band, etc. After all that has been written and said of the wonderful phonograph ( of which a more appropriate name would have been Lathophone I and graphophone and their supposed inventors it stands to-day, with the exception of the diaphragm, nothing more than an automatic turning lathe. Trace back sixty years or more when feed lathes were introduced and common in all machines and sawers' shops and you have the date of the machine that would talk, but could not until the diaphragm and engraving tool for recording sound was invented and placed thereon, which give it life. As for the reproduction of sound, that was never invented, but was a discovery, and discoveries are not inventions, according to numerous interpretations of patent decisions. The principle idea by which the talking-machine was made a success and of which the writer claims to be the first inventor, was in using a diaphragm in connection with an engraving point to obtain the record. The reproduction of sound as heretofore stated is not an invention. Take awa} the diaphragm and engraving point from your talking-machines and you then have a lathe whose principle is so old that the inventors are unknown. T. W. Searing. Hn Hfternoon's IRecve* atton Mitb tbe Ebison pbonoorapb On Friday afternoon, June 3d. Mr. Joseph Bernhardt, of Public School No. 21, 55 Marion Street, New York City, gave a highly instructive entertainment under the above title to the Primary Teachers' Association in the Chapel of the Normal College, 6Sth Street and Park Avenue. A very interesting programme of musical selections, consisting of operatic, vocal and patriotic reproductions, was rendered with loudness and brilliancy. In the course of his address the lecturer took occasion to refer to the practical uses of the phonograph, among which he instanced especially its capabilities in the line of languages. Mr. Bernhardt has written a little book which he hopes to have published soon on German pronunciation, and in connection therewith he has recorded on a single phonograph cylinder the names of the letters of the German alphabet, the sounds of the vowels, double vowels, diphthongs, and modi fied vowels, and an exercise of over 200 words, in groups of fours, illustrative of every distinct species of sound peculiar to the German language. After a practical experience with the instrument of several years during which he has trained his voice to bring out the more delicate shades of German utterance, every word and syllable is reproduced with startling force, precision and clearness. The idea is for the pupil to sit down before a phonograph or graphophone and with the book open see the printed word and hear its pronunciation at one and the same time. In other words, it is a training of the eye and ear, without the aid of a teacher, in the pronunciation of the German language. The method has been tested and has proven itself infallible. Mr. Bernhardt referred to a number of other practical applications of the phonograph and concluded with a brilliant reproduction of the "Battle of Manassas." The Programme was interspersed also by a number of finely rendered musical selections on the piano by Miss Mary C. Costigan, of Public School No. 137. The auditors expressed themselves as highly delighted with the phonograph and referred to th» afternoon's entertainment as perfectly "fascinating." Alien anb fll>acbmer\> The mechanics themselves are at war with the progress and dominance of machinery. They see in it their daily and tireless foe, which is always winning new fields from them, taking away their jobs, destroying the usefulness of their fingers by its greater speed and accuracy, ruining their prospects, supplanting their knowledge. Even new and better machine seems to throw many men out of work, and they see no end to it if "the supremacy of machinery is allowed to go on." Every day there is something new, and every day some one loses his place because a better machine dispenses with his services ; so they hate machines and sometimes smash them, and alwa3-s oppose new ones. That even one of them is better off for past inventions they forget ; that railroads, steamboats and machines of past times of even kind have given to workmen comforts, luxuries, pleasures beyond the wildest dreams of their forefathers, they ignore. All they see is their job and its loss. No wonder it is so ; the job is their daily living. No one can lose the bread from his mouth without rage and fear. Btit they should look a little further ahead and see that the more machines there are the more men are employed. Shut off the steam and electric works from New York City today and to-morrow one-half of New York would be obliged to move out of town. The city could not even feed one-half its population at hand labor. Two-thirds of them would have to leave and go to the country to get work and bread. The more machines produce, the more there is for everybody; and the more there is wanted the more work there is for everybody. Because one merchant fails, there is no reason for all merchants to rail and storm. Mechanics must learn to manage better. Because one class of laborers lose their work temporarily, the rest need not chafe and strike. The only way is to manage to know more, to be quick to shift the new conditions, to be ready to change and to learn novelties. The world must improve, though the individual is hurt. We build railroads and canals, though men are killed doing it. We mine coal and sail ships and run electric wires and break horses and blast rocks, though lives are lost at these and other employments. In the same way we must go 011 inventing and using improved machines, though some are thrown out, because that way lies the prosperity and plenty of the future world.