The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

The Phonoscope (Copyrighted, 1896) A Monthly Journal Devoted to Scientific and Amusement Inventions Appertaining to Sound and Sight Vol. III. flew Cure for Insomnia The Phonograph and Revolving Stereopticon will put to Sleep the Host Obstinate Do bad dreams harass you? Do evil monsters pursue you in your sleep and terrible fantasies crowd upon you night after night ? Do you wake at times with a shudder and see the dark peopled with shapes, only to realize that the impending doom that seemed so certain was but a trick of the brain ? A New York doctor claims that there is a cure for all this. Dreams, he says, can be controlled. Evil, frightful imaginings of the sleeping hours can be replaced by dreams that are good and happy. The brain, though released by the will, can yet be harnessed. The experiments he has made and already announced to the medical profession seem to prove his assertions. To get the desired results he has constructed special apparatus and has used it many times. The doctor is a New York physician of prominence, a man who has written much-for the medical press. His theory is simple. He first quiets his patients, lays them down on a comfortable couch, and then has soft music and the low tone of sweet voices come to their ears, while chromatic moving pictures change and shift before their eyes. If time and events prove this doctor's theory correct, he is the first who has penetrated behind the veil of sub-consciousness — who has entered the domain of the unknowable. Sleep and the working of the brain during the sleeping state have never been understood. Even the psychologists have been halted on the threshold. That music and soft tones of the voice may have some effect on the health and may be of use as curative agents has more than once been shown, but this doctor is the first to put such a theory to a practical test. The description of the apparatus that follows is given in Dr. Coming's own words : "In the first place, I have had made a hood of canvas or soft leather which, enveloping the head, extends forward and over the ears, so that the face alone remains uncovered. ' ' Jtist at the point where the cap rests upon the ears I have caused the material to be cut away, so as to allow of their free protrusion. A kind of metal'ic saucer is then placed over each ear, and its margin, broadly flanged and perforated for the passage of the needle, sewed to the edges of the opening. "Each saucer is provided with a hollow metallic nipple, situated just above the ear and communicating with the inclosed air space. A piece of fine india-rubber tubing twenty-five feet in length is attached to these two nipples by a short bifurcation. The other end of the tubing is then connected with NEW YORK, APRIL, i899 the reproducing mechanism of an Edison Phonograph. "Upon a low divan the subject, who has previously donned the acoustic hood, lies at full length, preferably upon the back. A tent-like arrangement, shutting in the divan above and at the sides, excludes the light. At the foot of the dark chamber is a white screen fastened to the foot of the divan. "Supported upon a tripod at the head of the divan, but outside of the curtained inclosure, is a small stereopticon of short focus. Only the tube of the instrument protrudes through a small aperture in the drapery. Various Chromatoscopic slides may be successively introduced into the slot of the lantern, projecting many-hued images on the screen-images whose changing forms and capricious beauty hold the attention. "The Chromatoscope is that employed with the ordinary stereopticon. It consists essentially of two vari-colored glass disks rotated in opposite directions by simple cog-wheel gearing." Music, the doctor says, arouses a flood of intellectual memories and ideas, which in their turn "give rise to other and more complicated memories." Music heard during sleep attains the same end, he believes. And the dreams one has, good or evil, influence the man in his waking hours. The doctor finds that certain sorts of music are preferable. Harmony is better than melody ; selections from Wagner are especially effective. Minor chords and arpeggios have great value. And for these reasons Dr. Corning selects his music, as he does his moving pictures, most carefully. A great point of this treatment is to have the patient tired out before he goes to bed. The subject is first required to look steadily at a brightly lighted object quickly moved by clockwork. His attention soon becomes exhausted, drowsiness sets in and acute reasoning is impossible. The stage is that of half waking, half sleeping, and the visions control the mind. It is while the consciousness is thus half dead that by music and moving pictures visions are made to order. Harmonies wash like waves over the brain of the drowsy man ; pleasing scenes, fantasies and combinations of color form and fade before his eyes. Drowsier he grows, yet more drowsy. With these sounds and these lights clamoring upon him for admittance, he drifts off into sleep. The musical vibrations, acting directly upon the cells of the brain, bring about these results. "Aside from these psychological advantages there are others of a distinctly physiological origin, whose importance is at least as considerate, Dr. Corning says. And he adds that the psychical effects of music prove that the brain areas are influenced, both directly and indirectly. One case that shows how the apparatus works, and upon which the doctor wrought a cure, is worth relating. The patient was a man of middle age, who, since his twentieth year, had been haunted by morbid dreams. He had always otherwise been in No. 4 complete health, and was subject to no emotional annoyances. He ate regularly and well, and yet every night gruesome dreams visited him. As Dr. Corning tells the story, this man was sceptical as to any relief from his nightmares. "Having installed the necessary appliances, I ordered him to bed an hour earlier than usual," says Dr. Corning, "employing the intervals of wakefulness in fatigueing the attention with the chromatoscopic images, and reversing the emotional tendency as far as possible with the music from the Phonograph, operated in an adjoining apartment." {The IRaMopbone The new electrical invention called the Radiophone was introduced to the public at Madison Square Garden recently. The device bears the same relation to the telephone that wireless telegraphy does to the old system. In the Radiophone wires are dispensed with and in their place shafts of light are used. In the second balcony at one end of the long' hall was suspended an arc light, backed with a powerful reflector. A telephone transmitter designed to carry a strong current was connected in short circuits about the arc. By this arrangement current was secured from the arc in proportion to the resistance of the diaphragm of the transmitter. The variations produced in the current of the arc lamp produced corresponding changes in the heat rays emitted, and these changes affected the glass bulb of the receiver, 600 feet away, producing vibrations in the air contained in the receiver and ear tubes. These vibrations were communicated to the receiver and the sound reached the ear as in the ordinary telephone. Ear tubes like those of the Edison Phonograph were used recently. Eater on an ordinary telephone transmitter will be employed. Both transmitter and receiver were inclosed in long-distance telephone cages. The simplest explanation of the invention is that the heat rays which travel along the reflected beam of light answer the purpose of the sound waves used by the old method. Wireless telephones are promised to be valuable to ships at sea for signalling to each other. Many ships now carry search-lights, which undoubtedly would answer the purpose. It is yet to be determined at what distances human speech can be transmitted, as this largely depends on the power of the light used at the transmitting station. Morse code signals were sent two miles during experiments recently made in Boston. Readers of The Phonoscope should read the notice regarding the date of issue which appears on page 18.