The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. III. No. 8 THE PHONOSCOPE ©ur ZEattler It is reported that an earnest and progressive pastor, leaving bis flock for a vacation, left a sermon on a cylinder to be delivered at the proper time. The hymns were sung, a brother had offered prayer, and the announcements had been made, when one of the deacons brought forward the Phonograph, placed it upon the pulpit, and annouuced that, when set in motion, it would give a devoted flock one of the sermons which had so endeared the pastor to the congregation. Thereupon the good deacon set the machine" in motion. No one can imagine the consternation of the congregation when the Phonograph gave out the song: "Dinah, de Moon Am Shining." The song ended, but there was no break — the terrible machine proceeded to relate a number of up-todate, but not very Sunday or pulpit stories. No one understood the machine, but after twenty minutes the deacon grasped the irreverent Phonograph and hurried it out of the church. The much-beloved pastor might have been called before a council had it not been discovered that the sermon-loaded Phonograph had been left in charge of a son of Belial with the weakness of a practical joker. Murphy — Did yer go up thur hill at Shantyargo, Casey? Casey — I did, and I wur infurnally wounded. Murphy — Shure infurnally manes thur lower ragions. Casey — Well, that's where I wur shot, in thur lower ragions. — Casey as a Rough Rider. A talking-machine was squeaking "Annie Laurie" over the heads of the festival crowd. Two small boys looking for a fight bored holes in the mass of humanity. "Here's de kid we're lookin' fer," whispered 'one. But his partner had stopped and was straining himself to look up over the merchant's glaring sign. "Hi, Chimmy! I hears one of dem tings." "Wot tings?" asked the other, using his elbows to good advantage in the crowd. "Wot tings ; why one o' dem speakin' machine tings fer cert." "Chimmy" looked at him in disgust. "Aw, gwan," he replied, "dat's a grafafone." '"Tain't needer ; it's afonygraf," was the retort. "I tells yer it's a talkin' enjine." '"Tain't talkin' at all; it's playin' music ; can't yer listen," persisted he who had heard it first. "Chimmy" put a hand to an ear and listened. A new expression mottled his facial expidermis. "Say," he shouted, "dat dere's a inegafone. Don't youse tink I never herd nuttin? Say, what yer tink I am, a farmer?" The crowd thought just then that a muffled alarm clock was having a fit. After the boys were separated "Chimmy" allowed he was bleeding to death and his opponent's coat was in seven pieces. Then they made up. "Say' let's go an' count de farmers," said one, and they moved on. An exhibitor gave an entertainment in a church recently at the conclusion of which he packed up his paraphenalia. As he was a' out to depart he picked up his carrying-case, the latch of which was unfastened and out fell every one of the seventytwo records contained therein. Being in church he could not give vent to his feelings and didn't feel inclined to pray, so he remarked: "Well, that settles it ; the last time I went to church I was married. This time I have broken every one of my records. Well, I will never go to church again ; it's a Jonah for me." A Light=Ray Phonograph An interesting patent was issued August 22d to Josef Chania, of Lemberg, Austrc-Hungary, on a Phonograph whereby the record is made and reproduced by the action of light-rays. The recorder consists of a box containing a mirror opposite to the mouthpiece ; a ray of light is caused to impinge on the mirror and be reflected therefrom and to pass through a prism, which focuses it on the surface of a rapidly moving chemically prepared tape. It is stated that the sound w ives thrown on to the reflector opposite the mouthpiece intercept tc a more or less extent the light-rays and affects the vibratory action of the reflector, the result being variations in action of the light-rays focused on the sensitized strip. In the reproducer the strip is unrolled, and a ray of light focused upon it is reflected and strikes the rim of a rapidly moving wheel made up of a large number of strips of selenium, the selenium being in the circuit of a telephone receiver. It is claimed that the variations in the record strip result in variations in action of the rays on the revolving selenium strips, the resistence of which is thus varied and causes variations in the current flowing which will affect the telephone electromagnet, whereupon the diaphragm will be actuated and sounds produced. H flftan Wbo Sees Sounb Peculiar Work in a Phonograph Establishment Speaking of the head record taker of a large Phonograph establishment in this city, a man connected with the central office of the same firm said, enthusiastically : "Ah, he is a wonder. He can see sounds." In answer to a question, he explained that by looking at the almost microscopic indentations on a Phonographic cylinder the superintendent of the record department of the company in question could tell, not only the kind of instrument that produced it, but also the tune it contains. Taking out a number of records or wax cylinders covered with fine grooves, the clerk asked whether the visitor could tell the difference between them. The latter admitted that to him they had no more individuality than the separate hairs on his head. "Well, you wouldn't say that if you had to handle these cylinders by the hundred every day in the week," said the clerk, with a smile. "All coons look alike, yet when you live down south and see more niggers than white men you get it so that each coon has his own looks for you, and you don't mix them up. So we can tell the difference between some cylinders and others. Those who work in the record-taking department, particularly the employees of the testing room, could easily tell the record of a piano from that of a piccolo or a whistle, for instance. But nobody in the whole country, or, for that matter, in the whole world, comes up to our superintendent. He can't exnlain how he distinguishes the various records, but he does it. Of course, he has been many years in the business, but I think he is endowed with a special faculty, a peculiar kind of instinct, a sort of sixth sense, which enables him to see the recorded sounds almost as easily as you and I hear the original ones." The record-taking department was found busy. As the visitor stood in the dingy corridor he was greeted by a medley of human voices and musical instruments. In the orchestra room he found a group of musicians seated on a platform facing five suspended funnels or horns. These converged with their broader sides at a central point directly in front of the orchestra. One of the superintendent's assistants took up an enormous megaphone and aiming it at the horns he called out ; "A descriptive selection, 'On the Road,' played by the So-and-So Orchestra." His words could be heard for blocks around, but in their final form as they were to be reproduced by thousands of Phonographs they were supposed to be the announcement of "the next number " by the presiding genius of a concert. No sooner had the record-taker withdrawn his megaphone than the orchestra struck up a tune, all levelling their instruments at the five converging horns in front of them. When they were through the five cylinders bearing the record of the ' ' descriptive selection ' ' were taken into the testing room, where they were examined and put into a Phonograph with a horn as big as the megaphone through which the announcement was made. This announcement and the selection were reproduced with remarkable faithfulness. The records were accepted and were christened "Masters," or original records from which thousands of duplicates or "dubs" were to be made in the same way as these masters had been produced by the human voice and the orchestra. There are several styles of duplicating machines in operation but we give here an idea of how it is accomplished. To make a "dub" the "master" is operated in a reproducing Phonograph placed against the converging horns of two or three other Phonographs, each with a recording adjustment. When the cylinders of these have received the record they are taken off to make room for other cylinders, and the Phonograph containing the "master" is set in motion once more, going over the same selection. The operation is repeated until the desired number of "dubs" is reached. "The 'masters' are the children and the ' dubs ' the grandchildren of the human voice or the instruments," said the record-taker, jokingly. "The public very seldom hears the children. The majority of the Phonographs you see, from the cheapest to the best, use ' dubs. ' We do not sell 'masters' for the reason that an orchestra can only produce a certain number at a time, and some of these are liable to be rejected as defective. Each of our solo singers, for instance, sings into two machines at a time, so that each time he sings a song we get two records, one of which may be rejected. But the one which is acceptable in its turn sings the same song into scores of other Phonographs, so that while we pay the singer a dollar, we can afford to sell the ' dubs ' containing his song at a very low price." One of these singers was a robust young man with a ruddy German face. He made his living principally by yodling Tyrol songs into the tin horns of two recording instruments. When there is plenty to do and his voice is in trim he spends whole days yodling the same song or two. After having performed a piece of yodling to his own satisfaction, he followed the records into the testing room, where, standing in front of the big brass horn of a "grand" he soon heard his own words and his own yodling. The reproduction was so exact that the stranger burst out laughing. Not so the yodler. He stood listening to his own voice gravely, almost solemnly, as if the sounds came to him from a grave. The visitor thought it very pathetic, and when it was all over he said to the yodler : " It must be very interesting to hear your own voice from this dumb machine. There is something touching about it, isn't there?" The yodler gave him a perplexed look and said : "When both records are rejected we don't get paid for the song. So I was listening to hear if it was all right."