The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vi THE PHONOSCOPE August, 1899 J*1Ra£ litems Chicago Girl Hade Blind by a Fall Has Nearly Recovered A five-year-old girl owes her restoration to sight to the X-ray. While playing on the porch of her home two years ago she fell sixteen feet, striking on her head. The fall left her blind and her right side was paralyzed. An X-ray expert made a picture of the child's head, which showed that a tumor the size of a hen's egg had formed in the child's head and was pressing on the brain. The girl's condition was due to the cyst, which, pressing on the motor centre, caused paralysis, and an indirect pressure on the optic nerves caused the blindness. The skull was trepanned at a spot directly over the cyst and the tumor removed. The child has so far recovered that she is able to distinguish her parents and other acquaintances and she also can walk about unassisted. The X=Ray a False Witness Like its forerunner, the ordinary photographic camera, the X-ray machine can be made to tell the the most outrageous falsehoods. That venerable deception the so-called spirit photograph can be discounted by the shadowgraph and with no great effort or remarkable ingenuity on the operator's part either. A Chicago electrical specialist has been making some interesting experiments at the suggestion of the attorneys of the Chicago City Railway Company and others and the results are somewhat startling. They tend to show that shadowgraphs may need a great deal of corroboration when introduced as evidence in a damage suit. One of the lawyers exposed his hand before the machine with the muscles relaxed, fingers extended and the member generally in normal position. The shadowgraph showed the bones to be in perfect condition. The attorney then made a second exposure of the same hand, cramping the first joints of the fingers slightly. The ends of the fingers appeared to have been crushed and the bones were apparently of unnatural size. In another experiment the operator showed that it is possible to arrange an object on the outside of the body and make it appear to be lodged within. Thus a bullet placed in the clothing on the back of the body was shown in the shadowgraph as resting against the spine. The expert stated further that he had learned by long experience that it is possible for the operator himself to be deceived as to the location of an object disclosed by the X-ray machine. These disclosures as to the ease with which the records of the X-ray machine may be falsified will prove valuable to the defense in damage suits for malpractice, personal injuries, etc. Hitherto the shadowgraph has been regarded as proof conclusive of the nature and extent of injuries. Hereafter the defense will prove the ease with which the X-ray machine may be made to lie and upon the attorneys for the plaintiff will fall the burden of showing the integrity and reliability of the operator. It will be necessary to show also that he is a skilled electrician and possessed of a fair knowledge of anatomy. Otherwise he may have deceived himself, however honest and reliable he might be. When X-ray testimony is introduced hereafter it will be necessary to reinforce it very strongly or the opposing counsel will build up mountains of doubt as to its accuracy. Mr. C. H. H. Booth We present herewith a true likeness of Mr. C. H. H. Booth, a prominent Brooklyn organist and one of the best pianists in America, having played for some of the most prominent singers on the operatic stage. Besides being a pianist he is a director and composer of classical music. Some of his compositions which have gained distinciion are "Heart of My Heart," "Guardian Angel" and numerous instrumental pieces. The book entitled "Moths" is his masterpiece. He has also composed four masses for the Roman Catholic Church. It is a well-known fact that this class of work can only be accomplished by a master of music, of which we feel perfectly safe in saying Mr. Booth bears the distinction. He has recently been connected with the Phonograph trade in making piano solos for Messrs. Reed, Dawson & Company. His records are certainly worthy of special mention. picture projecttno Dunn's New Picture flachine At a private view in his factory E. B. Dunn, formerly "Farmer" Dunn of the Local Weather Bureau, gave an exhibition of his new picture machine, upon which he has been at work for nearly two years. The new machine, which has not yet been formally named, throws moving pictures on a screen in the same general manner as the Biograph and Vitascope, but with greater steadiness than the older contrivances. Instead of running vertically, as in all other moving picture inventions, the film travels horizontally and each separate photograph comes to a dead stop for a fraction of a second before the lens. There is no tension in the lens. This absence of tension and of continuous motion does away with the jumping and shifting of the pictures, so trying to the eyes. What chiefly strikes the observer in Farmer Dunn's invention is its compactness. The entire machine weighs but thirty-five pounds and can be packed into a box 14x16 inches. It is operated by hand and with such ease as to entail hardlv any exertion. By means of the magnifying lens the pictures thrown on the screen are of life size, or maybe even larger. Tbe exhibition comprised representations of the rapids at Niagara Falls, an express train at full speed and immigrants disembarking. Then Mr. Dunn said that he had a supplemental picture to show. Upon the screen there flashed the representation of a muscular man in a slouch hat chopping in two a tree that he had just felled. One saw every accessory of the exercise— the flash of the axe-blade, the flying of the chips, even the shifting of the fingers on the helve. Presently the chopper paused and caught at something, then lifted his eye-glasses, which had fallen, and raising his face, put them in place. As he straightened up and the sheltering hat-brim gave a view of the face, there was no mistaking Gov. Roosevelt. Mr. Dunn had caught him at his favorite exercise at Oyster Bay. The picture was one of the best and most characteristic that has ever been taken of the Colonel. The speed of passage of the films was twenty a second and the action was well-nigh perfect. Mr. Dunn expects to perfect his machine so as to get it in a still smaller compass. Slot flDacbtnee Patrons of saloons in Cincinnati will not listen to the rag-time strains of the Graphophone or Phonograph unless proprietors pay the city the concert fee license of $200. When the rag-time resorts gave up their pianos, many saloonists purchased Graphophones. City Auditor Boyden recently gave out an opinion that they, being used to give concerts, should also be charged the concert license fee. Hade Junk of Slot-machines A squad of policemen in Camden, N. J.f under the direction of Chief Foster, reduced to junk seven of the slot-machinos captured in the recent raid, and made the intricate machinery' fit only for a scrap heap. Just before tbe machines were destroyed Morris Hertz served a notice on Mayor Hatch, in which he demanded the return of the four slot-machines found in his place. The Mayor sought the advice of City Solicitor Bleakley, who told him to take no notice of Hertz's demand, as he had been convicted on the charge of having the machines in operation in his place. The Mayor directed the officers to treat Hertz's machines as they did the rest, and, with a sledge hammer, hatchets and home-made battering ram, they demolished even the "owl" machine, whose artistic carving would grace a parlor. About $4 in nickels was all that was found in these machines, which Mr. Hertz avers he was not operating, but merely had them as samples of machines, for the sale of which he had an agency.. Mr. Hertz places the value of his machines at $250,. and he says he will sue the city for that amount.. John Keefe's machine yielded $t5 in nickels,, which is demanded by Mr. Keefe, but where it belongs will be determined later on. The officers found $10 in Peter Kelly's slot machine. Hard Blows to Singers The Phonograph seems to be beginning to cut a quite considerable figure in the amusement business. Word comes from St. Louis that Col. Hopkins is introducing songs sung by one of these machines with accompanying stereoscopic illustrations. Thus the Colonel's patrons are enabled to hear all about home and mother without viewing the contortions of pallid young men with long hair and mournful visages. I understand that over in Brooklyn a while ago the manager had some trouble with the leader of the orchestra, and brought him to terms by saying that if he continued to be unreasonable they would put in a big Phonograph to play all the overtures and other music of that kind, thus ridding themselves of the annoyances of the musical union. The leader concluded to hold onto his job, and the proprietors have been enjoying comparative peace from that quarter ever since.