The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. III. No. 8 THE PHONOSCOPE 13 Ibutcbison's HfcoulalUon Causes tbe 2)eaf to Ibear Another Wonder Accomplished Through Electricity's Agency The experiments with the apparatus designed by Morris Reese Hutchison, enabling the deafmute to hear and by hearing to speak, have aroused much interest throughout the country. There is now no question as to its practicability. The most severe test of the instrument was made in the presence of a medical commission consisting of Doctors L. S. Pugh, Angelo Festorazzi, Ruffin A. Wright, of the faculty of the Alabama Medical College and J. T. Inge and W. T. Henderson. There were also present in the hall where the exhibition took place a number of the most prominent men in Mobile, Ala. Two deaf mutes who had been inmates of the State Asylum at Talledega were the subjects upon whom the instruments were tested. Ordinarily they could not hear the firing of artillery ; by means of Mr. Hutchison's invention they were enabled to hear the music of a piano at a distance of sixty feet. By using the finger alphabet they commented on the different airs played by an ordinary Graphophone, and they heard the voice of the inventor when it was hardly audible to the assemblage. Many attempts were made by the medical men to discover whether the mutes really heard, or, seeing the motions generating sound, were deceived into believing that they heard. The pianist was ordered to stop suddenly, but to continue his motions as if playing. Other stringed musical instruments were played, and the performers while not touching the strings pretented to do so. The principal operator spoke to the mutes, and while moving his lips as if in conversation uttered no sound. In every instance the subjects detected the deception and remarked it through their finger alphabet. One of the mutes, Lyman Gould, whose deafness is the result of an infantile fever, has been able to hear musical selections frequently in the past year, being the experimental subject of the inventor and the inspiration of the invention, through the friendly sympathy of Mr. Hutchison. He was asked by the editor of a local paper what he thought the sound of a Graphophone selection was, curiosity being aroused as to the mental sensation produced by the conveying of such sounds through an undeveloped ear. Instead of replying in the manner expected, he promptly answered: "The Manhattan Beach March," proving conclusively that he could hear and distinguish the music. The technical description of how the inventor accomplishes this emancipation of the afflicted is his secret. The analogy and probable identity of electricity and the vibratory organs of the ear were first suggested to young Hutchison by an examination of the apparatus worn on the head by telephone operators in attending switch-boards. He commenced experimenting with electricity as an aural aid to nature three years ago, when he was but nineteen years of age, mainly through his sympathy for a young friend who was totally deaf. The result has been the perfecting of his instrument, which he has named the Akoulallion, from the Greek "akowo" (to hear) and "lalleo" (to speak.) The apparatus for use in the instruction of deaf-mutes is complicated and similar in appearance to the instruments worn by telephone operators. A steel band holds what in construction appears to be flat telephone receivers' over each ear, and a transmitter is attached to an aluminum collar in such a position that the mute using it can suit himself as to distance from the mouth. There are controllers on each side of the collar, which hang down on the chest about twelve inches, for the purpose of lessening or increasing, as may be found necessary, the magnifying power of the sensitive plates within the ear attachments. A small switch enables the mute undergoing instruction to cut out the instructor and hearing his own voice or communicating with other pupils on the circuit. The importance of regulating the intensity of sound to each ear is recognized by the medical profession, as in nearly every case of deafness, one ear is found to be partially sensitive. The current used in the two sets of instruments at present employed by the inventor is obtained from a battery of ten cells. The battery wires are attached to an instrument controlled by the instructor for the purpose of reducing the current as the hearing faculties of those under instruction are quickened. The whole secret of the invention lies in the power of the sensitive plates within the aural attachments to magnify sound. The instrument first described is intended solely for class instruction and has been reported on favorably by Professor's Thomas C. McAloney of Washington and J. H. Johnson of the Alabama State Institute, both well-known instructors of the deaf. The electrical appliances enable instructors to teach articulation and ultimately to recover the power of speech for pupils whose vocal organs are in a state of atrophy thrcaigh want, of usage. In the same manner the hearing will be benefitted through the instrument causing the inert ossicles of the ear to vibrate. Out of loo cases tested with the instrument at Talledega there was not a single failure, and in every case the patients appeared to be able to distinguish sounds for periods ranging from an hour to half a day after the apparatus had been removed from their previously insensitive organs. In the opinion of Doctor Sidney Hugh, a local practitioner, who has taken a critical interest in the invention, the instruction apparatus will develop the vocal organs of a deaf child almost as well as the development would occur in an infant with all its faculties, but in the case of adults the process of articulation will be much slower. The second instrument which Mr. Hutchison has conceived is on the principal of the receivers in the instruction apparatus and is portable, the current being obtained from a small pocket battery. It is somewhat larger, but similar in appearance to a medical Phonendoscope and has a small trumpet-like receiver. The singular thing about this instrument is that persons of ordinary hearing experience no discomfort by its use, although its sound-magnifying power is intense. The metal used in all the appliances is aluminum, with the exception of the interior construction of the receivers, and as only the lightest wire and insulation connects the different portions they are not uncomfortably heavy. Mr. Hutchison has secured patent rights at home for his invention. A company, of which J. Howard Wilson, the street railroad and electric lighting magnate, is president, will put the Akoulallion on the market in June. The company will conduct its business in New York City. The young electrician, who has so suddenly leaped to fame and fortune, is a native of Mobile, but was born at Montrose, Baldwin County, Ala., in the summerof 1876. Tousehisown expression, he has played with electricity since he was an infant. At 12 years of age he had constructed an electrical governor for the engine of a small launch, and now, at less than 23, he handles a current of such infinite voltage that he can obtain no record of it, as an ordinary man would use water. His laboratory is as complete as that of an ergineering college and contains thousands of dollars' worth of instruments. He has solved many of the problems presented by Tesla ; has established an atmospheric current similar to that of Marconi and has entered a practical field unthought of by Edison. In 1895 he obtained a patent for a lightning and heavy current arrester now in use in several cities, and recently he patented a device for governing the current supplied to car motors, which, it is claimed, prevents their burning out. This patent has been adopted by one of the local electric companies. Another invention, not yet perfected, will be of great service to the Government when Mr. Hutchison announces that he is ready to disclose his secret. He is a tireless worker and spends half his nights in his laboratory, where he delights in exhibiting to those who show interest in his work the result of his experiments. One of his favorites is to line up hand-in-hand one dozen or one hundred men — the number seems to make no difference to this scientific wizard — and to pass a current of several million volts right through the human conduit, lighting up a common incandescent lamp held in the free hand of the last man on the line without any one of the number feeling the slightest shock. To obtain this tremendous power he confines or focuses in instruments he has himself constructed, a current which commences at 5,000 volts. When he concludes his manipulation of the current, glass is of no service to him as an insulator and a foot of hard pine fails to check the current between two electrodes. An instance of the inventor's persistence, capacity and thoroughness is found in the fact that in order to fully perfect his hearing instrument, and to avoid injuring the ear, he studied anatomy at the Alabama Medical College, devoting special attention to the head, and attended a course of lectures delivered by an eminent eye, ear and throat specialist. Within a year of his graduation from the State Polytechnic Institute he was consulting electrical engineer for the Government in two lighthouse districts of the Gulf and for the Mobile Light and Railroad Co. Mr. Hutchison devotes very little time to social enjoyment, but when he does "go out" he is in demand as a musician. The variety of his talents in this direction is almost as great a surprise as his scientific genius. He plays the piano, guitar, mandolin, banjo and cornet. In appearance he is extremely prepossessing, and in manner cordial and unassuming. His face is strong and intellectual, while frank and always pleasant, and he is as impulsive as the mysterious fluid which he so easily controls. His great success has not turned his head nor changed him in the least from the enthusiastic, generous, talented boy, who, as the protege of J. Howard Wilson, startled the electricians of Mobile several years ago by "his daring experiments. Three Drinks for a Penny At Ninth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, stands a penny-in-the-slot root beer machine. Messenger boys, whose duties call them all over town, are good patrons of this nineteenth century invention. The profits are not great, however, and some investigation shows the reason. The boys manage to get three glasses for a penny by the quick manipulation of the machine when they are not observed. The machine, although it works all right, admits of clever handling by the unscrupulous youngsters, who do not see any harm in "beating any kind of a slot-machine." It is said the boys get the best of similar machines all over town.