224 ANNUAL KECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



them carries at its upper end a table which can be caused 

 to rotate by clock-work if required; the other carries a pen- 

 cil which moves over the table. If two pens be used two 

 and a half inches apart, two curves will be traced, not exact- 

 ly similar, but which combine in the stereoscope to give a sol- 

 id figure. By changing the relative motions of the pendu- 

 lums, very curious forms of curves have been obtained, resem- 

 bling those given by biaxial crystals under the polariscope. 



Mayer has written an illustrated article in Nature on the 

 phonograph of Edison, calling it, in Indian parlance, " the 

 sound- writer who talks." After a detailed description of the 

 instrument and the mode of operating it, he describes his 

 method of srettinor the form of the indentation in the foil. 

 A delicate lever has a point on the under side of the shorter 

 arm, which, by turning the cylinder, is made to traverse the 

 indented groove. At the same time a style of copper-foil, 

 attached to the longer end of the lever, moves over the 

 smoked surface of a piece of glass held vertical, and repro- 

 duces the curve maomified in the ratio of the arms. A cut 

 is given of the indentations, of the tracing thus made from 

 them, and of the corresponding manometric flame-curve of 

 Konig, showing their identity. Impressions have been got 

 by Edison on copper-foil and on Norway iron. 



At the April session of the National Academy in "Wash- 

 ington, Dr. Edison gave an exhibition of the phonograph, 

 after which various speculations were indulged in as to the 

 possible uses of the instrument in the future. There are two 

 advantages which the anthropologists may gain from it. If 

 a savage were to utter his thoughts in front of the phono- 

 graph in his vernacular, and the foil were carefully submitted 

 to some learned society, the language could be exactly re- 

 produced. The endless confusion which has arisen by the 

 adoption of various alphabets in securing vocabularies would 

 thus be avoided. Again, the most cultivated languages 

 change their pronunciation, and all peoples in passing through 

 various stages of culture chamre their methods of vocaliza- 

 tion. Let a series of phonographic sheets be struck off, ste- 

 reotyped, and preserved with a proper register, and centuries 

 hence the philologist will have the material for a compara- 

 tive study. 



Ellis has described some results obtained by Jenkin with 



