NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 181 



conversation in a low whisper, which those standing about could 

 not hear. 



MONOCLAVE OR UNI-TOUCH. 



SUCH is the name of a very ingenious but complicated instrument 

 invented by Mr. Acklin. Its object is to enable any person to play 

 on the piano, organ or accordion by making a band of paper pass, 

 with a velocity regulated by the time of the tune, across the instru- 

 ment. This paper is pierced with holes corresponding to the notes, 

 and is prepared by means of a peculiar machine*, by simply playing the 

 tune once on the piano. The inventor indicates many other useful 

 applications of this instrument : that it may be worked with the foot, 

 so that a good player may play on two pianos at the same time. 



UNIVERSAL MUSICAL LANGUAGE AND ACOUSTIC TELEGRAPHING. 



A SYSTEM of universal musical language and acoustic telegraphing 

 has recently been brought forward by M. Sudre in France and Eng- 

 land. The principle of the universal language is the expression of 

 ideas by the seven musical notes, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, played on any 

 instrument, or spoken, or written, or indicated by signs. By representing 

 the notes on parts of the fingers, the deaf and dumb can communicate 

 by the same method. Since the time of Leibnitz, who proposed the 

 adoption of universal characters to be used for all sciences, as algebraic 

 notation is for mathematics, the subject has received much notice from 

 learned men. Previous to that, George Dalgairns, a Scotchman, and 

 Bishop Wilkins, one of the originators of the Royal Society, had pro- 

 posed a philosophical language. But the difficulties of the scheme 

 have hitherto proved insurmountable. M. Sudre's ingenious and 

 pleasant system has obtained high encomium in France, the author 

 having received the crown and medal of the Athenaeum of Arts in 

 Paris at the annual meeting in 1845, a commission of the French Insti- 

 tute having also reported favorably of it. M. Sudre represents that 

 two or three months study is sufficient for any one of ordinary ability 

 to have perfect command of the language. The acoustic telegraph is 

 an invention likely to prove of more practical and immediate impor- 

 tance, and has been recommended by special commissions in France, 

 named by the ministers both of War and of Marine. Three sounds, 

 sol, do, sol, are alone used, and with these, either by bugle, drum, or 

 cannon, every signal can be perfectly conveyed. * The same notes, 

 represented by three lights, white, red, and green, form a system of 

 night signals superior to any hitherto used. 



HUMAN VOICES IMITATING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 



A BAND of singers calling themselves Organophonics have lately 

 made their appearance in London. A" critic thus speaks of them : 

 " The novel announcement of an orchestral performance without 



