470 Scientific Intelligence. [June 



one of the first persons who wrote upon the adaptation of the organs 

 of voice to the articulation of the letters. He considered that the 

 letters of the alphabet constituted the order in which articulate 

 sounds were naturally produced, by the structure of the tongue and 

 larynx ; that when one letter is uttered the tongue is in the proper 

 position for the pronunciation of the subsequent one. By attending 

 to the circumstance, that several different sounds are formed, merely 

 by raising or depressing the tongue slightly, as in the sounds Aw, 

 Ah, Ae, A, E, it was easy to produce them by means of a tube with 

 a reed and terminating in a bell. Mr. Willis also effected the same 

 object by using a long tube with a reed, adapted so as to be capable 

 of being lengthened or abbreviated at pleasure. He found, that in 

 the pronunciation of the vowels, i, e, a, o, u, it required to be shortest 

 with the first, and in uttering the subsequent letters to be gradually 

 lengthened. In this way, it was easy to measure the length neces- 

 sary for each note. When Ae was pronounced, the tube was 1 inch 

 long, Aw 3-8 inches, Ah 2-2 inches, A 06 inch, E 0-3 inch. 



Mr. Wheatstone exhibited a copy of a speaking machine which 

 was invented in Germany, and afforded a specimen of its vocal powers. 

 The words, mamma, papa, mother, father, summer, were distinctly 

 pronounced. The instrument consisted of a pair of bellows, to which 

 a tube is adapted, terminating in a bell, the aperture of which is 

 regulated by the hand, so as to produce the articulate sounds. 



III. — Metropolis Soft Spring Water Company. 



A printed letter has been sent to the Editor, with this title, signed 

 " A Manufacturer," containing some observations which ought to be 

 generally known. The projectors of this company assume that the 

 London basin " contains a subterranean lake^ and an inexhaustible 

 supply of water." The writer informs us, that in two large wells and 

 two bore holes which have been made in his manufactory, at different 

 periods, between 1810 and the present time, '.' the supply of water 

 though at first abundant in each of them, has gradually and uniformly 

 diminished in all. The principal well, nearly a new one, obtains its 

 supply from the whole of the thickness of the quicksand ; for the 

 lower end of the bore pipe which terminates with a 10 inch opening, 

 is bored full of holes for the last 30 feet and rests upon the face of 

 the chalk." Notwithstanding, after affording an apparently inex- 

 haustible supply for some years, in the course of last summer (1834) 

 the water was repeatedly drawn down to the suction guard, which is 

 90 feet from the surface, and the working of the engine was often 

 stopped for the purpose of allowing the water to collect. He states, 

 that when one of the wells mentioned has been pumped for some 

 hours, the water in another well, at a distance of 3 miles, is consider- 

 ably lowered. And very properly observes, that as many of the 

 largest manufacturing establishments are dependant upon these 

 springs for their supply of water, they have a right to ask from what 

 source they are to expect compensation t 



These facts, which we believe to refer more immediately to the 

 southern portion of the metropolis, are consistent with the experience 

 of the inhabitants of the northern part also, where for the last two 

 months, many of the wells have been dried up. The bill for the 



