MECHANICS OF THE HUMAN VOICE 

 Report by E. W. Scripture. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

 Introduction 243 



Methods employed 243 



Problems attacked 245 



Results obtained 248 



1 . The nature of vowels 248 



2. The melody of speech 253 



3. The rhythm of speech . . 254 



Continuance of the work 255 



Introduction. 



I have the honor to report on a grant of $1,600 for prosecuting 

 researches on the voice. As stated in the original application, I 

 had on hand a large amount of unstudied material accumulated by 

 a new method. The method consisted essentially in registering the 

 human voice by the latest gramophone apparatus, and then tracing 

 off the vibrations in great enlargement by a machine which I con- 

 structed specially for the purpose. This method has the advantage 

 over all other methods of studying the voice by preserving the 

 original speech as a gramophone plate (or phonograph cylinder) 

 as well as furnishing the curves. 



Methods Employed. 



Two quite distinct kinds of activity were involved, namely, ob- 

 taining the curves and studying them ; the organization therefore 

 included a tracing station and a computing bureau. 



At the tracing station the curves are obtained from a gramophone 

 plate — selected or specially made to contain any desired vocal utter- 

 ance — by tracing off the vibrations by a special machine. Such a 

 machine is suspended by springs or placed on a cement floor in a 

 rather long room (50 to 100 feet). The machine is run continu- 

 ously by an electric motor. The curves are traced on long bands of 

 rsmoked paper ; the speech curve appears as a thin white line on a 



(243) 



