MECHANICS OF THE HUMAN VOICE 255 



it is now finished. The work should be promptly extended to 

 records made by the greatest living poets. 



(2) The nature of emotional expression in oratory. Prose has 

 its rhythm also. The most melodious orations have rhythms often 

 resembling those of verse. The changes in these rhythms, the in- 

 troduction of rhythmic discords, etc., are unconsciously used by 

 orators to arouse the emotions. The three speeches studied fur- 

 nished a quantity of data. 



Continuance of the Work. 



1. Publication of the results already obtained can be undertaken, 

 but it is not recommended at present. The records studied are 

 mounted as 40 plates for reproduction. Of these 18 are already in 

 blocks, leaving 22 still to be made. The only satisfactory method 

 thus far found for reproducing the plates is that of copper etching, 

 as used by C. P. Wright, West Fourteenth street. New York city, 

 at a cost of $15 to $20 per plate. The preparation of the text of 

 400 octavo pages to go with the plates will require about two months 

 more of labor. Not one fifth, however, of the information on the 

 plates has yet been extracted, and the work should, in my opinion, 

 be completed, before publication in many of its details, by further 

 study of the plates already on hand and by work on new plates 

 already furnished from the tracing station. 



2. Provision should be made for the study of results already on 

 hand. The study of the plates known as the "Yale record" 

 (specially made for me), the "Woman record," the "Mitchell 

 record number 3 ' ' (specially made) , and the " A K A record ' ' 

 (specially made) ; also of the " Yvetot record" (specially made, 

 French verse) should be at once continued under my personal care. 

 For this I need to employ the labor of 3 persons for 6 hours a day 

 for 150 days. At 20 cents an hour this requires $540. The inci- 

 dental expenses connected with cutting, pasting, photographing, 

 and measuring the records can be estimated at $150, The total 

 outlay proposed would therefore be $690. 



3. Provisions should be made for continuing the tracing of speech 

 curves. 



Machine D (gramophone records) should be kept running for the 

 next six months, tracing off a set of plates (American vowels, 

 American verse, etc.). This machine gives larger and more de- 

 tailed curves than those obtained by the other machines. As the 



