■i^^ [Nov. 18, 



to produce an alloy or metallic substance that possesses the following 

 properties, viz : 



1st. It must be non-magnetic. 



2d. It must resist rusting and oxidation. 



3d. It must be permanently elastic. 



These properties he has obtained in an alio}' of palladium. 



By the combination of two alloys containing different quantities of pal- 

 ladium, Mv. Paillard has succeeded in obtaining accurate compensation for 

 changes of temjierature in the balance wheels of his watches. 



On the Gramophone. 



Mr. Emil Berliner, of Washington, D. C, has recently made improve- 

 ments in the speaking phonograph that, it would seem, will probably 

 bring this instrument into everyday commercial use. These inventions are 

 of such a character as, possibly, to a great extent, to render phonography, 

 or short-hand reporting, one of the lost arts. 



There have been two causes for the failure of Mr. Edison's phonograph 

 to come into extensive use. These are briefly : 



1st. The perishable nature of the phonogram record, w^hich, being made 

 on a sheet of tin-foil, was capable of reproducing the original sound a 

 limited number of times only. 



2d. The inability of the phonograph, as originally constructed, to cor- 

 rectly reproduce the sounds spoken into it. The pitch or tone was cor- 

 rectly reproduced, provided the point attached to the diaphragm of the 

 receiving instrument was moved over the phonogram-record at the same 

 velocity that it had while in the receiving instrument. The quality of the 

 tone, on the preservation of whicli the ability to distinguish the speaker's 

 voice depends, could not, however, be obtained to the extent a practical 

 instrument demands. This arises not only from the fact that the original 

 instrument failed to correctly impress on the phonogram-record the rela- 

 tive intensities of the over-tones, on which the quality depends, but also 

 on the fact that the receiving instrument was unable, from the relative 

 positions these impressions bore to the surface of the phonogram-record, to 

 always correctly reproduce them. 



These difficulties Mr. Berliner has, to a very great extent, overcome in 

 an instrument called by him the gramophone. 



The direction in which these improvements have been made is mainly 

 in the manner in which the receiving diaphragm of the instrument is 

 caused to leave an impression of its movements on the phonogram-record. 

 In the Berliner instrument, unlike the original Edison instrument, the to- 

 aud-fro movements of the diaphragm are received by the plate in a direc- 

 tion parallel to its surface, and not in a direction at right angles thereto. 

 By this change the movements are recorded as a sinuous line of even 

 depth, instead of a sinuous line of varying depths. 



It results from this difference that the resistance offered by the plate to 

 the free movements of the transmitting diaphragua is reduced to a mini- 



