TALENT 



5689 



TALKING MACHINE 



In 1914 the output in the United States of 

 marketed talc was 151,088 tons; including soap- 

 stone, an impure, massive form of talc, it 

 amounted to 172,296 tons. Canada produced in 

 that year 10,808 tons, about one-half of which 

 was exported to the United States. Talc of the 

 higher grades, such as is used in the manufac- 

 ture of toilet powders and gas tips, is imported 

 chiefly from Italy and France. Smaller quanti- 

 ties are obtained from Austria-Hungary, Eng- 

 land and Germany and a little from Japan. 



TAL'ENT, a famous ancient coin and unit 

 of weight. Because the best-known references 

 to this ancient term -are found in the Scriptures 

 there frequently exists the impression that it 

 was the Hebrews who chiefly made use of the 

 talent, but such is not the case. The word oc- 

 curs in the Greek of the New Testament, and 

 it is in connection with Greek affairs that the 

 measure is chiefly known. The Hebrews, how- 

 ever, did have such a weight, derived from 

 Babylonia, which was equal to 3,000 shekels in 

 silver, or between SI ,800 and $1,920. 



Like the Hebrews, the Greeks took the tal- 

 ent from the Babylonians, though the name is 

 Greek. Both in measuring weights and in giv- 

 ing the denomination of money the talent was 

 the largest Greek unit, but it was by no means 

 uniform in different Greek states and at dif- 

 ferent times. The talent used for measuring 

 gold, moreover, differed from that for measur- 

 ing silver, and to understand references in 

 Greek literature to talents it is necessary to 

 know which of the various systems is intended. 

 Perhaps the most commonly referred to, how- 

 ever, is the later Attic or Solonic, which was 

 equivalent to fifty-six pounds fourteen ounces. 

 A silver talent in Athens was worth between 

 $1,000 and $1,100. 



The Romans also made use of the talent, not 

 as a coin but as a measure of money. They 

 had a great talent and a little talent, the former 

 worth about $480, the latter about $363. 



The common present-day use of the word, 

 meaning a special endowment or faculty, is 

 derived from the parable of the talents in 

 Matthew XXV. 



TAL'ISMAN, THE, a prose romance by Sir 

 Walter Scott, the scene of which is laid in 

 Palestine during the Third Crusade. Richard 

 Coeur de Lion, king of England, appears, as 

 does his enemy, Saladin, who saves the English 

 king's life by means of the "talisman" a magic 

 stone which is guaranteed to cure fevers. The 

 hero is the prince royal of Scotland, who takes 

 part in the Crusade disguised as Sir Kenneth, 



the Knight of the Leopard. The Talisman is 

 one of the most popular of Scott's novels. 



TALKING MACHINE, tawk' ing ma sheen' , 

 a wonderful device for recording and repro- 

 ^ducing sound, and particularly human speech. 

 Within a very few years it has been advanced 

 from the status of a plaything to a place of 

 vast importance in the world; so quickly was 

 it accepted by the people as an article to pro- 

 vide amusement that few yet realize that it is 

 one of the most valuable of the world's inven- 

 tions. It would merit a place in every home 

 if its only mission were to furnish wholesome 

 entertainment, but, like the moving picture, it 

 is destined to be linked with history, with art, 

 with music, for all time to come. 



If every school child could to-day hear the 

 voice of Abraham Lincoln delivering the imper- 

 ishable 267 words of the Gettysburg Address, 

 and on the moving-picture screen see him stand 

 as on that occasion; could they hear the voice 

 of Jenny Lind as their grandfathers heard it; 

 could they hear the quieting words of Garfield, 

 "God reigns, and the government at Washing- 

 ton still lives," uttered in New York the day 

 after Lincoln's death; could they listen to the 

 voice of Washington as he gave his country 

 sage counsel in his Farewell Address; could 

 British children hear to-day the ringing tones 

 of Fox, Burke, Disraeli, Gladstone, which did 

 much to shape the destinies of races could 

 there be chosen from a thousand "records" the 

 spoken words which marked an epoch or de- 

 cided great destinies, the past would possess a 

 significance that the printed page never can 

 give it. "You may fire when ready, Gridley," 

 proclaimed preparedness, but we would experi- 

 ence a greater thrill of pride if we could hear 

 the calm, unimpassioned, confident voice of 

 Dewey on that May morning in Manila Bay. 



Children a hundred years from now are to 

 have rich experiences, because with the talk- 

 ing machine and the moving picture they are 

 actually to hear things and see things which 

 made history before they were born. They 

 may hear the voice of Woodrow Wilson appeal- 

 ing to Congress for war in 1917; they will see 

 in moving pictures the nation-wide response to 

 that appeal. They will read in the books of 

 that day of statesmen rising to oratorical 

 heights in great crises, and will hear from the 

 "records" those impassioned utterances. There 

 will be great singers in that day, but probably 

 few greater than Caruso, Melba, Homer and 

 others of the present, and these will live then 

 as now in the perfect talking-machine record. 



