November 3, 1923] 



NA TURE 



^72> 



The Frenophone. 



A NOVEL .form of telephone receiver, called the 

 -^^ Frenophone (Fig. i), the invention of Mr. S. G. 

 Brown, has been exhibited recently at the Royal 

 Society conversaziones and at the Exhibition of 

 Scientific Apparatus held in connexion wdth the 

 British Association meeting at Liverpool. Its chief 

 feature is the amplification of weak signals to great 

 loudness without loss of purity in the rendering. It 

 is thus of especial value in wireless telephony, such as 

 broadcasting, where singing and orchestral music must 

 be faithfully reproduced without the sort of distortion 

 associated with inferior gramophones. 



This novel " loud speaker " depends for its opera- 

 tion upon the high degree of friction existing between 

 a moving surface of optical glass and a pad of cork 



Fk;. I. — The Frenophuiic. In.sti, enlarged view of the revolving 

 glass disk with cork friction pad. 



or similar substance. The coefficient of friction, 

 especially when the glass surface has been lightly 

 treated with a tacky compound, is so high that very 

 slight changes in a constantly applied pressure be- 

 tween the pad and glass produce enormous fluctua- 

 tions in the tangential drag between them. 



In practice, the glass surface is made in the form 

 of a disk revolved slowly by a gramophone clock. 

 The pad consists of a small steel disk faced with thin 

 cork. The pad is laid upon the glass, its back being 

 pressed upon by a light, flexible pin which, in turn, 

 is fastened to the reed of a Brown telephone head- 

 piece receiver. The pad is linked by " reins " to the 

 diaphragm, which is of the usual loud-speaker type, 

 and is fixed at the base of a trumpet. 



Speech currents in the receiver coils actuate the 

 reed, setting it in vibration. These vibrations, im- 

 parted to the pad, appear as oscillatory changes of 

 the steady pressure of the pad on the glass disk. 

 Corresponding large changes of the pull ot the pad, 

 by its reins, upon the diaphragm result in great 

 amplification of the speech emitted from the trumpet. 

 The great merit of the instrument, as compared 

 with other forms of loud speaker, is the combination 

 of loudness with purity ; the .sounds of the various 

 musical instruments are individualised with absolute 

 fidelity to the original. 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Belfast. — Mr. R. W. Livingstone has been 

 appointed vice-chancellor of the Queen's University. 

 Mr. Livingstone, who is tutor and librarian of Corpus 

 Christi College, Oxford, is the author of various 

 publications in defence of classical education. 



Cambridge. — Mr. E. W. Rice, junior, honorary 

 chairman of the General Electric Company, Schenec- 

 tady, New York, has sent on behalf of his board of 

 directors " a check for five thousand dollars " to Sir 

 Ernest Rutherford, to use to advance the work over 

 which he presides. The gift to the Cavendish 

 Laboratory is in appreciation of the debt which the 

 General Electric Company owes to the Cavendish 

 professor and his co-workers in scientific research. 

 Air. H. C. Levis, chairman of the British Thomson- 

 Houston Company, has sent a cheque for 250/. for a 

 similar purpose. These gifts will be used to supple- 

 ment existing resources for research in the Cavendish 

 Laboratory. 



Mr. M. Dixon, Emmanuel College, has been ap- 

 pointed senior demonstrator in biochemistry. 



Glasgow. — The subject for the essays to be sent 

 in competition for the Thomson prize in geography 

 for the session 1923-4 is " Dwellings in Lands of 

 Equatorial Climate : their Types, Materials, and 

 Geographical Distribution." The competition is re- 

 stricted to matriculated students of the university 

 for the session 1923-4. The latest date for the 

 receipt of essays is October 20, 1924. Each essay 

 must be distinguished by two mottoes, accompanied 

 by a sealed letter bearing on the outside the same 

 mottoes, and containing a declaration subscribed by 

 the author that the essay is entirely his own. They 

 should be sent to the Clerk of the Senate. 



London. — Mr. Geoffrey E. Duveen has given the 

 sum of 10,000/. for the establishment of a University 

 lectureship in otology. 



The title of reader in plant ecology has been con- 

 ferred on Dr. E. J. Salisbury of University College. 



The following doctorates have been conferred : 

 D.Sc. in Chemistry : Mr. R. Ray (University College), 

 for a thesis entitled " Studies on Boron and Silica " ; 

 and E. W. J. Mardles, for a thesis entitled " A Contri- 

 bution to the Theory of Colloidal Chemistry based on 

 Studies in the Colloidal Chemistry of Cellulose 

 Derivatives," and other papers. D.Sc. in Physics : 

 Mr. H. P. Waran (University College), for a thesis 

 entitled " Disintegration in Discharge Tubes." D.Sc. 

 {Economics) : Mr. H. Finer (London School of 

 Economics), for a thesis entitled " Representative 

 Government, and a Parliament of Industry." 



Manchester. — The following are among the 

 persons on whom the new chancellor, the Earl of 

 Crawford and Balcarres, will confer honorary degrees 

 on the occasion of his installation on November 10 : 

 Mr. J. G. Adami, vice-chancellor of the University of 

 Liverpool, Sir James G. Frazer, Sir Arthur Keith, and 

 Sir Thomas H. Warren. 



Oxford. — By the recent death of Dr. A. Rambaut, 

 the post of Radcliffe observer becomes vacant. It 

 was in memory of Manuel Johnson, one of Dr. 

 Rambaut's predecessors, that the Johnson memorial 

 prize was founded. This prize is usually offered 

 every four years for an essay on some astronomical 

 or meteorological subject. It has been awarded this 

 year to G. M. B. Dobson, Lincoln Cxjlkge. 



The Burdett-Coutts scholarship in geology has been 

 awarded to L. F. A. Edgell. University College. 



The Halley lecture for 1924 vvill be delivered by 

 Prof. John Joly, professor of geology and mineralogy, 

 Trinity College, Dublin. 



NO. 2818, VOL. I 12] 



