Nov. 21, 1878] 



NATURE 



59- 



of Norwich and London, which firm have before this 

 kindly allowed their wire to be freely used for experi- 

 mental purposes. This wire stretches from Messrs. Col- 

 man's works at Norwich to their office in Cannon Street, 

 a distance of a little over 115 miles. The wire runs on 

 the same poles as the numerous other wires of the Great 

 Eastern Railway, and is carried overhead from the ter- 

 minus in London to Cannon Street At 4 o'clock the 

 experiments began, and the incessant crackling and 

 bubbling sounds in the receivers revealed the fact that 

 the adjoining telegraph wires were at their busiest, and 

 that induction could hardly be worse. Nevertheless, 

 the first exclamation uttered into the histily adjusted 

 carbon telephone at Norwich was heard perfectly in the 



Fig. 4. — General view cf the arrangements and accessories of the Carbcn 

 Telephcne. 



counting-house at Canpon Street. Conversation then 

 ensued between the two places ; some words were occa- 

 sionally lost, but the American accent of Mr. Adams, Mr. 

 Edison's professional assistant, who had charge at the 

 Norwich end, was distinctly recognisable in London. 

 Remarks passed on the weather showed that a storm of 

 snow and sleet was going on at both ends, and the insulation 

 therefore almost at its worst. Later on, towards 9 o'clock 

 in the evening, the effects of induction grew less, but were 

 still considerable. The voices from Norwich were now 

 louder, the individuality of the speakers more marked, 

 and conversation could be carried on without difficulty, 

 the voices of certain speakers being remarkably distinct. 



Twelve months previously the writer had an opportunity 

 of trying Bell' s telephone on the same circuit, when not a 



word could be transmitted during the day, owing to 

 induction, but at night everything was clearly heard; 

 hence the foregoing experiments estabhshed the im- 

 portant fact that in spite of powerful induction operating 

 against it, the Edison telephone is a practicable instru- 

 ment. It is true that before this telephone can be 

 commercially used, especially during the day and on 

 long lines, special electrical adjustments of the in- 

 struments must be made such as the pressure on the 

 carbon and probably the resistance of the induction coil 

 relatively to the line, but in this there is no inherent diffi- 

 culty, and the adjustment once made no further change 

 is likely to be necessarj'. Meanwhile we shall await with, 

 curiosity the new receiver, which, in a recent letter to the 

 writer, Edison says will arrive in England soon ; they 

 differ from other telephones in having " no ear pieces or 

 magnets about them," and according to Edison, " are 

 about twenty times louder than any magnetic telephone, 

 and can, if desired, reproduce the voice at the distant 

 end louder than originally spoken, whilst the whole affair 

 is even cheaper and simpler than the receivers now in 

 use." 



It is not impossible that before very long, by means of 

 the Edison telephone, speeches in Parliament may be 

 telephonically transmitted to the newspaper offices and 

 to the country, whilst honourable members, if their articu- 

 lation be distinct, are speaking from their ordinary place? 

 in the House. W, F. Barrett 



NOTES 

 The Corporation of Penzance are, we hear, making prepa- 

 rations to celebrate the centenary of Sir Humphry Davy's birth 

 next month. The Paris Academy of Sciences, who awarded 

 Davy a prize in 1807, when war was raging between France and 

 England, will probably take some part in the celebration. 



A COMMITTEE has been formed at Heilbronn with the object 

 of erecting a monument to the memory of Dr. Robert Julius 

 Mayer in his native place. Every one knows that Dr. Mayer's 

 name is associated with the establishment of the mechanical 

 equivalent of heat (see Nature, voL xvii. p. 450). 



The Observatory of Geneva has received the gift of an instru- 

 ment of large dimensions by the generous munificence of its 

 director. Prof. Emil Plantamour, who has occupied this position 

 for about forty years, has constructed, at his own expense, in the 

 existing building, a turret of 7 metres in diameter, surmounted 

 by a cylindrical cupola, in which will be placed an equatorial 

 telescope of 10 French inches aperture and 3'7om. focal distance. 

 The object-glass has been ordered from Merz, of Munich, and the 

 equatorial mounting is being manufactured at the workshop of the 

 Geneva Society for the Construction of Physical Instruments. 

 It is hoped that the new instrument will be in working order 

 about the end of next spring. 



Dr. Creighton, Demonstrator of Anatomy at Cambridge, 

 has joined the editorial council cf the Journal of Anatomy and 

 Physiology, which henceforth adds to its title the words "normal 

 and pathological." 



We would call the attention of our readers to a paper, hkely 

 to be of some interest, to be read at the meeting of the Physical 

 Society on Satiuday, by Messrs. Ayrton and Perry. The title 

 of the paper is " The Music of Colour and of Visible Motion, "^ 

 and from what we can learn of Messrs. Ayrton and Perry's in- 

 vestigations, they claim to have hit on a new emotional art. By 

 means of a new machine which they have devised they can pro- 

 duce combinations of harmonic motions with greater variety than 

 can be obtained with any existing machine. Their idea, we 

 believe, is that, judging from their experience partly of the feel- 

 ings produced by large bodies in rapid motion and fartiy from 

 the fact that in Japan posturing takes the place of the operatic 



