Jwte 13, 1878] 



NATURE 



167 



of English inventive genius. The over-shadowing 

 influence of the recent sensational inventions of the 

 telephone and phonograph have led even practica 

 men to believe that inventire power had crossed 

 the Atlantic, but no one Avho reads Mr. Culley's 

 book can fail to learn how much has been done 

 in England. Though duplex working was revived by 

 Hearns, and quadruplex made practical by Edison, 

 neither was invented in America. Cn the other hand, 

 Hughes's beautiful type-printer was born in America, but 

 it was developed in Europe, and its birthplace knows it 

 not. Thomson's syphon recorder, Varley's double-current 

 translator and condenser working, Bain and Wheatstone's 

 automatic systems, fast-speed translators, and all the 

 valuable systems and apparatus in use for testing have 

 sprung from here, and are well described in this work. 

 The Post Office telegraph system, in its technical depart- 

 ment, is a credit to this country and a pattern to the 

 world, and it possesses on its staff some of the most 

 practical electricians of the day. Messrs. Preece, 

 Lumsden, Marson, Gavey, and Kempe are well known 

 everywhere, and though their labours are not acknow- 

 ledged by Mr. Culley, it is well known that they 

 have contributed materially to establishing the tele- 

 graphic system of the Post Office. It is especially in 

 developing the automatic system and in establishing 

 fast-speed translators that the Post Office officials have 

 been so successful. A relay station in Anglesey has 

 increased the rate of working [between London and 

 Dublin from 70 to 120 words per minute. Translating 

 relays working at the rate of 120 words per minute are 

 quite new in telegraphy. Mr. Culley has given scant 

 justice to Mr. John Fuller for his new form of bichro- 

 mate battery, a battery that is coming into very extensive 

 employment for all purposes. It is a zinc-carbon couple, 

 the exciting fluid being Poggendorft"' s mixture. Its pecu- 

 liarity consists in the shape of the zinc, which is per- 

 manently inserted in a bath of mercury. Its electro- 

 motive force is double that of a Daniell's cell, its con- 

 stancy wonderful, its economy great, and its cleanliness 

 and freedom from smell all that can be desired. 



This work is deservedly popular, not from its literary 

 merit, but from the position of the author and from the 

 great mass of very valuable practical information it 

 possesses. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States, 

 Incltiding the District East of the Mississipi River and 

 North of Noj'th Carolina and Tennessee, Exclusive of 

 Marine Species. By Prof. D. S.Jordan, M.D. Second 

 edition, Revised and Enlarged. (Chicago : M'Clurg, 

 1878.) 



The object of this volume is to give collectors and 

 students a ready means of identifying the families, genera, 

 and species of the vertebrate animals of North America. 

 Following the usage of botanists, the author has adopted 

 the system of artificial keys to the classes, orders, 

 families, genera, and species, while use has been freely 

 made of every available source of information. The 

 account of the mammals has been chiefly compiled from 

 Prof. Baird's work, and Dr. Coues has given great assist- 

 ance in the part relating to the birds ; while in this 

 edition the account of the fishes has been entirely re- 



written in order to include the results of recent inves- 

 tigations in that department. The fact that a work of 

 this nature should in two years' time call for a second 

 edition, is, indeed, a proof of the interest taken in natural 

 science by the American people. This edition seems to 

 fairly represent the present state of knowledge. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

 \The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond -with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. 

 [The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters at 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 tnunications containing interesting and novel facts.l 



The Phonograph and Vowel Theories 



Several letters have appeared in Nature bearing on the 

 subject of the phonograph, and refemng to our fir^t communi- 

 cations upon the subject. We are glad to see that our statement 

 as to the reversibility of consonants (Nature, vol. xvii. p. 423) 

 is generally accepted. We feel that as yet the phonograph does 

 not speak with sufficient clearness to determine how. perfect this 

 reversibility is, and that the effect of many minute parts of articu- 

 late utterance cannot be heard with any certainty. Mr. Ellis, in 

 his first communication, ranked the phonograph somewhat too 

 low, but we are more than satisfied with the acknowledgment in 

 his second letter (vol. xviii. p. 38). Mr. A. M. Mayer and Prof. 

 Sylvanus Thompson both speak of the marks on the tinfoil as 

 differing according to the distance of the mouth from the dia- 

 phragm. We do not observe any effect of this kind and see no 

 theoretical reason for any alteration in the relative phases of the 

 simple tones with a change of distance from the mouth. Mr. 

 Mayer seems here to have fallen into an error. We find ample 

 confirmation of Helmholtz's statement that the phase relation 

 between two constituents is not appreciated by the ear. Each per- 

 son usually, but not invariably, adheres to the same phase relation 

 on one pitch, but different people pronouncing the same vowel 

 with approximately the same constituents, combine these dif- 

 ferently, vhich, as Mr. Mayer says, would make reading the 

 marks on the tinfoil a very difficult matter. 



With reference to the letter by Mr. C. R. Cross which 

 appears in Nature, vol. xviii. p. 93, we adhere with 

 much confidence to the opinion that the five vowels, a ^zt? 7/ 

 (Italian), pronounced in succession, are by contrast at least 

 thoroughly distinguishable when the instrument is run at various 

 speeds, such as to reproduce the sounds at all the pitches within 

 the compass of the average human voice. That no marked 

 change is produced in the relative values of the vowels is con- 

 firmed by the fact that neither in public nor private exhibitions 

 do the hearers of sentences alternately run slow and fast sugge; t 

 that the vowels have changed with a change of speed. This 

 alone would be a sufficient proof that oh does not change into 

 ee, as we understand Mr. Cross to say, and there is no ground, 

 according to Helmholtz's theory, for expecting that it would. 

 To us the relative sounds of the vowels at various speeds seem 

 at least as perfect as those obtained from Willis's well-known 

 experiment, where a .'uccession of vowels is suggested by 

 contrast when the length of a resonating tube is altered. 



We do not, however, think that our instrument speaks with 

 sufficient distinctness to warrant our expressing an opinion as to 

 the constancy of quality of any single vowel when the instru- 

 ment is run at various speeds. 



Some ohs remain apparently very constant, and at times we 

 thought that other ohs became brighter or more like " awe." 



Sometimes we thought ajae became very like " ah." We 

 should be glad to learn the impressions of any of yoiu- readers as 

 to this point. 



We ventiu-e, however, to remind any one trying the experiment 

 that a low note followed by a high one suggests a change from u 

 (Italian) to/. Thus if we whistle a low note and then the cctave 

 to it or a note near this, the ear is easily persuaded that the 

 whistle resembles u i, but if now, beginning again on the note 

 we just thought was ;', wegoupa-acther octave, the new sequence 

 again suggests u i, although the very note which was last taken to 

 represent i now stands for u. If, therefore, we wish to judge 

 what a sound really is we should not trust much to ontrast, 

 e=pecia]ly when a change of pitch is involved in the ccmpariEcn. 



