170 A SPEAKING MACHINE. [SECT. xvu. 



recently adapted cylindrical tubes to a reed, whose length can 

 be varied at pleasure by sliding joints. Upon drawing out 

 a tube while a column of air from the bellows of an organ is 

 passing through it, the vowels are pronounced in the order, 

 i t e, a, o, u. On extending the tube, they are repeated after 

 a certain interval, in the inverted order, u, o, a, e, i. After 

 another interval they are again obtained in the direct order, 

 and so on. When the pitch of the reed is very high, it is 

 impossible to sound some of the vowels, which is in perfect 

 correspondence with the human voice, female singers being 

 unable to pronounce u and o in their high notes. From the 

 singular discoveries of M. Savart on the nature of the 

 human voice, and the investigations of Mr. Willis on the 

 mechanism of the larynx, it may be presumed that ultimately 

 the utterance or pronunciation of modern languages will be 

 conveyed, not only to the eye, but also to the ear of posterity. 

 Had the ancients possessed the means of transmitting such 

 definite sounds, the civilised world would still have responded 

 in sympathetic notes at the distance of many ages. 



