January 2, 188S.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



55 



clearer, more characteristic of the voice of the writer than 

 any telephone you or I ever heard. The phonograph voice 

 is not a loud voice, perhaps not more than twice as loud as 

 the sound you get from a good telephone, and an earphone 

 will be necessary. This, however, may not be an objection, 

 inasmuch as people do not always want to have their letters 

 heard all over the otEce. In aiming for loudness in the 

 phonograph, I went astray in my first experiment ; I should 

 have tried for clearness. The present apparatus will satisfy 

 any one who is half satisfied with the telephone. Of course, 

 there are no disturbances in the phonographic message such 

 as those made by induction along a telephone wire, and, as 

 the apparatus will repeat the letter over and over again, it 

 is possible to understand every .syllable, even in a noisy 

 oiEce. I was so overcome with the .'uccess of my first 

 instrument, finished about six weeks ago, that I doubted 

 whether I could make another equallv good, and I went to 

 work at once to do so. My second instrument works as 

 well as the first, and I have forty woikmen employed in 

 making the tools for the manufacture of the first lot of 500 

 phonographs. They will cost GO dols. apiece. 



" Now for some speculation as to what people mav do 

 with the phonograph. I am confident that it will be found 

 in the ofiice of every busy man. I am confident that the 

 editor and the reporter of the future will never think of 

 losing time by writing with a pen or dictating to a 

 stenographer when the printer can set type better from the 

 dictation of the phonograph than he can from copv. I have 

 already perfected an apparatus whicli allows the phono- 

 graphic message to be given out in pieces of ten words 

 eacli. The printer touches a pedal with his foot and the 

 phonogi'aph says ten words. If he sets the ten correctly, 

 he touches the pedal again and gets ten words more. If he 

 is in doubt he tries another pedal, which makes the phono- 

 graph repeat. In the future some method may be found of 

 combining the phonograph and the telephone — that is to 

 say, the phonograph may be made so delicate as to take 

 down the sound from a telephone and give it out again 

 when wanted. As yet I have not attempted any such 

 thing. The vibrations of the telephone diaphragm are too 

 delicate for use in the phonogiaph. In business I think 

 that the phonograph will be used everywhere. Outside of 

 business it is hard to say exactly to what uses it may be 

 put. As it will record and repeat any kind of musical 

 sound, and as the process of duplicating the phonogram, as 

 I call my sheet of metal which has passed through the 

 phonograph and become impressed with certain sounds, is 

 very cheap, the phonogram copy of a lecture, a book, a play 

 or an opera need cost but a tritle. 



" For music, I know that you will simply laugh when I 

 tell you wliat I have done with the two instruments that 

 I have finished. I have got the playing of an orchestra so 

 perfectly that each instrument can be heard distinct from 

 the rest ; you can even tell the diflerence between two pianos 

 of different makes ; you can tell the voice of one singer from 

 another ; you can get a reproduction of an operatic scene 

 in which the orchestra, the choruses, and the .soloi-sts will 

 be as distinct and as satisfactory as opera in this sort of 

 miniature can ever be made. Opera by telephone has been 

 done in Paris and London more or less .successfully, but the 

 phonograph will eclip.se the telephone for this purpose 

 bej'ond all comparison, and phonographic opera will cost 

 nothing, because the phonogram can be passed through the 

 phonograph, if necessary, a thousand times in succession, 

 and once the machine is bought there is no other cost beyond 

 tbe trifle for phonograms. For books, the phonogram will 

 come in the shape of a long roll w-ound upon a roller. To 

 make the first phonographic copy of a book, some good 

 reader must of course read it out to the instrument ; once 



that is done, duplication to any number of thousand or 

 million copies is a simple mechanical work, easy and cheap. 

 Now, just think a moment what that means. 



" Suppose you are sick, or blind, or poor, or cannot sleep. 

 You have a phonograph, and the whole world of literature 

 and music is open to you. The perfected phonograph is 

 going to do more for the poor man than the printing-press. 

 No matter where he is. the poor man can hear all the great 

 lectures of the world, can have all the great books read to 

 him by trained readers, can hear as much of a play or an 

 opera as if he was in the next room to the theatre, and all 

 this at a cost scarcely worth mentioning. I remember that 

 when the telephone was first announced it was said that 

 now people in the wilds of Africa or America might assist 

 nightly at the performances of the Paris Opera House ; the 

 wires from that favoured spot might run to all parts of the 

 world. Well, we have not yet got to that, although it is a 

 scientific possibility for the future to perfect in detail. But 

 the phonograph will make such a thing perfectly easy. The 

 phonographic record of a performance of the Paris Opera 

 House can be duplicated by the thousand and mailed to all 

 parts of the world. I don't know but that the newspaper 

 of the future will be in the shape of a phonogram, and the 

 critic will give his readers specimens of the performance 

 and let them hear just how the future Patti did her work, 

 well or otherwise. This sounds like the wildest absurdity, 

 and yet, when you come to think of it, why not 1 Have I 

 told you enough to make you believe that I am joking? 

 Well, I am nothing of a joker, and this is all the most sober 

 kind of statement. Within two months from now the first 

 phonographs will be in the market." 



COLLISIONS AT SEA. 



By W. B. RoBiNsox, Chief Constructor, E.N. (Retired). 



HE interest and importance of the following 

 communication will be recognised by all 

 readers. " Gossip " is omitted this month 

 to make room for this letter, which reached 

 me at my Florida home rather late. — E. P. 



"Eeferring to Mr. Gilbert R. Faith's 

 paper on ' Collisions at Sea ' in your 

 November number of Knowledge, let me say that the 

 article in question has been written under an entire mistake 

 regarding what happens when the rudder of a ship is put 

 over. The effect of putting the helm over when the ship is 

 under way is to tend to make her turn, as she proceeds, 

 nearly around her centre of gravity, and to finally revolve in 

 almost a circle, her speed being lessened till it reaches, with 

 the same horse-power, nearly a fixed quantity. The trials 

 of all the ships of the Eoyal Navy prove this to be the ca.se ; 

 hence Mr. Faith's supposition that a ship, so to say, pivots 

 on her bow, is an error. I semi herewith a photograph of 

 the port bow of the Konig Wilhdin, which collided with 

 and sunk the Grosser KurfUrst, from which picture it will 

 be seen that the former ship must have struck the latter at 

 an oblique angle with her starboard bow. The photo was 

 taken when the ship was in dock at Portsmouth before the 

 injured bow was touched for fitting a temporary one designed 

 by me. The supposition that ships when turned by their 

 helms pivot on their bows being a mistake, all Mr. Faith's 

 deductions therefrom become erroneous. — W. B. Eobinson, 

 Chief Constructor, E.N. (Eetired)." 



[The subject with which Mr. Faith and Mr. Eobinson 

 have dealt is so important that it deserves to be very 

 thoroughlv ventilated. Mr. EobiuEon's statements com- 



