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Silent Music"— A Hospital Recreation 



A wireless system conveys the melodies to those who 

 want to hear without disturbing those who don't 



Suffrage reports by- 

 wireless. The contri- 

 vance on the left is 

 the receiving set with 

 a few feet of "aerial" 



Below: The telephone 

 sending station. By- 

 throwing a switch a 

 voice transmitter is 

 cut into the system 

 to allow the 

 operator to 

 announce the 

 record titles 



A CHICAGO concern has come forward 

 with a "silent music" contrivance 

 that is designed to furnish recreation 

 to inmates of hospitals. With this system 

 installed in a hospital, a continuous and 

 noiseless program of music can be fur- 

 nished. Each patient may decide for him- 

 self or herself whether or not to listen, 

 and if the decision is against such recrea- 

 tion, the patient is not disturbed in any 

 manner. 



Briefly stated, the mechanism consists 

 of a phonograph attached to a telephone 

 transmitter, which in turn is hooked up to 

 an electrical wiring system that reaches 

 each private room and each bed in the 

 wards. At each wall outlet a watch-case 

 telephone receiver is wired in. The patient 

 desiring to hear the musical program simply 

 lifts this receiver to his ear. 



The sending station equipment is located 

 at the office or in any convenient room, 

 and consists, as stated, of an ordinary 

 phonograph, electrically driven, holding 

 the turntable, which carries any disk 

 record. Attached to this machine is a 

 special music transmitter, consisting of a 

 combination of a telephone transmitter 

 with a vibrating diaphragm and needle. 

 The needle, following the groove of the 

 record, energizes the diaphragm of the 

 transmitter, which in turn energizes the 

 telephone attached thereto. 



Beside the transmitting apparatus is a 

 control box, containing electrical resist- 



ances, which energize the transmitting 

 apparatus properly, and binding posts for 

 all connections. 



By throwing a switch, a voice transmitter 

 is cut into the system. This enables the 

 operator to announce the names of the 

 records about to be played, to give baseball 

 scores, recitations, war news, and whatever 

 other items may be of interest to his tele- 

 phone clientele. 



Except when this voice transmitter is 

 being used, there is no noise of any descrip- 

 tion connected with the sending apparatus 

 beyond a light scratching of the needle, 

 for no tone arm or horn is used. 



When installing this system in hospitals 

 in the course of erection, the wiring is 

 made to connect the sending station equip- 

 ment with outlet jacks at the bedsides. 

 These outlets are all connected in multiple 

 on a single pair of wires, carried along with 

 the regular telephone or signal system. 



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