638 



PEKSIA. 



PHONOGRAPH. 



ular cavalry comprises only the body-guard of 

 the Shah and 3 squadrons together 500 men. 

 In case of war, however, every tribe is required 

 to furnish a certain number of irregular horse- 

 men, making in all 25,000 to 40,000 men which 

 can be placed in the field. The artillery com- 



OLD SOUTH GATE, TBHERAH. 



prises 10 regiments of 3 and 4 batteries each, 

 of which each has from 18 to 24 guns, making 

 together 5,000 men with 200 guns. The militia, 

 which can be brought up to 20,000 men, is used 

 only as police and to protect the frontier. 



The total foreign commerce amounts to about 

 3,700,000 tomans (1 toman = $2.25), of which 

 two-thirds are imports and 

 one-third exports. The prin- 

 cipal articles of imports are f 

 woven goods, principally cot- 

 ton goods, glassware, paper, 

 iron, copper, sugar, and tea; 

 the principal articles of export 

 are silk, tobacco, hides, wood, 

 carpets, shawls, copper and 

 iron ores, and opium. 



Teheran, the capital, is in 

 postal communication with As- 

 trabad, Reshd, Bushire, Yezd, 

 Kerman, Burudjird, Sinna in 

 Kurdistan, and with the Rus- 

 sian and Turkish frontiers. As 

 most of these lines were not 

 opened until 1877, no statistics are as yet at 

 hand. 



The aggregate length of the electric telegraph 

 lines in 1876 was 966 kilometres; the wires, 

 7,646 kilometres. The number of offices was 46. 



When the war broke out between Russia and 



Turkey, it seemed for a time as if Persia would 

 be an ally of Russia. Russian staff officers 

 were sent to Persia early in the year to or- 

 ganize the army, and large numbers of troops 

 were called out in all the provinces. Persia, 

 however, did not take part in the war, which 

 was, in all probability, owing to the utter un- 

 fitness of its army for warlike operations. It 

 has been described by all authorities as being 

 in such a demoralized condition that a few 

 Turkish battalions would suffice to put an entire 

 Persian army corps to flight. It is not so very 

 long ago that 20,000 Persian troops were com- 

 pletely routed by 2,000 Turkomans. This con- 

 dition of the Persian army has, in all probabil- 

 ity, induced the Russians not to secure Persia 

 as an ally. 



Among the works of the year containing in- 

 formation on Persia are A. Arnold's " Through 

 Persia by Caravan "(2 vols., London, 1877); 

 H. C. Marsh, " A Ride through Islam " (Lon- 

 don, 1877). 



PHONOGRAPH. This is a singularly in- 

 genious but very simple machine, invented 

 and recently brought to public notice by Mr. 

 Thomas A. Edison, of Menlo Park, N". J. Its 

 principle and mode of working will be un- 

 derstood by reference to the woodcut, Fig. 

 1. Here F is a cylinder, borne on an axle 

 which passes through the two standards A 

 and B. On one end of the axle is a crank, D : 

 on the other a flywheel, E. The portion of 

 the a-xle toward the crank has a screw-thread 

 cut on it which, working in a nut, A, causes the 

 cylinder to move laterally to and fro, when the 

 crank is turned ; on the surface of the cylinder 

 is cut a narrow spiral groove corresponding to 

 the screw-thread on the axle. At F, Fig. 1, 

 and A, Fig. 2, is seen an iron disk about y^ of 

 an inch thick, which can be made to approach 

 or recede from the cylinder by pushing in or 

 pulling out the lever H G, which turns in an 

 horizontal plane around the pin /. The under 



FIG. 1. EDISON'S TALKING PHONOGRAPH. 



side of this thin iron disk A, Fig. 2, presses 

 against short pieces of rubber tubing, X JT, 

 which lie between the disk and a spring at- 

 tached to E. On the end of this spring is a 

 rounded steel point, P (the stylus), which enters 

 slightly between the threads scored on the 



