THE PHONOGRAPH, OR VOICE-RECORDER. 283 



" far," and " ee " (or " i " as in " ravine ") ; they, lie, how- 

 ever, in reality, respectively between " a " in " far " and 

 " fat," and " i " in " ravine " and " pin." Thus the tones and 

 overtones necessary for sounding " I " long, do not require 

 a separate description, any more than those necessary for 

 sounding other diphthongs, as " oi," " oe," and so forth. 



We see, then, that the sound-waves necessary to re- 

 produce accurately the various vowel sounds, are more 

 complicated than those which would correspond to the 

 fundamental tones simply in which any sound may be uttered. 

 There must not only be in each case certain overtones, but 

 each overtone must be sounded with its due degree of 

 strength. 



But this is not all, even as regards the vowel sounds, the 

 most readily reproducible peculiarities of ordinary speech. 

 Spoken sounds differ from musical sounds properly so called, 

 in varying in pitch throughout their continuance. So far as 

 tone is concerned, apart from vowel quality, the speech note 

 may be imitated by sliding a finger up the finger-board 

 of a violin while the bow is being drawn. A familiar 

 illustration of the varying pitch of a speech note is found 

 in the utterance of Hamlet's question, " Pale, or red ? " with 

 intense anxiety of inquiry, if one may so speak. "The 

 speech note on the word ' pale ' will consist of an upward 

 movement of the voice, while that on ' red ' will be a down- 

 ward movement, and in both words the voice will traverse 

 an interval of pitch so wide as to be conspicuous to ordinary 

 ears ; while the cultivated perception of the musician will 

 detect the voice moving through a less interval of pitch 

 while he is uttering the word ' or ' of the same sentence. 

 And he who can record in musical notation the sounds 

 which he hears, will perceive the musical interval traversed 

 in these vocal movements, and the place also of these 

 speech notes on the musical staff." Variations of this kind, 

 only not so great in amount, occur in ordinary speech ; and 

 no telephonic or phonographic instrument could be regarded 

 as perfect, or even satisfactory, which did not reproduce them. 



