2-82 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 379 



the halftones, the over-tones, and the intermediate tones. This 

 I am able to demonstrate by mathematical figures. 



To recapit!ilate. In recording articulate speech, or other 

 sounds, I take the vibrations from the body or diaphragm at 

 several points or places, and communicate them by independent 

 conductors to a common point or place, causing the record to be 

 made from this common point or place; and the record thus ob- 

 tained is a perfect one. 



In the reproducing device, instead of a small diaphragm made 

 to vibrate by means of a needle attached in the centre by a point, 

 I have a larger diaphragm (Figs. 1 and 6) divided into several 

 smaller divisions, — three, four, five, or more, — and the vibrations 

 are communicated to tliese different diaphragms by a spider, 

 having in the centre, on one side, a reproducing needle, and, on 

 the obverse side, legs extending to the centre of each of the 

 smaller divisions. 



Thus the method of reproducing articulate or other sound or 

 sounds consists in causing a record of vibration to act at a single 

 point or place, and from this point or place to communicate 

 vibrations by independent conductois to the several diaphragms. 



other sounds are always emitted into the room, still retaining all 

 their natural qualities, and each completely distinct and distin- 

 guishable. 



The micro graphoplione is shown in perspective in the accom- 

 panying illustration. In the base is an electro-motor, which, by 

 means of the pulley shown at the right, drives the horizontal 

 shaft carrying the recording cylinders. The illustration shows 

 the reproducing diaphragm in position. The recording diaphragm 

 is swung back, and is seen at the left of the figure. This record- 

 ing diaphragm is operated by means of a flexible tube, which, 

 with two of the recording cylinders, appear to the left of the 

 base. The other device shown with these is the planing-tool for 

 smoothing the cylinders preparatory to their use. 



Gianni Bettini. 



THE SOCIETY AND THE 'TAD." 

 In a very recent issue of a young ladies' magazine (pic- 

 turesquely called Poet-Lore) there lately met my eye the fol- 

 lowing sentence: "Browning and Ibsen are the only really 



DIAPHRAGMS FOR BETTINI'S MICRO-GRAPHOPHONE. 



It is very easily seen that a single diaphragm, which is made to 

 vibrate in the centre by a needle attached to one point, will give 

 a minimum result, because the diaphragm only vibrates, with 

 appreciable result for our ears, in a small part of the centre. 



A reproducing diaphragm, with a spider attached by its legs at 

 several points, will vibrate over more of its surface; but the best 

 method is to use a diaphragm with several smaller divisions. 

 The result of several diaphragms vibrating at the same time will 

 naturally give more amplitude to the reproduction. 



But this is not the only important end attained by this device. 

 It is very desirable to be able to reproduce the exact natural pitch 

 -or tone of the voice or other sound. 



As with a number of tuning-forks, some of which will gather 

 ■vibrations where others will not, one diaphragm, also, will take 

 • certain vibrations which others are unable to take on account of 

 ■differences in tensions, dimensions, and other physical conditions. 



In my device, having a diaphragm divided into several divis- 

 ions of different tensions or dimensions, or varying in other phys- 

 ical conditions, I succeed in giving a more natural reproduction, 

 both in volume and in pitch, because, in case unusual vibrations 

 should be reproduced, I have always one or more diaphragms that 

 will sympathize with these vibrations, and no vibration is lost. 



With such devices, the micro-graphophone gives a reproduc- 

 .tion for which no hearing-tubes are necessary. The voice and all 



dramatic authors of their century." As things sometimes 

 strongly suggest their opposites, this sentence reminded me 

 of one of Professor Tyndall's splendid chapters, the one en- 

 titled " The Scientific Use of the Imaginatioa ;" which chap- 

 ter quotes as its text the following passage from an address 

 of Sir Benjamin Brodie to the Boyal Society: " Physical in- 

 vestigation, more than any thing besides, helps to teach us 

 the actual value and right use of the imagination, — of that 

 wondrous faculty, which, left to ramble uncontrolled, leads 

 us astray into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, — a 

 land of mists and shadows, — but wljich, properly controlled 

 by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest attribute 

 of man, the source of poetic genius, the instrument of dis- 

 covery in science, without the aid of which Newton would 

 never have invented fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed 

 the earths and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found 

 another continent." 



There is a use of the imagination which is of prophetic 

 value: as, for example, the use which a poet like Groethe 

 makes of it when he foresees, in his poetry, that which the 



