130 C. A. Morey—Phonautograph. 
figure at once to change. On the other hand, the bow is useful 
in bringing a short string into unison with a fork, &c., merely 
for the purpose of assuring -the experimenter that the figure 
actually to be used, and furnished by a greater length of the 
string, is really that of the lower octave, twelfth or double 
octave. In the experiments with the monochord the string was 
simply drawn aside with the feather-end of a quill, and then 
Finally, I may add that the more important of these figures 
may easily be rendered visible to a large audience. Wires 
placed in front of a magic lantern; an image is formed on the 
screen with the aid of a lens of about eighty millimeters focal 
length ; the figures are then well shown, along with certain of 
their details not particularly mentioned in this article. 
New York, May 21st, 1874. 
Art. XIV.—The Phonautograph ; by CHas. A. Morey. 
ALMOST every collection of acoustical apparatus includes 
one of Leon Scott’s phonautographs, but I think I am right in 
saying that very little use is ever made of them, other than for 
their explanation. The curves being drawn upon blackened 
paper cannot be projected, and in most cases they are of so 
small an amplitude that they require very close inspection for 
their analysis. As was found at the time of its invention, the 
great difficulty lies in the fact that the principal motion of the 
style is a longitudinal one instead of a lateral one. th 
jections are obviated, and the instrument rendered extremely 
useful, by the following simple device, which may be readily 
applied to any one of them. Instead of attaching the style di- 
rectly to the membrane, it is attached to the end of the long 
