\\!iter. Tlic iiiit.^ are tin' tii-sr ever dis- 
eoveretl in thi> loealilv to my kiiowl 
edge. ]Mi-. H ,re rMiiiiil a Willi;' nf an in- 
sect v\iiich wa.'- sent to Mr. i;. 1>. I^acop. 
of Pitlstoii, Ta.. a >i)eciali-t. in Coal 
Measure insects. He w as liio liiy pleaseil 
and thonjjht it might indicate n new- 
species. 
These fossils w-ei-e all found on ihe 
cor. of Giaii'l Ave. and Eleventh St., in 
layer No. Ninety Seven (97) of the last 
Geological Survey of Missouri, which is 
one hundred and sixty three (163) feet 
above the Kansas City Directrix, the fos- 
-ils being located fifteen (15) feet helow 
this hoii/on. The layer here lias a dip 
of thirty (30) degrees to the South-\Vest 
1 am indebted to Mr. Butts for thi- 
(Jeographical position, and to Mr Hare 
for the drawing of tlie accompanying 
cut. 
Kansas City, Sept. 23, ^80 
The Eiffel Tower and Phonograph. 
An extract from a Paris letter by A.'Q. 
Keasby,aleadei-of the New Jersey Bar. 
l)ublished by permission of John I.. 
Martin. 
In tlie innnense rnultitude of striking 
ohjectsin the Paris Exposition tliere are 
two which exciie the most universal and 
unflagging interest — the Eiffel lower 
and the Phonograph. It m ay seem ab- 
surd to compare two such dissimilar 
things, 'but in one i-espect they are alike, 
— in the attention ibey attract and the 
wonder they excite. One is the work of 
^ French Engineer, and the other the 
product of Amej-ican genius Both pro- 
duce I heir v\ onderf'ul results by the man- 
ner in which metal is moulded to human 
uses by human skill. One appeals to the 
eye anil the cither to the ear 
The Tower, formed almost entirely of 
thin sti-ips of iron woven into a graceful 
fabric nearly one thousand- feet high, 
dominaies the whole scene, and forms 
tlie prominent landmark of Paris as you 
approach it from all sides. It attracts 
every eye and calls forth expi'essions of 
wonder from all tongues. Every day the 
four elevators are thronged by visitors 
eager to ascend. At the second stage 
where the last elevator is taken, you 
must usually wait an hour in a spiral 
ijueue. in order to form one of the squad 
of sixty to be carried to the top. And 
this is going on all day, and day after 
day, withont intermission. It is the 
great success of the Exposition, both in a 
scientific and pecuniary point of view. 
But down in the great Macliinery Hall, 
which looks so small from the top of the 
tower, is the other object alluded to, 
which attracts scarcely less attention — 
the Phonograph. 
It is made of metal also, but stands 
upon a small table, occupying, for each 
instrument, scarcely a foot of space. 
J'here is nothing in its appearance to 
cause it to be singled out from the my- 
riads of objects about it. There are 
eight of these little instruments on si p- 
erate tahles in a portion of Ihe space of 
!:t,OUO. square feet occupied by Mr. Edi 
son's exhibits And around these tables 
it has been found necessary to construct 
long winding guards as at the elevator 
of tli^ Eifl'ell.in oider to I'egulate the ac- 
cess (if tlie eagei' crowds. 
To each of the instruments is attached 
a hearing tube divided into six branches, 
and an operator sits Ihere ready to ad- 
just them to the ears of the pei'soiis in the 
line as their turn conies. And there 
from morning till eleven o'clock at niglit 
the line is kept up almost without a 
break. 
It is very interesting to sit v\'itliin the 
rail and watcli this line as it passes. It 
consists of all classes and all nations as 
chance has thrown them together. They 
wait ])atieiitly, gazing at the machine 
with varying expressions of curiosity. 
Then a squad of six takes hold of Ihe 
tubes: ihey may consist of a lady, a work 
man. a typical American, a Turk in a 
turban, a dark skinned Egyptian in his 
robe and sash, and a little French 
girl. Yon can watch all these faces as 
they first catch the actual sounds of hu- 
man speech coming from this little in 
strumeiit and they form a curious study 
of facial <'xpression. You can see how 
similiarly the smile of wonder is formed 
upon all hmnau countenances. Few of 
the crowds that hear it have any clear 
notion of how the sounds are produced, 
but they hear human speech from a little 
machine of iron and wood and are lost in 
amazement. Most of them show signs 
of skepticism, and peer narrowly under 
the table for the man who i.s playing the 
trick. 
This thing is going on all the time 
not only in Machinery Hall, but in a 
small room in Mi-, Edison's part of the 
United States Exhibit. and*in the room 
devoted to the Graphophone, which at- 
tracts the same interest. In this part 
there is not the same motley crov\ d and 
the exhibitions are given more deliber- 
ately and in several dift'erent languages. 
The Russian, the Italian, the German, 
the Frenchman and even the Arabian can 
hear his own language spoken by this 
marvelous instrument. It is not to be 
wondered at that it should hold the un- 
failing attention of the changing crowds 
of visitors, for to the most of theni it is 
a perfectly novel thing. 
It will not be a novelty long at tl e 
rate at which education in it is going on, 
Mr. Hammer, who has chai-ge of the 
whole Edison Exhibit, gave me some 
interesting details of their work in 
making the operation of the instrument 
known He said that often from 15,000 
to 20,000 people have listened to it in one 
df>y, and that before the Exhibition clos- 
es the number of those who have heard 
it will I'uii njiinto millions. 
Thus the Paris Exhibition is adver is- 
ing the Phonograph and the Grapho- 
phou" on a large scale for the benefit of 
those in .Vmerica who are now engaged 
in putting the iiistrLmieuts into practical, 
commercial use. Such education as is 
going on here — limited as it must be, is 
a necessary preliminary to the actual 
common use of the machines. Many per- 
sons, while admitting their great inter- 
est as curiosities, seem t8 doubt their 
practicid utility, but after the intelligent 
and capable gentlemen v\ ho have charge 
of them in Paris have fini-ihed their work 
it will be ensy to ahovv the public, both 
in America and Europe, the vast advant- 
ages they off r in a business and social 
point of view. The traveller, to whom 
letter writing becomes such a bore, will 
soon learn to prize this invention, when 
he finds that at any hotel he can do as I 
did through the kindness of Mr. P. L. 
Walters, who has chai-ge of the Grapho- 
phone in the Exhibition. He gave me a 
cylinder, at a quiet moment, and I talk- 
ed a ji tter of about 1,000 words to a 
Iriend at home, beard it all repeated ac- 
curately, wraiipeditiii a piece of thin 
paper, jjlaced it in a little wooden box 
will) a sliding toi) held fast by a rubber 
band sunk in a little groove, put a five 
cci.t stamp upon it, and dropped it in the 
P. O. Box. Thus, with no labor what- 
ever, I talked to my friend across the 
ocean at my leasuve, and in a week or so 
hence he can simply take out the cylen- 
der, put it on his graphophone, and hear 
what I have had to say, which was about 
as much as is contained in this letter. 
When the public comes to understand 
that this can be done for all sorts of com- 
mercial and social communications, at a 
cost little greater than that of our 
present writing apparatus, the object of 
Messrs, Edison and Taintor in their long 
labors upon the Phonograph and Phono- 
graph-Giaphophone will be accomplish- 
ed. Certainly the work of Messrs. Ham- 
mer and Waters and their efficient as- 
sistants at the Paris Exposition will do 
much to advance this object. 
A. Q. Keasby. 
