Talking and Laughing by Machinery.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 118, 13 February 1872, Page 7

Talking and Laughing by Machinery.

—o ( yew Yui'.': Times.) A persevering Frenchman once constructed a machine in the form of a duck, which could walk, llap its wings, pick up grains of corn, and, more wonderful still, digest them ; but a machine capable of talking was supposed to be beyond the power of human ingenuity to construct. Kempelin, a German, made a number of puppets that littered the words “ papa” and “mamma,” but after devoting his life to perfecting them, he asserted that a machine which could utter all the words in use in European languages was an impossibility. After his death his puppets became dumb, no one understanding the mechanism by which they were made to speak. Kempelin’s impossibility has at list been overcome. In 1841 Professor Faber exhibited a machine which could utter a great number of sounds and words, but it was by no means perfect. His nephew took up the machine that the uncle had failed in perfecting, and completed it. After exhibiting it before all the crowned heads and scientitic societies in Europe, he has brought it to this country, and has given an exhibition of it in private. The machine, which stands on a small table, consists of a complicated arrangement of rubber tubes, reeds, keys, pedals, strings, and Wires. Tiic lungs are represented by a small pair of bellows, the glottis by reeds and pipes of different sizes, the bps and tongue by pi-cces of india-rubber. JJeneath the table is a pedal, by which the bellows are worked, j and on the right-hand side are a series oi ; keys, on which are marked the letters o, u, i, e, 1, r, w, f, s, b, d, and g. With these and | some supplementaly ar angmients, all sounds u«ed in the European linguigescan he enunciated. There is also an arrangement resembling the kev-boa d of the piano, by which tiie machine can be made to sing. Every portion of it is op m to view, so that no deception is possiole. The machine, under the deft hj mds of Madame Faber, enunciated distinctly all the letters of the English and German alphabets, and numerous long and most difficult words, such as j “Constantinople,” “Politzka,” “Missisippi,” “Radotzki,” “Hurrah,” and then darted off into long sentences in English, German, and French, winding up with a laugh of the most natural kind, followed by hisses, groans, and murmurs. Every word proposed was pronounced at once, and without the slightest hesitation. Of c mrse some words wore more clearly enunciated than others, hut the majority were given far more clearly than the i majority of human beings pronounce them, I and even the nasal twang wnich the French I people often adopt, was closely imitated. In ; Professor Faber's machine the motions of the month and tongue imitate precisely those of j human beings. Different keys or tones can Ibe given by proper manipulations of the | pedals. Taken altogether, the talking maichine is a wonderful specimen of mm's ingej unity. Whether it can ever lie anything I more is doubtful. It cannot be applied to ; any practical purpose, unless, indeed, weakjnerved and fcehlmvoicod individuils should | choose to purchase and use them as mediums 1 through which to address the public.