LATEST MARVELS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10318, 29 January 1927, Page 7

LATEST MARVELS

MACHINE THAT SPEAKS LIKE HUMAN BEING. RESONATOR TUBES . Sir Richard Paget, F. P. S. lecturing to a large audience at the Regent Street Poly techie, "., London, m aid of King Edward’s Hospital Fund, made resonator tubes fitted with artificial tongwes imitate the human voice. He even made them imitate a human cold in the head. At his bidding these resonators uttered, with clearness such sounds as “Minnie,” “Hurrah'' “Far.” “Father,” “Hello, London are you there?” and “Oh, Leila, 1 love you!” The sounds were produced mechanically, just as they are produced with the vocal organs.

When a human being has a cold, a cavity at the back of the nose becomes closed. Sir Richard closed a cavity at the back of the ‘‘nose” of the resonator and instead .of saying “Minnie,” it said “Middle.” It had been given a cold. To show that human beings could hum and whistle twq different airs simultaneously the lecturer -and his daughter gave a “quartet” rendering'of “Home Sweet Home,” in which the four harmony parts could bo distinguished. Much of our spoken English to day, he declared, was a relic of barbarism. The verb “raise” or “raze” for instance, could mean either raising a building to the skies or razing it to the ground. “Mole” could be an animal, a dark spot on the skin, or a breakwater. The sound “right” in- its ..various spellings, could mean correct to write a religious ceremony or an artisan. The sibilants were; not vocal sounds at all. There was a great future for the nation which would improve its language to facilitate thinking. He recommended parents, to teach their children to read phonetically in the first place. _______