THE TELEPHONE AND DEAFNESS.

Kumara Times, Issue 492, 25 April 1878, Page 2

THE TELEPHONE AND DEAFNESS.

I Mr H. A. formerly of the j Thames and Auckland, aiid who is now J lecturing in Australia, has written a j letter to the editor Sydney | Morning Herald, in which he claims I the merit of having made an-import-j ant discovery, be put in practice by very simple means. The j following is Mr Severn'sletter:—-"Sir ; Your being ever ready,.jto'.publish ia i your paper facts that may be useful, or | in any way calculated to advance science, and thus improve the conditions under which we live, causes*me to send you the details discovery | T. have just made, It it. may be so ! termed, viz., enabling fdeaf persons to ; hear by means of the simple tin-pot, parchment, aud string telephone; To say much on the construction of this sin pie instrument is. unnecessary. It may be made thus :—Take any ordinary tin-pot, say three inches in diameter; open the closed end, and tie over it a piece of parchment as tightly as possible, pass a fine string through the centre, and make a knot inside ; connect two such tins by a long string, from 1 to 500 yards in length; keep: thej&riog off the gronnd, let it hang or.be stretched from the one tin to the other, It only remains for us to speak in one. of these tins, when our friends may hear us sp&ikiug, &c, by placing the ear near the fat-away tin." This hearing of' the human voice under such circumstances, and with so simple an apparatus, is very wonderful. My object at present ia to point out ,how this very simple instrument may be turned"-W great service—viz!, to enable those deprived of the seuse of hearing to hear. My experiment* led me to make the human head the . receiving or hearing instrument. Proceed thus :—3P'afr aside the tin at the hearing en.d; or cause a loop to be made in the string some 3 feet long; put this loop.over the forehead of the listener; cause him to place the palm-< of-his hands flat and hard agaiust t the ears~let'the loop pass over the listener w hear the smallest whisner,let hira be or not. The. fact may -appear extraor- " dinary ; it is nevertheless true, that a deaf person may thus be made to hear the voice, "music, <fec. This mktter opens up another, held .for thinking minds: the fact that the organ of hearing may be closed, and hearing of a most delicate nature made known to the brain, independently of the ear— that deaf persons may thus be made'to hear !To he:vr by mechanical vibrations sent into - the brain is, I say and hope, a new application of the telephone of the tin-