CLEAR SPEECH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 215, 11 August 1937, Page 11

CLEAR SPEECH

TECHNIQUE OF ’PHONE USE

THE MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD. New Zealand ranks high in the world as a telephone-using country and its equipment for this purpose is” kept thoroughly up-to-date. However, an efficient system will not produce satisfactory results unless sensitive electrical apparatus is used in the most effective way. The Post Office is, therefore, preparing some illustrated advice to be published in its telephone directories on how to make telephone conversations clearer and easier. Tlie engineers having done their part in providing proper instruments and efficient transmission lines the user of the telephone can then get the best results only by speaking so closely into the transmitter that the lips almost touch it. Human speech causes sound waves which impinge on a diaphragm placed just inside the transmitter; and thus electrical impulses are created which are carried along the lines and turned, again into sound waves at the receiving end.. The more effective the transmitting end the stronger are these electrical impulses which must be turned again into sound waves. How important it is to sneak closely into the transmitter in order to obtain the maximum of electrical effect is evidenced by the fact that the strength of tlie sound waves which impinge on the diaphragm of the transmitter very inversely to the square of the distance of the lips from the transmitter. In other words, if the lips are half an inch away from the transmitter the strength of the speech at the distant receiving point is excellent, but another half an inch away from the transmitter will cut down the strength of speech waves to a quarter of the original volume. Shouting into the telephone is not necessary in these days of sensitive instruments. The greatest temptation to do so is when the parties to a conversation are separated by hundreds of miles, but if they realised that at intervals along New Zealand’s main telephone trunk lines are electrical repeaters which boost up tlie impulses the shouting tendency would disappear. Speaking close to the transmitter also gives the advantage of reducing the effects of any extraneous noises. There is no danger to health involved bv the use of the same transmitter by large numbers of people, for this point has been . subject to careful bacteriological tests with completely negative results. Just as it is necessary to keep the receiver to the ear, it is equally necessary to bring the lips close to the transmitter. Then tlie telephone conversation can go on in a normal voice, preferably not highpitched. The rate of conversation is not material if the speaker takes trouble to articulate every syllable.