TELEPHONE EXPERIMENTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 52, 1 March 1878, Page 4

TELEPHONE EXPERIMENTS.

r (From the Lyttellon Times.) In using the telephone, absolute quiet near thß instrument is essential, Bince its sensibility ia so delicate that the message which is being transmitted may otherwise be rendered unintelligible. On thia account the telephone experiments in Christchurch have hod to be made at odd times, when wires were not required for <he conveyance of ordinary messages, nnd when comparative quiet could be secured. Without waiting for the use of the wires for a long distance trial, advantage was taken of a spare hour to test somewhat further instruments made by Mr Meddings, so that he might determine whether or not he should construct others. Dr Haast very kindly granted the use of the new Museum buildings, nnd there the desired quiet and privuey were of coura9 obtained. By the use of the Siemana' apparatus, it wa3 quickly found that the souud of the voices was easily and distinctly conveyed through 2000 uniss of resistance, or 167^ miles of ordinary telegraph wire. Then 4000 units were tried, and to the intense satisfaction of those present a few words were exchanged through a resi6tauco equalling exactly 235 miles. On another occasion an opportunity offered for a further (rial between Christchurch and Lyttelton, and, at the request of the writ r, bo ma further tests were iniroducad in order to try the quality of various sounds. In the room at Christchurch an air was played on the cornef, and Mr Joyce, the bashful operator in Lyttelton, who lias been be'ors nu-nt toned in tlitEe column?, wa-s asked to nmio ika inati uraent and the tune Ho instantly replied •' a cornt3 f , aui 'Home, swuet home.' " A very bhijill mu&ical box was next trie. l, and rvsjry no'.e could ba distinctly lieunj. Instrument wete ih n playeJ iv Lytielton, i-'i- sol mess of ilie Hounds as heard in Chiistuhurch biincr exeeediogly beautiful. The Bound of the voicb is transmitted ia a strangely mojifiaij form, as if the speaker had w bean suddenly transformed into tha little mao, "no bigger than tha»," of whom one has heard from the Soldene Opera Company. Every trick" of the voice, however, repajas, and any know a persons are ica-

mediately identified by the sound of the words they may utter. It had struck^ both Mr Meddinga and myself that his instruments must be in some way superior to the Dunedin ones, since wo could hear much more distinctly thin Mr Joyce, the •< What did you say ?" of that gentferam being very frequent. It was determined to sot this question at rest in the next experiments, and 6S during a porlion of Sunday afternoon the Middle Island wire? would in all probability bs idle, arrangements were made accordingly. Operators were stationed a 8 follows : — Mr MedJings at Christchurcb, and Mr Harrington at Southhridge, with instruments made by Mr Meddiugs; Mr Joyce at Lyttelton, Mr Muir at Danedin, and Mr Lo^an, the Inspector of the Dunedin district, at Cromwell, with instruments made in DunediD. The distances by wire from Christchurch to each of these places are; To Lytieltou, 9 miles; to Southbridge, 32 miles; to Danedin, 250 miles; and to Cromwell, 350 miles. Lyttelton and bouthbridge were first tried, and it was immediately noticed that the communication with Southbridge was far better than that with Lyttelton, the superiority of Mr Meduing'a instruments being thus cleorely proved, A conversation with Southbridse was carried on rapidly, and instruments played at either end were at once identified, and the Dames of the airs given, a piccolo played at Southbridge sounding exceedingly well; .Communication was then made with Dunedin and Cromwell, and I shall not readily forget the sensation experienced on hearing he operator at the latter place give a " cooey " in my ear, and ask, "who are you?" Again it was noticed that Christchurcb. could hear best, but to be absolutely certain on this point, Mr Meddings opened up telegraphic as well as telephonic communication with Dunedin, Mr Muir replying in answer to a question " I get your cooey, but can't hear what you cay. We, on the other hand, could hear every word uttered, an j could also hear him singing, not very melodiously though, and reading with great rapidity. Unfortunately there was a considerable amount of atmospheric disturbance, or the results would unquestionably have been much more satisfactory. We wore also enabled to detect that the Cromwell instrument was somewhat superior to the Dunedin one, although probably both wore made by the same person. All the sounds from Cromwell were superior to those from Dunedin, nowithstanding the difference of 100 miles in distance. Perhaps the most wonderful and pleaeiug result obtained was that every note upon a flute played at Cromwell was hard here with marvellous distinctness. One other incident is worthy of mention. A gentleman was speaking through the telephone to Mr Harrington, who asked who it was, and received' in reply "Meddings with a core throat." From Southbridge came sounds of hearty laughter, and the empathic words "That humbug." Mr Meddings is now proceeding to make other instruments, and he— in common with many others — will go on experimenting, feeling assured that this babe of science will one day become a giant in power, and will effect marvellous changes in our means of communication with distant places.