THE MICROPHONE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 182, 2 September 1878, Page 2

THE MICROPHONE.

We arc indebted to Mr W. Tucker, the manager of the Telegraph offlce, for the following interesting account of experiments recently made with this tbe latest and most wonderful of inventions*.— l made a most successful trial of two of my microphones on Thursday evening with Cable Bay, a distance of sixteen or seveu miles. The first one tried was after the pattern of Profetsor Hughes' instrument, with which conrersation was carried on easily and with great distinctness, I standing a yard, or a yard and a half distant from the instrument whilst speaking and receiving replies on a Bell telephone. Afterwards a small French clock was placed on the sound hoard, and, immediately it touched, the other station, without waiting to be asked, replied, « I got that all right." Then a watch was placed on the sound board, the tickiug of which was at once heard at Cable Bay. The passing of a camel hair brush across the board was said to he like rats gnawing; a small piece of very fine copper wire about the fourth of the diameter of a pin was then drawn over the board, which was at once pronounced to be like a mouse nibbling in a cupboard. Neither of those sounds were audible to us in Nelson. I then tried a novel kind of instrument, also made by myself, consisting of a cigar box, with the lid taken off, turned bottom upwards, upon which I secured by sealing wax two wire nails parallel to each other, and about one inchapai t, with a third nail, across, the two ends overlapping each of the others about au iuch. This I found to be an excellent transmitter for a short time, but owing to the rapidity with which the points of contact oxidised, I had to discard the upper nail and substitute a piece of carbon, which arrangement answered admirably the only fault they had to find with the instruments at the other end being that at times the voice sounds were a little " chopped up." This is owing to the want of proper adjustment, which I hope soon to be able to rectify. Altogether I think we may congratulate ourselves upon the success attained, for aa far as I have heard, nothing like such good results have been obtained in this colony. I am now making another instrument to send to Cable Bay to work with those I have already made, and then I hope to be able to let you hear a watch tick, and a pin fall at a distance of eeventeen mjles,