The Speech of the Future.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 361, 20 April 1889, Page 4

The Speech of the Future.

Professor Archibald (says the ' Standard ') delivei-ed an interesting lecture in the Princes Hall, Piccadilly, on 16th February, on Edison's Uite&t phonograph. He explained the principles of pound upon which the phonograph worked, and stated that messages once recorded from the voice on the wax cylinder of the apparatus could be re-produced in sound 7,000 times. On the cylinder of the former instrument only 30 messages could be recorded, but on the latent form of cylinder 200 messages could be recorded. Mr Edison had invented a form of phonogram that, after receiving a message, could be folded and posted like a letter ; and on reaching the person for whom it was intended, it could be put upon a cylinder and made to reproduce exactly the message in the voice of the person who sent it. The lecturer predicted that before long phonographic apparatus would be provided at railway stations and public places ot resort, where messages could be produced and reproduced on these 'mailing giams,' as he called them, which could be transmitted through the post. Among other likely uses of the phonograph, he mentioned that gentlemen could dictate their correspondence into it, and a lady could afterwards reproduce the letters by a type writer as the phonograph slowly repeated the words to her. That was not an imaginary idea ; it had been done. He also stated that important interviews, as between solicitor and client, could be spoken into the phonograph, which would thus keep a full and permanent record, ohal. could be reproduced at any time or any number of times. A person could go round the world with a phonograph, and have all languages spoken into it, and on returning w ould possess a. museum of spoken languages, which he could reproduce at any time and study at leisure. The lecturer also put the phonograph in operation, and made it reproduce pieces of music and conversation originally uttered in America, aud these were heard in every part of the large hall with remarkable distinctness. The lecturer likewise delivered, in the hearing of the audience, messages into the apparatus, which then reproduced them from the «ylinder so exactly that the audience were delighted.