THE OTOPHONE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 113, 28 September 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE OTOPHONE.

AX AMAZIXC- IXYEXTIOX. The London Daily Chronicle reports that some remarkable results have been obtained from a scientific invention by means of which light can be made audible. This new contrivance is known as the otophone.'and is the work of a Frenchman, M. Fournier Dalbe. A member of the Chronicle's literary staff, reporting the result of a personal test of the invention, says that with highly sensitive receivers, such a? used by wireless operators, lie could hear the rasping sounds made by electric lights. M. Dalbe insists that experiments which he has carried out show that the moon makes a noise that is quite audible, and that the sun roars like a cataract. The wonders of the invention were practically demonstrated at the exhibition now being held in connection with the Optical Conference. A blind man stood in the middle of a large room, and. without using his sense of touch, told how many windows were in the room, and how many persons there were between him and one of the walls. He did all this by his sense of hearing, by hearing, through the otophone, the noises made by light and shade. Further details that have been made public regarding this remarkable invention show that it is based on selenium's property of being affected by light. M. Dalbe contrives to make the effect of light on its passage in electric currents through selenium appreciable in a telephone receiver. The clockwork mechanism can be so adjusted as to make darkness audible and bright, and light silent, or vice versa. Selenium is a non-metallic element, resembling sulphur and tellurium chemically, and (combined) in native sulphides, also in a few selenides, as clausthalite. It was discovered in 1817 by Berzelius, in the deposits from sulphuric acid chambers, which is still its commercial source. Like sulphur, selenium occurs in several allotropic forms, being obtained as brick-red or dark-red amorphous powder (sp. gr. 4.26), as a brownish black glassy mass (sp. gr. 4.28), as red inoonclynic crystals (sp. gr. 4.47), or as a bluish-grey metal like crystalline moss (sp. gr. 4.8). Metallic selenium conducts electricity, and its resistance is decreased by exposure to light. Selenium burns in air with a bluish flame and a disagreeable odor.