A NEW DISCOVERY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2803, 7 February 1878, Page 3

A NEW DISCOVERY.

The. world has scarcely been startled by the introduction, of the telephone when a, new surprise is announced, writes the Engineer, an English journal, which goes on to say, "In the United States, Mr Edison, a gentleman well known for his scientific attainments, has devised a means by which the utterances of the telephone! may be put on record, and it will thus become possible to reproduce years hence, not only the words, but .the very inflec--tion and tone of voice of individuals long' dead. This is surely the most remarkable thing yet performed by electrical science. The method by which this result is to be produced is extremely simple. A speaking tube fitted at one end with a mouthpiece has at the other a metallic diaphragm—that is to say, a miniature drum head—which vibrates powerfully under the influence of the human voice. Attached to the centre of the diaphragm is a point, which acts against a small strip of paper, drawn slowly under it by clockwork, as in the well-known Morse recorder. When the apparatus is in action, if anyone speaks through the mouthpiece the strip of paper will be indented by the fine point. A somewhat similar instrument in which a point is fitted to an exceedingly delicate diaphragm is attached to a telephone. If now the prepared paper be drawn under this second point it will cause the diaphragm to vibrate precisely as though it were .spoken to, and . the result is that the telephone is put into action, and the sound of the original voice is reproduced as often as may be desired, so long as the paper lasts. Think what use might be made of such an instrument in treasuring up tbe accents of a great orator, such as Mr Gladstone or the Eev. Henry Ward Beecher. The notes of a prima donna can be put on record, and it may yet be possible to compare the voice of Patti with that of a songstress now unborn. It is confidently asserted that Mr Edison has already achieved such success that, he fails only in, recording the finer inflections of the voice. A few weeks since the world would have pronounced the whole idea of such an invention as fit only for the brain of a writer of fairy tales, but after ' the telephone all things- appear possibtun telegraphy."