POSSIBLE USES OF THE TELEPHONE.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2808, 13 February 1878, Page 3

POSSIBLE USES OF THE TELEPHONE.

When the invention, or rather the supposed perfection of the instrument, called the telephone was announced, speculation bs to its possible uses was naturally suggested. If this novel apperatua were indeed capable of all the feats assigned to it while it was still invested with the magnificence belonging to the unknown, there was little limit to the wonders ■which it might accomplish. Fortunio's gifted servant Fine-ear would Snd in the telephone a rival that would lower immensely the value of his special faculty ; and a pendant would be found to the ivory tube belonging to Prince Ali in the story of " Ahmed and Peribanou," by looking through which its fortunate possessor could view at will any scene in any part of the earth. Or, to pass from fairy-tale marvels to matters of fact, the telephone might be made useful in an infinity of ways, both to the public and to the people who provide for the public's amusement. A popular lecturer, for instance might, with the aid of the new instrument, save himself a largo amount of wear and tear by delivoring his discourse in a dozen different places at the same time, thus outdoing Frikell's feat of riding out at all the gates of St. Petersburg at tvrelvo o'clock. In a marvellously clever, . but little known, work called 18 Adventures in the Moon," there is a story of a certain Aristus who came to the conclusion that a body was a very inconvenient encumbrance, and persuaded his household god to teach him a charm by meanp of which he might get rid of his limbs, and retrain only his mind and voice. The arrangement did not turn out quite as successfully as ho thought it would. His children, when he spoke to them, " wore at first terrified by this mysterious voice, and could hardly be- prevented from running away; but hearing it solemnly assure them that it was their father, and hnd no design of hurting them, they took courage, and were then greatly amused to find how their father had hid himself; they laughed violently whenever, he spoke, and seemed to be delighted with the novelty.". Increased familiarity with the wonder bred contempt. " They had been accumstomed to follow without hesitation the advice which came from a peremptory countenance ; but now the advice which came out of the air made very little impression upon them." Aristus' commands were met by flat refusal; his wife attempted to bring the children back to a sense of their filial duty, " but her expostulations could procure no obedience to the venerable sound* and it was disobeyed every hour." The more exasperated Aristus became the more the children were delighted, and they even went so far as to play all kinds of tricks on purpose to hear the air scolding them. Something of this inconvenience might, unless provision were made against it, belong to the system of lecturing by telephone. The authority accompanying words spoken by a man who believes in the lesson he teaches, and lends it weight by an impressive demeanour, might well be lost in the case of a spectral voice issuing from a drumhead hung in the centre of the lecture room. And, unless the instruments were very accurate, there might be some confusion as to whether a sudden pause was intended as hint for applause, or was due to a hitch in the machinery. The first of these objections. might be nlet without any difficulty. There is a game, or there was when children were content with games that involved no moral or scientific lesson, in which, while one person recites a poem % another goes through the actions that" he conceives to be appropriate to the poet's meaning. A hint might be taken from this ; the outward signs of the telephone might be kept out of the audience's view, and a person " made up" as accurately as possible to represent the lecture might appear to deliver the discourse with fitting gesture and aspect. In the same way the resources of the new apparatus might be turned to account by learned persons desirous of instructing the world, but unable to overcome their fear of standing up to face an audience. Sitting peacefully in. his own study, a man whose eloquence was before defeated by his shyness, might give forth burning words to an audience seven miles off, whose applause Kight be transmitted to him by a second telephone arranged for the purpose. In the case of theatrical and operatic entertainments the telephone might render incalculable services. Suppose that a favorite actor is prevented from appearing by a fit of the gout or anything else which cripples his limbs, but leaves his voice and intelligence unimpaired. What more aimple in such an emergency-than to arrange a telephone by which his accents shall be carried to an enraptured audience, while a double goes through the mere mechanical movements of the part P Or, if a prima donna were suddenly indisposed, and no one could be found to take her place, the manager might at once telegraph to another prima donna in a distant town, and have her music sung by telephone. This system might, of course, be carried still further, so as to improve on the new method lately exhibited at Bayreuth. llerr Wagner is of opinion that the sight of an orchestra interferes with the proper appreciation of the lyric drama. The imagination, which should be filled with mysterious impressions of things far removed from commonplace life, is checked by a view of a company of men of this world engaged in bowing airihfiddling.