SPOKEN WORD IMMORTAL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1993, 18 May 1885, Page 2

SPOKEN WORD IMMORTAL.

Why does not some modem Gutenborg do for the phonograph what has already been done for the printing press ? is the question asked by a writer in. the new number of the "Nineteenth Century." To stop short at the phonograph and not to go on to invent a reading machine whereby books '• should b,e printed on cylinders of metal would be as if the age of Furst and Gutenberg had remained content with immovable types, The written word has already been made immortal, and the world has been half revolutionised thereby. It only now remains to complete tjje reyohjtjqn by awing piflsWjfy fe s'vom wwl as \ye]l. The m'ejaj'cy wers mjght he worn in the hat, pd the'gpunds, he conveyed to the ear by wires, There wauk} he. no more oases of blinded eye»lsht from poring over miserable books; the old quarrel between physical and intellectual development would disappear, for "the good genius of humanity" in his metal box would accompany men to the moor and the fields and the ditch. The weary learningof an unphoneticwrittenlanguage could be neglected, and precious years of our lives would be saved from waste. Foreign languages would be learned with far greajor pa«e, whorever a book was there the- spoken language wquk) be, The political conoequencei! of tlie invention are passed over by the writer, but it would clearly be most important, For one thing, says the " Pall Mall Budget," the necessity for a representative Parliament would disappear, and direct Government by the people would once more become possible.