THE TALKING WAX DOLL.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 44, 16 August 1888, Page 2

THE TALKING WAX DOLL.

Mr Edison has invented a wax doll that talks. The jaws, are hung so naturally that one unacquainted with the fictitious character of the doll would imagine that they belonged to a genuine flesh and blood infant. The body of the doll contains a miniature motor and the smallest phonograph ever made. The phonograph and the jaws of the doll are worked simultaneously, and the fictitious infant talks for just one minute by Mr Edison's golden chronometer. It is so accurately timed that the homely little prayer which John Quincy Adams uttered while dying— r" Now I lay me down to sieep"— has just time to issue from its ruby lips before the instrument stops. ' . In explaining how this remarkable feat is performed Mr Edison said, " A curious feature about this invention is that the baby's voice is an exact representation of- the human voice. la tact, it is my own voice, for I speak to the phonograph and the record is made of the tones of my voice upon the little^waxen cylinder. Then, by an ingenious contrivance connected with one of the arms o! the make-believe baby, the mechanism is started into motion. It sounds all the more natural coming from the baby, because the tones of my voice have been reduced in volume, so that they seem suited to the infant's capacity. The accurate guaging of the utterances of the doll, so that they would come within the one-minute limit, has cost me a great deal of time and labor. The first line of the prayer is repeated more quickly than any of the others. "The second line is a little slower, and runs something like the following : * I pray the L-o-r-d m-y soul tor k-e-p.-p.' , " The third line is still slower, and when printed would read something like this : *IM should d-i-eb-erf-o-r-e ; I w-a-k-e.' " The last line of the original verse is long drawn out, as if -the make-be-lieve oaby was getting very sleepy, thus: .'I— p-r-a-y— t-h e-Jj-o-r-d— m-y— s o-u-I— -t-o— t-a-k-e.' "But I have added," continued Mr Edison, " a few words to the prayer J which, while they do not appear in the original, still will be found in general use. They are these, and they die away from the infant's lips as though she were utterly overcome with weariness:— G-o-o-o-d n-n-i-g-h-t, m-a-a-m-m-a, G-o-o-o-d n-n-i-g-h-t, p p-b-a-a-p-a, G-o-o-o-o-d n-i-i-i-g-n-t. "This is not the only accomplishment of this wonderful child," continued the inventor with a smile. " Not only does the spurious baby speak its prayer, but it also sings a comic song. When I had Mr Rosenfeld play over his song • Kutchy, Kutchy, Coo' for the phonograph, t also took an impression of the melody and words for the use of my baby, so that now she not only says her evening prayer, but she also sings her little song— singing the chorus only — as follows : — Kutchy, KutchyVCoo, Lovey me, I lovey 'oo : Does 'oo lovey, lovey me ! As I lovey, lovey 'cc ? • Kutchy, Kutchy, Coo ! My little maiden never has a sore' throat, and she never refuses to sing when called upon to do so.