THE PHONOGRAPH.
A WONDERFUL EXHIBITION,
The phonograph in Auckland is a decided novelty, and there is but little doubt that tbe exhibition of the instrument at the Opera House on Monday night will be an event of mora than ordinary interest. Professor Douglas, the lecturer for the entertainment, said in conversation with a Southern journalist:—" I have lectured with the machine all through England, Scotland, and Ireland, and also given exhibitions with ib in Switzerland, taking it up the Rhigi, and all through the Rhine country. 1 then went to America, the home of the phonograph, and in Boston, curiously enough, bhey knew nothing about it. We reproduced Edison's own voice, besides a. number of American celebrities, and such actual utterances as Gladstone's message to Lord Carrington, and thab of Lord Kintore, Governor of South Australia, to your Lord Onslow. You see the new phonogram is a much more elaborate affair than the old one ; when you know that it consists of no less than 537 parts, you will understand thab it is of very elaborate mechanism. While the old phonograph was simply a sheet of paper, tho one I use is made of hardened wax, on which the voice impressions are registered with a line needle-like point. When the ' mailing-gram * has been perfected you will be able.to speak your letters into the machine, take them out, and post them to their destination. The machine is already used in American business houses for correspondence purposes. 1 would like you to correct an idea that has got about, that the machine is inaudible in a bi<_ room. Most of tho work it does can be heard easily all over the room ; and the cornet and coach horn solos right across the street. I gave speeches and songs in the large Guildhall at Plymouth before 2,500 people, and at Newcastle beforo 3,000, and they wore quite satisfied. For very soft low tones, however, about eight- people stand round the machine with tubes to their eirs, and can hear very distinctly."
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 31, 6 February 1891, Page 2
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338THE PHONOGRAPH. Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 31, 6 February 1891, Page 2
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