DELIGHTFUL HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1927, Page 26

DELIGHTFUL HISTORY

"The Romance of the Gramophone." By T. Lindsay Buick, F.R.His.S. Wellington: Ernest Dawson, Ltd.

The development of the gramophone is progressing with accelerating speed, and what to-morrow -will bring dares even the most audacious prophet. The days of trial and error.aro gone, and we now have the combined efforts of the physicist, the mathematician, and the engineer, and a host of other spc calists in the scientific "world seeking even greater improvements by organised and systematic experiment. Thus, as Mr. Buick says in his concluding sentence—"Wonders will never"cease." The author's task has been a big one, but he has been faithful and just to those almost forgotten pioneers who have done so much to make happier the lives of the world's people. Even those who have a good acquaintance with the history of this cosmopolitan instrument will be delighted with a narrative that will introduce them to "fresh woods and pastures new." Mr. Buick has carried out his research into the history of the gramophone with the thoroughness that has marked his other historical works, and although he has purposely avoided scientific detail— too much at times, perhaps, because most laymen like to know how the wheels go round —ho has dealt fully with personalities and his book lives up to its title. It is a "romance." The musical stages of evolution are dealt with in the opening chapter and these are intersting and fascinating. The mythological touch stimulates tho imagination and quickens the appetite for the more concrete but equally absorbing experiments of

the nineteenth century. It took many practical dreamers to actually invent an. instrument that would reproduce sound, and in paying homage to Thomas Alva Edison, Mr. Buick has not forgotten the lives "obscurely great." The work of Edison is given in detail, and there is an illustration of the inventor's first phonograph. What a queer-looking contrivance it is. From then on simultaneous with the narrative of the development of the gramophone is the story of the making of the records with the successive improvements. Never is the personal touch lost. We are told of the recording of the speeches by famous men, and the great work of Sir Landon Eonaid in inducing antagonistic artists to record (one wonders how many are antagonistic to-day). We are carried step by step to the present day when records are not only electrically'recorded, but electrically reproduced, and we can listen to the vivid notes of wonderful voices that are no more. While the main thread of the history is unwavering there are many personal details and stories that give scope for charming pen pictures and variety to the subject. "The Romance of the Gramophone" adorns its subject and adds lustre to the author.