A WONDER INSTRUMENT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 October 1924, Page 16

A WONDER INSTRUMENT.

ENABLING THE BLIND TO READ PRINTED BOOKS. Selenium, named after the moon, has been found to have a remarkable relationship with the sun. . Its atoms (writes Ronald Mac Fi- in the Daily Chronicle), like all other atoms, are infinitesimal planetary systems, and consist of particles of negative electricity—electrons—revolving round ai positively charged centre, and *it has been, discovered that light knocks, some of the electrons out of their orbit, and sets them free to act as carriers of electricity. Selenium, accordingly, heir- >mes temporarily a better conductor of electricity as soon as light falls upon it, and Dr. Fournier D’Albe, who has just written a fascinating book on the matter, declares that so sensitive is selenium to light that its con-dur-it’vitv would detect even a match struck on the moon. Making use of this remarkable property, Dr. Fournier D’Albe, with the ;'ssist":ice of Professor Barr, has in-vw+'-'l a wonderful instrument which enables the blind to read hooks. A li"c ol print is passed over bars of Selenium, and light shed on the bars is modified hv the intervening letters. The conductivity of the bars, accordingly, varies, and a current passed along them fluctuates, and can be used to set up various sound vibrations in a telephone receiver. The oouiV'ifi a-e representative of letters and words, and, with a little practice, each' sound may be associated with its •’ne.-ial' Mtor or word. Each letter ■>’ vl w'' d in fact, sings its own name ' ’-"'"•-w n it wsses. The invisible changes in the selenium are 1 •' P>i-n. --und • b’e-ht becomes audible: and,-as in a fairy tale, w r e fie n with our ears. The interpretation of the notes rean acute ear -and patient pra~ti"o: hut a blind .girl. Miss t„I,--. i,ooo-,i.a expert that ,i,o -- the ”eto of RO words a minute. nnd has read several hooks from cover to cover. Ro well has ghe trained her ea l ' that she can apprehend wo-Is vi-'i oven ph”a«es without •■oq’prtnfv to. •■•pell om+. And. no do-ii,t if ohi’-dron horn hhud were in--t?d i-n the n/ao r. f the optophone during their early voars. thev would squire o’”' greater farilitv. In some v J k-. t>..-pio cvste’P may De more -o—o-’Oo kiit t>e optophone promises ho a or-eat Hop-* to the blind, md it i~ rat impassible that even tho-e with good eves mav think it • wo'-fh whil" to lonm. to ""ad hy optophone, so that at times their ears may relieve thei r eyes. AVo”dnrP. l ] fro. .though Dr. Fournie- D’Alhe’« optophone be. it is certain to undergo more evolution, and to more and more useful, both ta Id'e blind and those who can see. All this is possible iust because the n *ave-~ of light, m -fline mvsterious w.ay th-—T;- some of the: electrons of the selenium out of their orbit.