Hawke's Ban Herald. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1877.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3935, 26 June 1877, Page 2

Hawke's Ban Herald. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1877.

A fresh application of science to the uses of practical life which may yet rank in impoi'tance with the. discovery of the photographic art or of telegraphy appears to be in store for the world, in what is called the " telephone." Like a very large proportion of scientific discoveries of late.it hails from America, and like the discovery of the planet Neptune by Adams and Le Vernier, or the still more famous discovery of the theory of Evolution by Darwin and Wallace, it has been made in ' two quarters at one and the same time. Professor Bell, of Boston, and Mr Gray, of Chicago, have each of them invented telephones. These ai-e apparatuses by means of which conversation, musical airs, and any other description of sound can be made audible at great distances. The London Daily Telegraph gives us the following interesting particulars with reference to the instruments of the two inventors respectively : — " The mechanism of Professor Bell's apparatus," it says, " consists of a powerful compound permanent magnet, to the poles of which are attached ordinary telegraph coils of insulated wire. In front of the poles is a diaphragm of iron, and a mouthpiece whose function is to converge the sound upon this diaphragm. When the human voice causes the diaphragm to vibrate, electrical undulations are induced in the coils around the magnets precisely similar to the undulations produced by the human voice. These coils are connected with the line wire, and the undulations caused in them travel through the wire, and, passing through another instrument at the opposite terminus of the line, are again resolved into atmospheric undulations by a metallic diaphragm similar to the one already described. Mr Gray's instrument is not constructed for the purpose of conveying promiscuous sounds, as in the former case. It is, on the contrary, represented as a ' telephonic piano,' and itself produces the sounds which it transmits. It has already been tested on a wire uniting Chicago and Milwaukee, distant about eighty-five miles, and several airs performed in the latter city were distinctly recognisable by the audience assembled in the former, and the performance elicited rapturous applause. Since that trial a distance of two hundred and eighty-four miles, between Chicago and Detroit, has been achieved, and that experiment is said to have been entirely successful." For ordinary journalistic reporting, the Telegraph is of opinion that, for the present, at any rate, the balance of advantages lies with ordinary telegraphy. It goes on, however, to make the following significant observations : — " Occasions may sometimes arise when the heart of the country throbs under a great common impulse, and when the inhabitants of Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow might be unusually anxious to become immediately acquainted with the proceedings of a public meeting held in the metropolis. In that case gatherings might assemble in those towns and listen at one time to the speeches as they were being delivered at St. James' or Exeter Hall. Some Americans confidently hope to anticipate the period when a musical entertainment may be given in Berlin, and, at the same time, audiences may be collected at St. Petersburg, Vienna, Paris, London, and New York to listen simultaneously to the singing and playing." The realisation of such a dream, which seems in truth far from remote, would, indeed, be a triumph over time and space. What a marvellous difference it would make to the whole theory and practice of Representative Government if the debates in Parliament could thus be heard by audiences assembled over all parts of the country ! Members would address their constituents then, instead of the Speaker, in good earnest. The delegation of power to choose representatives would become a fiction, and every vote of the House would in truth be a plebiscite.