HEARING THROUGH THE FINGERS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6944, 25 June 1929, Page 10

HEARING THROUGH THE FINGERS

Device for the Deaf

The "Tclactile Auditor,'' a device to aid the deaf by using the sensitivc■u.ss of the skin" to sound vibrations, iias resulted from the researches of a professor in North-western University, Robert H. Gault. The author of a descriptive article in Popular Mechanics (Chicago), believes that this appai.itus shows that, we have only begun to utilise Nature’s ability to increase the skill of another sense when one is lost. We read: "Of all the live senses, touch is the most adaptable to increased uses. The trained sense of touch helps greatly to compensate for the loss of sight. Now if, has been discovered that, the sense of touch will also compensate for the Joss or even the absence of hearing. "Dr. Robert If. Gault, of North-west-ern ' University. became interested in exploring the limits of this amazing sense ol.’ touch. He l ‘liseovered lluit the sensitivitv of the skin could compensate for the lack of ability to hear.

"A little more than live years ago, |)r. Gault extended a speaking tube between two walls unci the inteivcnnij-C room in his laboratory. This was lus ouiy apparatus, excepting a doublewailed well-packed box, into which one end of the tube projected. The whole was sound-proof. One of the students crawled into the sound-proof box and poked his arm through the hole, plaei„,r the tmlm of Ills hand tightly over the end of the long tube. By his sense of touch he could then feel the experimenter’s voice at the other cnil of the tube, and was soon able to distinguish 3S words. v "Here was an amazing fact. It was prove.! possible to distinguish words by the sense of feeling. Hearing by touch was thus demonstrated. "Dr. Gault next linked a suitable electrical apparatus to the system for conveying the vibrations 1 rom tie voice- lie believed that speech could thus be communicated to the skin, the skin, could be made to hear. "He utilised the car-piece of f tlie tel options for further experiments. The wire connecting the transmitter and the ear-piece of the device was spliced so that he could take up his position at the transmitter end. Then, while he listener in another, holding the rcceivwas talking in or.e building, with (lit cr end in his fingers, sounds could be felt. Naturally, the meaning of the sounds at first could not bo understood, but some distinctions could be easily made, and ultimately these could be correctly, translated. At this juncture . the Bell Telephone laboratories extended their aid, and the vibrator, which was held in the hand and extended the sound to the skin bv means of vibrations, was invented. Here, then, was a simple device that opened a whole new world to those who w ere deaf or hard of hearing. The world of sound could be reached through the

gates of touch. The sensitive finger tips would answer the purpose cf the ca rs.

"Deaf children and- deaf adults who were introduced to the ‘teletactor’ quickly learned to distinguish the pattern of the sounds they felt. By understanding. the-pattern of speech they easily learned the words and were able to ‘hear’ themselves speak. Then, by a comparison between • the feeling of their own words and the feeling of the words of one who spoke correctly, they could discover the difference and learn to speak as they should. "Some deaf people obtained a real thrill from the feel of their own-voices. Certain vowel sounds gave them distinct pleasure. Some voices were found to be more pleasant than others. They showed that they enjoyed the feel of some sentences and seme writers more than others. Out of ten varieties of verse, the biggest thrill Tor the totally deaf: was the following:— ‘How docs the water come down atr. L oil arc, from its sources that well In the tarn by the fell?’ "This is due to tho fact that there is a predominating vowel quality: long and broad. Such sounds offered as distinct a pleasure to the one who had never heard through his ears, but now heard through his sense of touch, as the normal individual would derive from anv music.

"Tho uses to which the ‘tclctactile auditors’ will be' put arc easily imagined, and the ultimate possibilities too numerous to comprehend when applied to tho science of human behaviour ,to business and to pleasure. There are immediately offered the pleasures of ihe radio, that thus will reach an audience of millions formerly beyond its reach.” ~ ”