PHONOGRAPHS FOR THE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXII, Issue 88, 22 April 1898, Page 4

PHONOGRAPHS FOR THE

» [million. - A remarkable speoimen of lhe phonograph,- adapted for the needs of ordinary bnsiness life, was lately .exhibited in London. ' Hitherto the ' size, the necessaiy motive power, and "the price of the phonograph have rendered it to a great extent nselesß to any bnt entertainers. In bis n6w phonograph Edison appears to have surmonnted these obstacles. l'he a'ejy phonograph is bo portable that it can he carried abont " like an ordinary band-bag," it cosis - but five guineas and- its motive powei is clockwotk, which only requires to be wound up now and then lo enable it to do all that the cumbrous* and -.expensive electric power does for -the larger phonographs. It is claimed that the new instrument will be found of great use for ' business or professional „ men. 'All thac the* owner has to do a j he goes through his morning correspondence is to dictate to the machine the answers to bis letters.''Xhe roll* or cylinder inside the instrnment will record his ; wordsup to two thousand, and if he wants io say anything pver that number he only has to. pnt' in a fresh * cylinder. A minate- af.er he has done hiS dictation a clerk . can take charge bf, the phonograph and b?gin copying •the *H>nß\>' era to the correspondence. "To reproduce every . sound nolhiog'.more is needed thao the reversing of a lever. Tho rate at which' the cylinder reels ofi what it haa recorded oan he regulated by the amanuensis to correspond witn his flpeed r df* writing. He can stop it any moment when .he gels tired andifieC it going again at the interrupted jjomt.. A oylinder can either be etowed away as a permanent record bf each day's cocresdondence, or the: -words inscribed opon its ■waxen surf ace in characters which no eye can read, may be obliterated by shaving off.a film of diaphanous thinness, and the [Cylinder is tben rady to receive .another impression. This alternate process of recording &nd Bhftying may he repeated eisjty or seventy, tunes on the same cylinder before it will be worn out. Inthe meantime something like a hundred and twenty thousand' words may have been' transmitted by it bta cost of less than one shilling. Eaoh phonograph shaves its own cylinder." It > was pointed oat by Edison's representative tbab the value to a busi - ness ; of thiß machine .is not merely on account, of its time and laboursaving qualities] It cau be made to provide amusement fp.r its owner. A,^ titles whan business is slack he can, if he has provided himself witb the necessary 03 linden?, sit and listen to a statesman's speeob, a popular song,* "a wife's endearing phrates, .cr his balby'e prattle." 'Ibis is wbere the machine oertainiy beats the shorthand clerk. Otherwise it does opt seem to be so. very superior to that product of modem ctiumorciallife. His or her really dangei pus rival wiil be a combination of the phonograph and the typew iter, which. will receive the spoken words at one end and turn out tbe typed letter at the other, lhat maohine, though, haß yet to be invented.