HEARING BY TOUCH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 15 June 1926, Page 2

HEARING BY TOUCH

Fifty years ago Alexander Graham Bell, seeking a means by which the human voice could reach the cars of the deaf, found as a by-product of his experiments an instrument—the telephone. To-day ,using the Bell telephonic principle, Dr Robert U. Gault , professor of psychology at „the North-Western University, predicts a means' of communicating vibration of speech to the skin in such a wav that words may be felt, not heard (says the Washington correspondent of the Glasgow Herald). The vibrations, according to Dr Gault, are felt so distinctly that with practice they may be. distinguished and put toS ether into sentences and continued iscbur.se. Ultimately lie believes it may he possible loV deaf persons to enjoy music, by its “feel,” and poetry as it is read to their skin, if he can continue his experiments. Dr Gault, it is explained, lifts found that the deaf lipreader is enormously helped in tho art of interpreting speech if he can simultaneously see a speaker’s face and feel his words by applying a finger to an instrument that vibrates with the speaker's voice. This is because many differences between words can be felt while they cannot be seen upon the lips and face of tho one who is uttering them. But riot only so, for the rhythm and emphasis and the accent and tempo of speech can be felt but not seen, and rhythm and emphasis and the rest help hearing people to understand. In the same way they will help deaf people to. understand. These factors in the psychology of speech and hearing, when brought to the deaf through their sense. of touch, are making them able to enjoy speech, to enjoy poetry also as it is read to their skin. This has hitherto been, a, closed hook to those who have no hearing. Ultimately they should obtain the same pleasure from silently reading verse that others gain. The entire experiment requires special devices that are being developed by the Bell telephone laboratory according to Dr Gault’s ideas. There may yet be a time when the deaf will prick up their skin as ordinary people do their ears.