CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10124, 6 May 1896, Page 3

CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

■ -—•— i —— DOLLS THAT TALK.

HOW THEY ARE MADE AT EDISON'S , FACTORY. Every little girl will bo interested to know how talking dolls are mode in Mr. Edison's big factory. In a big room where there are a dozen great steam-hammers, some of them weighing five tons, the tin is taken in long sheets. When the sheets come from under the hammers they are stamped and cut into the , proper shapes, Next they go into the , soldoring-roora, where ihoy are put together. A little door in the back of each body is swung on hinges, and opens and shuts. Through this aperture the phonograph is set in plaoe bo that it can be taken out again when it happens bo get out of order, which is not very often. ' In other rooms the brass cylinders are stamped out and the steel pinions and needles, diaphragm, and frameworks are fashionod and polished by machinery. In still another room, which is divided into small apartments, there are six big machine? that look like the common phonographs. Inside of those on a steel rod are strung fifty little doll cylinder*. At each of these machines sits a young woman, and next to the inventor whose genius devised the doll and the agents who sell it, there is no one about the fictory whose work is more important than hers. She furnishes the doll with its voice. There is a big funnel shaped like the letter V before her, and as the cylinder begins to revolve, she shouts into the hole a verse from "Mother Goose." She must know exactly how loud to pitch her voice, and precisely how long to make her lines. A little clicking noiao tells har when the first cylinder has received its message, and then she begins on the second one, and so on until the entire row is ended. This is not easy work. The girl's voice must be clear and strong, and she must know how to pronounce her words clearly and correctly. In * little while she becomes, tired, and ion another trained girl takes her place. There are eighteen of these girls in the factory, and only six can work at a time. The other twolve relieve thsm when they are tired. After the cylinders on which these verses have been cut by means of the little indentations I have told you about have been taken out of the recording machine, they aro given to a skilful machinist, who puts the little phonograph together, and thon they are fitted into the dolls. Now coinos the inspection. The inspector tries each doll by itself, and those that are faulty are rejected. Perhaps the girl's voice was a little husky and the doll talks as though it had a bad cold, or may be the girl pitched her voice too high and the doll squeaks out Us lines as no wctlmsnnored dolly does.in a drawing-room. These defective dolls are senb back and new cylinders put into them. All in all, about twenty men and girls do some piece of work on each doll before it goes into the packing-room and it is put into a box to be shipped to tho storeroom in the city. At first it was a knotty problem how the dolls could be packed safely. Tho superintendent tried many experiments beloro he hit upon tho proper kind of packing. After he had found what he thought he wanted he threw the box with the doll insido from the roof to the grouud. He found that tlie jar hail broken the doll but the phonograph was unharmed. Then he know that the packing was perfect. The dolls are nude in three styles, blonde with bluikeyes, blonde with brown hair, and brunette With brown eyes. The cylinders »re made in twelvo styles, similar in shape, but each having a separate verse recorded on its surface. Most of these verses are taken from " Mother Goose," and the dolls are called '* blue eves, yellow hair, * Little Boy Blue,'" or " blue eyes, brown hair, ' Mary had a Little Lamb,"" dolls, as the case may be. 60 far each doll has only one cylinder which goes with it, but some time in the future there will be places in all largo cities where new cylinders can be put in, and when a little girl gets tired of hearing her dolly say the same words over and over again, she can send it out and have a now verse put in. Tho wonderful capabilities of tho talking doll are infinite. Not only can spoken words be repeated, bun songs as well. Patti, for instance, could sing into a recording machine, and .1 doll would repeat Iter b-anliful tones almost tho same as they were originally Ming. And when it comes to animals and bird*, there i? no end to the variety. Little phonographic lions with real roars and botia-ride growls, and miniature tigers with natural voices, would make a toy menagerie that would mako Mr. Barnura turn green with envy.—Exchange.

A KING OF THE SANDWICH ISLES. Old Ring Kalakau 1., of tho Sandwich Wands, had an army that numbered by actual count thirty men, and was so proud of his formidable battalion that he obliged it to no through its drill twice daily under the palace windows. On every possible occasion he had his phalaux parade, and was supremely happy when visited by commanding officers of the different cruisers in tho Pacific, for it gave him an opportunity to receive them ad the landing-place with all his military force drawn up in honour of his guests. One day an English man o'war entered the harbour, and tho flag-officer on board sent word to his coffee coloured Majesty that ho would pay him a vW* Instead of waitinif in his palace to receive the officer, the King tent to tho barracks, had his army hunted up, and at their head marched down to tho quay, where he formed his legion in line, then sat down on the odge of the dock to await his coming gueet. Now in some way the old King had just obtained a number of blue cloth army overasats, together with a lot of spurs, flintlock muskets, and*big bearskin hats, such as are worn by drum-major*. Under the broiling tropical Bun Ida warlike host stood, two ranks deep, tlio heavy overcoats about them, spurs strapped on bare feet, and their heads supporting tho enormous hats, while their muskets were pointed in every conceivable direction. At last the Commodore's barge was seen to leave tho ship, and make for the landing. Tho King hastily.took his position in front of his army, and as the English officer stood up in his boat to leave it, the King called out to " fire and present arms." Then the funniest thing of all happened. Tho men in the rear rank did not elevate their muskets sufficiently, and tho consequence was that the next minute the air was full of fur and remnants of bearskin bat* blown away from the heads of the soldiers in front. In another moment the disgusted and angry King was chasing his demoralised and panic-stricken army up the dock, belabouring everyone of them that he overtook with his royal mace. The scene was too much for the dignity of the English Commodore, who fell back in the sternsheets of hid boat almost strangled with laughter.

SOE QUEER THINGS ABOUT BIRDS AND BEASTS. ' , The mcaiaot, so naturalists say, is n civil engineer ; he nob only builds house?, but constructs aqueducts and drains which keep them dry. The white ants maintain a regular army of soldiers. The East India ants are horticulturists; they make mushrooms, upon which they feed their youm:. Wasps are paper manufacturers. Caterpillars are silk-epiners. The bird ploceua toxtor is a weaver; he weaves a web to make his nest. The squirrel is a ferryman ; with a chip or apiece of bark for a boat and hi* toil for a sail be crosses a stream. Dogs, \ wolves, jackals, and many others are i hunters. .

The black bear and heron are fishermen. The ante are regular day labourers. _ The monkey is" a rope dancer. The association of beavers prosents us with a model of republicanism. The bees livo under a monarchy, The Indian antelopes furnsh an example of ' patriarchal government. Elephants exhibit an aristocracy of elders. Wild horses are said to select their leador. Sheep in a wild state are under the control of a military chief ram. Boes are Keomotricans; their cells are so constructed as, with less quantify of material, to have the largest-sized spaces and the least possible loss of interstice. So also is the ant-lion ; his funnel-shaped trap • is as exactly correct in its conformation as if it had boenmade by the skilful artisfeof our species, with the aid of the best instruments. The mole is a meteorologist. The bird called the lime-killer is an arithmeti- [ cian ; so also are the crow, the wild turkey [and some other birds,

The torpedo, the ray, and the electric eel are electricians. ' " * ' ■■'. The nautilus is a navigator; he raises and lowers hiß sails, casts and weighs : his anchor, and performs other nautical evolutions. Whole tribes of birds are musicians. The bearer is an architect, builder, and woodcutter; he cuts down trees and erects bouses and dams.