AMUSING TELEPHONE EXPERIMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5314, 6 April 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

AMUSING TELEPHONE EXPERIMENTS.

An amusing and highly successful telephone experiment has been made at VVishaw. Mr. Mitchell, draper, has a theory that “all the talk about magnetism and electricity in connection with the telephone is merely to hoodwink the public.” All that is required to cenduot sound, he says, is merely a connection of “any kind" between the bells. To illustrate this he supplied, himself with a couple of tin coffee canisters and a twopenny ball of twine, and along with a number of friends went to the public park to experiment. A hole was bored in the bottom of each of the coffee canisters, and the twine opened out (about 200 yards), a canister was fixed to each end, with a common shirt button to prevent the cord from slipping. Mr. Mitchell now announced tlio telephone to bo in working order, and applying his mouth to one of the canisters, a newspaper reporter put his oar to the other, ami was immediately greeted, in clear and distinct tones, with “ How do you do?” A regular conversation was then carried on for about a quarter of an hour. Several songs were sung, and in such as “ Auld Lang Syne ” the words were clear and distinct, while in songs with rollicking airs, such as “ Paddy, says she, but you bother me, 2 the words, from the rapid succession in which they followed each other, were not so easily made out. In the evening the same “ instrument” was tested in houses on opposite sides of the street, and the result was equally successful. It may bo stated for the benefit of those who wish, to try the experiment that the canisters used were a little larger than an imperial pint measure ; but any size will do, and the thinner the tin the better the effect. Cord of any description is suitable for a con-

nectiou, and a few knots here and there have no injurious effect. It may here be noted that the conductors of the Daily News have established a telephone between their office and the reporters’ gallery iu the House of Commons. It is used simply for ordinary communications, which were formerly made by a dial telegraph instrument, such as is used between fire stations.