THE NEW SCIENCE OF PHONAUTOGRAPHY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 59, 23 January 1862, Page 2

THE NEW SCIENCE OF PHONAUTOGRAPHY.

(Fr<»ii the London. Re.vifiiv.)

1 Among all the m irvels of mechanical ingenuity which are being daily brought to perfection, none are more interesting than those which aim at the accomplishment of some task apparently requiring intellect, in addition to more mechanical dexterity, for its execution. It is difficult to conceive a mechanical operation which requires a greater exercise of intellect tl:;in that of verbatim reporting by means of shorthan 1. Yet even this art seems likely, before long, to be supplanted. For several years a French sava.ii, M. L. Scott, has been engaged in experiments on the fixation of sound upon :i prepared tablet, in the same way as photography fixes luminous images ; and has met with considerable success in this new art, which he has called Phonnutography. At the last sitting of the French Academy of Science a short communication was made by the discoverer, in consequence of the publication of some experiments in the same direction made by other gentlemen. This communication was devoted chiefly to a description of certain illustrations laid before the members, and would be unintelligible to the general reader without the diagrams and a knowledge of what had been previously been accomplished by M. Scott. The subject, however, being of immense importance, and likely now to attract great attention, and having ourselves watched its development for several years, as well as having had many opportunities of inspecting the phonographic representations of sound autographically recorded by 11. Scott's instrument, a short account of what lias already been done by this physicist will perhaps be considered of interest.

The problem which nt first required solution was the artificial construction of an ear, by means of tubes and diaphranit, so as to imitate, as nearly as possible, the human ear in its power of collecting sounds of every degree of intensity, and transmitting them to a delicate membrane placed at the extremity. After .numerous essays an apparatus was constructed which possessed the above qualifications ; the membrane was seen to vibrate visibly, and in a different manner, with

'A

each audible sound or note ; and if a pen or styh ■were fastened to this membrane its point vouk trace the wonderfully ivnntiful curves and circle: npperrninin;r to* the elements of sound. Tin next difficulty nonsis!r>d in finding a sensitivt surface upon which this-style could mark the imprint of its movements ; for this vibrations of th< nerial pen were so de'icttc that if any appreciable force were required to effect the trimseript'oii the resistance would at ont'c stop all movement This difficulty was at last overcome by employing a strip of thin paper, upon which was deposited a film of lampblack obtained from the smoke of burning bodies. This sensitive surface is carried along by clockwork agency, in front oi the vibrating style, so that the successive movements of the latter shall not impinge one on the other, when the result is a series of lines written on the paper, composed of the most complicated Bystems of curves, and forming a natural autograph of the producing sounds. Of course it will be understood that the above is intended more as a brief outline of the principle of M. Scott's instrument than as an exact description of its individual details. In reality, especially in the one recently made, it is far more * complicated than would be imagined from this brief sketch ; but the phonographs produced by it are marvellously perfect. Every separate source of sound has an individuality of its own. The sounds of different musical instruments, for instance, are easily distinguished from on; another, and from the human voice. This latter, moreover, gives different tunes, according to its character— the sweet, soft voice of a female, especially when singing, being characterised by great beauty nnd harmony in the curves impressed on the paper ; in those produced by the harsher voice of a man the curves are larger and more rugged-looking ; whilst in a shriek or a shout, or in the harsh discordant sounds of instruments, the waves are irregular, unequal, and broken up into secondary vibrations of all degrees of amplitude. An oration, delivered with varying rapidity, and ■with the pitch of the voice greatly modulated in different parts, has a very striking appearance in its photograph. Rapidly spoken parts have the curves crowded together, whilst in others they are widely separated. The loud tones of the voice arc shown by the written waves rising to perhaps half an inch or more in height,, whilst the low tones arc not more than the eighth of an inch high ; the modulations of the voice are thus shown very beautifully by the varying height of what may be called the letters of sound. The fact of being able to make spoken sounds record themselves permanently on paper is of itself most singular and astonishing ; but if it is ever developed, as the inventor says it shortly will be, to sufficient perfection to enable it to take down speeches which may be written off verbatim, it is difficult to imagine the importance of the discovery, whether it be in respect to the unimpeachable accuracy of the proeesp, the entire absence of trouble and expense in reporting? nr)y articulate sounds, or the great saving of the time and the exhausting labours'' of our Parliamentary reporters.