MUSIC BY TELEGRAPH.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 4

MUSIC BY TELEGRAPH.

Elisha Gray, of Chicago, well known in th: electric telegraph world, has succeeded, almost beyond his own anticipations, in perfecting an instrument which will convey sound by electricity over an unbroken current of extraordinary length without the aid of automatic repeaters. In the ordinary transmission of messages over telegraphic Avires to points at a long distance, a message is generally repeated by automatic working instruments abotit every 500 miles, in order to renew the current of electricity. Mr Gray has transmitted sounds, which were distinctly audible at the receiving point, over an unbroken circuit of 2400 miles. It is one of the - greatest discoveries made since the early days of Morse. Such noted electricians as George Prescott say it goes to prove what all electricians have long agreed upon, that we know little at present of the possibilities of the future of electric science. The writer has heard music played on a Bmall melodeon, or piano key-board, transmitted through an xmbroken circuit of 2400 miles, and reproduced on a violin attached to the receiving end of the wire. Mr Gray played ''Hail Columbia," "The Star Spangled Banner," "God Save the Queen," "Yankee Doodle," and other well-known airs, and they were unmistakeably repeated, note for note, on the violin, which lay on a table near at hand.,

Even an accidental false note was immediately detected on the violin. The apparatus by means of which the feat is accomplished has been named by Mr Gray the telephone, or an instrument designed for the purpose of transmitting sound to a distance. It consists of three general parts — the transmitting instrument, the conducting wire, and the apparatus for receiving the sound at that distant point The transmitting apparatus consists of a key-board having a number of electro magnets corresponding with the number of keys on the board, to which are attached vibrating tongues or reeds, tuned to a musical scale. Any one of these tongues can be separately set in motion by depressing the key corresponding to it. Thus a tune may be played by manipulating the keys in the same way as those of an ordinary piano or melodeon. The music, produced entirely by electricity, of these notes is so distinctly audible in the next room that, in spite of much talking, there is 110 difficulty in determining what the manipulator is playing. — Alta California.