Otago Winess Illustrations.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 43

Otago Winess Illustrations.

WORD PHOTOGRAPHY. .» i INVENTION THAT MAKES THE VOICE VISIBLE. The Paris correspondent of the London I leader, writing on December 19, states: — i " Dr Morage this afternoon gave me some | details concerning his wonderful invention for photographing speech, both spoken , and sung. " ' Many of my pupils,' said Dr Morage, 1 had asked me for an apparatus which would render it possible to photograph the "vibrations of the voice, for, though the phonograph registers and repeats, its tracings are difficult to read. It was necessary

to find an apparatus without complicated manipulations. "Dr Morage found what he sought in the Pollak virag telegraphic apparatus, which is able to transmit 40,000 words an hour. This apparatus has been in existence about seven years, but it has only recently been brought to its present perfection. " The telegram for despatch is noi written in English characters, but by a writing machine which makes a series of perforations in the paper in lieu of letters. This perforated paper, when placed in the transmitting apparatus, allows the passage of currents of different length in proportion to the size and position of the holes. " At the other end of the telegraph wire

is a mirror, which is caused to oscillate i by these currents and before which iset a luminous spoke. '' The rays reflected from this mirror fall on a sensitive tape, which unrolls and passes automatically into a revealing bath, and thence into a fixing bath. Before the telegram from the transmitting | post is away the wet tape at the other end I is already appearing with the first words written perfectly clearly. " Such is the Pollak Virag apparatus. Now, Dr Morage, with the true intuition of the inventor, conceived the idea of replacing the manipulator by a microphone, the result being that the sounds cause the mirror to vibrate and the luminous spokes, representing the accou-tic

vibrations, leave their impress on the sensitive tape, the vowels and consonants being rendered by lines of various thickness, straight and torpedo-shaped. " The invention is so recent that the inventor has not himself acquired as yet facility in heading his photographs, it one may so express it. He can tell the vowels at once, but when combined with consonants the process of deciphering i« much more complicated. "Dr Morage' s pupils at the free biology and physics lectures at the Sorbonne are mostly professors of singing, diction, deaf and dumb phonetics, artists, and orators. The advantage of such an invention to the teaching profession is obviou«. Frequently, for in«tance, a pupil looks in-

- - IHE PHANTOM SHIP. :By \Y. A>cr-t 1,,.. r ..m [We purpose reproducing from time to time some of the pictures in the Dunedin Public Ait Gallery, and we ncu'd lemird our readers that the Gallery, which forms a pleasant place of resort for country visitors as well as townsfolk, has been established and is maintained by subscription, and deserves the support of all. As there is still a conaderab'e debt, we shall be glad U> receive subscriptions in aid, either large or small. Admission to the gallery is free, and it is open every week day from neon to 4 o'clock, and every Sunday from 2.30 to 5 p.m.]

credulous when his master tells him ho has sung a false note, or that his intonation is wrong. Now it will be possible to place the proof before his eyes. *' Several of Dr Morale's works have been crowned by the institute, by the Academy of Medicine, and the Faculty of Medicine. As I thanked him and said good-bye, he uttered these prophetic words : 'It may be weeks, months, or year.-, but the time is surely coming when we shall be able to photograph phonetically the vibrations of the telephone, and do away with the telegraph itself. Yes, you will be able to read off your message, and it will be registered in your London office forthwith. It is simply a question of deciphering an alphabet.' "