Ahailono o ka Lahui, Volume I, Number 27, 10 February 1890 — A NEW TELEPHONE. One More Contrivance for Transmitting Sound. [ARTICLE]

A NEW TELEPHONE.

One More Contrivance for Transmitting Sound.

A new meeliauieal teleplione of extraordinary power has" recently been excitiug eonsiderabie attention in London. A eorrespondent of JS~oiu?c describes it as follows : It is of American origin, ]ifce so many otiier modern improvements of 6Xceptioual cUara<?ter, being the inveution of one Lemuel Mellei, ī believe, of Bostou. There havo been many previous meehanieal tolephōncs, as your readers are aware, some of whieh have obtained mueh pub]icity for a short time and then hure been heard of but Tittle more ; bnt having had opportunities of experimenting frequently with the hew instrument and observing its vocal power, so to speak, under very various circum* stances, I cannot doubt it has a great future before it. It may be clearly stated at onee that the pukion instrument is absolutely independent of all eleeh'ieal aids and appliances, and therefore needs neither battery power to bring it into plaj T nor insulation of any of its parts to keep then effective. It consists sōlely of two eheap and simple instruments connected by an ordinary non-insulated wire of copper, or better stili, of a double steel wire, the two parts being sliglitly inter twisted, say with about a single turn in a eouple of feet. The wire, rr wires, is simply looped to the instrument at either end, the connection being made in a few seconds. The instrument consists of a disk in combination with a series of small spiral springs inelosed in a case of some three or four inches in diameter. These springs, arranged in a manner that has been determin3d by experiment, and so as to prcduce harmonized vibrations, appear topossess the power of magnifying or aeeumulating upon the wire the vibratipns whieh the voice sets up in the disk, and the wire seems to possess —undoubt«dly does possess —the power of transmitting 1o great distances and giving out upon a second pulsion instrument the sounds the voice. The ability of this simple system of

** . v spi disks an<l \vires to oonyey converßational an<l oth<}ir soun<ls io considorablo distanccs wiih grcat clearness, reproduciiig the very tones of ilie voiee aiid tlie c|ualities of musical sounda with but little roduction or modification,; is most surprisinp. and to none more so than to the men of science who have been reeently cxperimenti«g with it. The writer of this l -Mee cannot, perhaps, do better than statc his own experiences witli this s)\stcm. After exaraining and experimeiiting over several short lēiigths of wire, some of them exeeeding a mile and a !valf, he lnst week went to the Finchley Road station of the Midland Eailway, from a point near to whieli a line had been eonveved to near tlie Welsh Harp station, a distanee of threo miles by! the line of railway and of more by the j traelt of tlie wire, whieh for the largcr ■ was earried by the telegraph posts, to whieh it was attached by verv simple means. Conversation throngh this length of 'line for over three miles was exceedingly casy. īn- | deed, so powerfully was the voicc j transmitted that an ordinaiy hat suf- \ fleed for all tho pnvposes of the sccoi t d ! insfrnjrnm\f without ōur to j edfivet s«ition was carried 011 re- ' peateclly 1$ means of the hats of three 1 gentlemef? who were prescnt, fhe tops of whieh īwere merely placcd against the telepho«e wire. I then went into the garden of the Welsh Harp, where a short length of wire liad been led between two points, j the wire on its way from one point to] thc other being twice tightly hvisted,' at an interval of some yards, round 1 small branches of trees of about one ineh in diameter, being wound round ' and round the branch three times in j eaeh ease. Strange to' say, this light' twisting of the wire round tlie branches ; in no way interferes with the trans- j mission of the voice from end to end j of the wire. A third and last experi- ! ment was made with a wire laid obli- j quely across the Welsh Harp lako and ) a!lowed to sink and rest upon the lake ! bottom. The length of the line was ; roucLlv estimated at about one third ' of a mile,%nd from end to cnd (excepting a few yards at eaeh end where ! the wire was led from tlie water's edge [ to the telephone box) the wire was 1 completely immersed, and without' any other support than the bottom of | the lake offei*ed it. Yet. notwithstand- ! ing this immersiou of tho whole wire s j convei*sation was carried on through f it by means of the pulsion instruments ' without the least diffieulty. In faet. 1 the voice eame through the immersed wire, and the longest wire (of over three miles) previously xnentioned, '

\vith groater purity aiiJ mellowness M ir() leugtLs. ī mnst Uave to ōtLt-ia to explain, and if j Jiece,ssary to dibCOvei-, tlie scientifie ! gj*ouiKls of ,the success of this extraortlii>avy little instrument. Looking, liowever, at its practical capabilities as exouiplified above, it is notsurprising that .p.ostoffice, poliee,,railway and oihei* comnlercial people aro already j overTvhelming with applications those [ who are arranging to supply the new j ielephone, whieh, from its extreme | simplidty, is manifestly a eheap one.