The Phonograph

Abstract

IN reference to Prof. Mayer's account and Prof. Fleeming Jenkins's letters, I may say that I had an opportunity of an hour's observation of a phonograph constructed by Mr. Stroh, 42A, Hampstead Road, on April 3, at the invitation of Prof. Graham Bell. The difference between words produced from the phonograph and those spoken into it gave me the same feeling as the difference between a worn print and an early proof of an engraving. When the words were uttered loudly and slowly and repeated rather faster, it was easy to catch the sense and meaning, but I doubt whether unknown English words would be recognised, and certainly unknown foreign words would present insuperable difficulties. I should myself find the phonograph as at present constructed quite sufficient for my own purposes of registering pronunciation, especially delicate shades of dialectal utterance. Some words, as see, almost disappear. Both ee and oo are difficult vowels, so that Prof. Bell at first thought that the first sounded like the second, while in reality both are altered to indistinct sounds that I do not remember to have heard in speech. The resemblance is so great, however, that bite, bout could not be distinguished, though one ends nearly with ee and the other nearly with oo, and there is no other difference in the words. The vowels ai, oa, as in bait, boal, are also poor; aa, au, as in baa, haul, are really the only good ones. Hence I feel totally unable to speak positively, as to the change of vowel quality by altering the rapidity of rotation and therefore pitch. As far as I could observe the quality did change, as it does in speech. We tried pronouncing words backwards, sometimes with good success, but as might be expected, even when the effects were recognisable, they were not always true. Thus, aabaa, aadaa, passed muster, but aajaa failed. The instrument is, however, not delicate enough to bring out these differences. The mechanical obstacle of the tin-foil, which has to be indented, and offers too much resistance, seems to be the cause of this. Such a word as Scots, when sung rapidly, at the beginning of Scoff wha hae, degenerated almost into the simple vowel, the initial and final s were quite lost, and the action of the mutes, c, t, was almost nil.