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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Organs flade to Sing.
cost but little, yet render the most attrac-
tive music for opera or church.
THE REMARKABLE DISCOVERY MADE BY A FA-
Mr. Berliner's first conception of the
MOUS INVENTOR CHOIRS CAN NOW
idea
of making an instrument produce
BE DISPENSED WITH.
speech of itself, instead of reproducing
Now that machines have been made to that of persons, was due to the fact, so he
repeat articulate speech, as the phonograph avers, that the mode of vocalization in the
and gramophone, the next wonder which human body can be almost entirely coun-
has been announced as a scientific dis- terfeited by mechanism, and that it oc-
covery by an eminent inventor is that, by curred to him that it would be a useful
means of a simple machine, the dumb can thing to apply the principles of human
be made to speak, and the organs of our vocalization so that the expensive choirs
churches and concert halls deliver orations, of churches could be obviated by machin-
songs and operas as if they were intelligent ery. That he has produced by machinery
human beings. It is not a reproduction of such speech, in other words, that he has
something which has come from the mouth "made an organ talk," he asserts is true,
of a human being—it is applying to a per- and that the experiments, while yet in
son a part of an organ and combining the their infancy, show conclusively that the
properties of the two in such a way that completion of his apparatus is but a matter
the organ is governed entirely by the in- of time and study of the human voice.
telligence of a man, yet, though he says
The method employed by Mr. Berliner
nothing, from the instrument will come the in his experiment was extremely simple.
sound as if he were speaking, only in vol- Regarding the organ and body, it will be
ume and tone, the sound being that given remembered that the lungs of a person act
by the instrument.
as a pair of bellows, that the windpipe is
In other words, the miracle of the Bible the organ through which the air is pumped
will be performed in a simple way by sci- and that the vocal chords give the sound
ence, and just as the eyes of the blind have pitch, the words being formed by the
been opened by the oculist's knife in cut- movement of the tongue, teeth and lips
ting cataract, or the deaf made to hear combined. Now, the sound of a tone as
by means of the dentaphone, so now it comes out of an organ pipe is similar
there comes into the use of man an inven- to that given up by the human windpipe
tion which will supply the wanting sounds before the words have been articulated by
and enable him to converse with articulated the mouth. Hence, Mr. Berliner reasoned,
speech. And the huge power of the organ if this pipe sound of the organ could be
or the siren on the shore can be converted conveyed to the mouth, just back in the
into songs that will fill a city or choirs that throat, and articulated properly by the
right motions of the lips, tongue and
teeth, the organ could be made to talk.
With a bit of rubber tubing, which was
placed with one end in a pair of bellows
and the other at the back of the mouth, he
found that by simply giving to the mouth
the motions it would use in uttering cer-
tain words the correct sound was produced
on the volume of air coming out of the
tube in the mouth, just as it would have
been made by the mouth, in speaking
with air from the windpipe. Though not
a sound was uttered by his own mouth,
which dumbly went through the panto-
mime motions used in articulation, there
were words spoken by the vibrations just
as if they were done in the ordinary way
—only, of course, as there was no use of
the vocal chords which give the varying
pitch, the sound was all in the same key.
The use in church choirs would be a
great feature of the service. Mr. Berliner
suggests that for a choir there ought to be
four men, each one articulating from a dif-
ferent tube representing different pitches
or different voices, such as bass, tenor, so-
prano and contralto. Thus all the varying
shades of music could be cheaply produced
at a third of the present expense.
But the chief benefit to humanity will
be the use to which the dumb can put
this new invention. The dumb are able
to move the lips in the motions used in
speaking, though they cannot utter a
sound. Now, if the sound be brought
into the back of the mouth, forced out
and properly articulated by the teeth,
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