Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/776

756 A Plea for Candor in Bible-Reading. By a Citizen of Jackson. Jackson, Tenn.: J. G. Cisco. Pp. 44.

Wisconsin Geological Survey. Report for the Year 1877. By T. C. Chamberlain. Madison, Wis.: D. At wood print. Pp. 93.

Variation s of the Leaf-Scars of Lepidodendron aculeatum. Pp. 15. Also of Certain Sigillariæ. Pp 5, with Plates. By H. L. Fairchild. From "Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences."

Transactions of the American Entomological Society. Vol. VI., Nos. 3 and 4. With Plates. Philadelphia: The Society. Pp. 174.

Twelfth Annual Report of the Sheffield Scientific School. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor print. Pp. 53.

Discovery of Stone Implements in Glacial Drift, in North America. By T. Belt. From Quarterly Journal of Science. Pp. 22.

Willard's Method of treating Ores. Plymouth, Mass.: Avery & Doten print. Pp. 15.

Bulletin of the University of California, No. 28. Pp. 72.

Dental School of Harvard University. Cambridge: C. W. Lever print. Pp. 9.

Memorial to Congress for the Improvement of the Mississippi River. St. Louis: J. J. Daly & Co. print. Pp. 38.

Froward to the Froward. By E. A. Beaman. New York: E. H. Swinney. Pp. 28.

Methods of Arithmetical Instruction. By F. W. Bardwell. New York: Putnams. Pp. 34. 15 cents.

The Glycogenic Function of the Liver. By J. Le Conte. From American Journal of Science. Pp. 9.

Nature and Possibilities of Social Science. By P. Burton. Aurora, III.: Herald print. Pp. 8.

On a Branch Naval Observatory. By Rear-Admiral Rodgers. Pp. 6.

The Kirografer and Stenografer Monthly. $1 per year. Amherst, Mass.: J. B. & E. G. Smith.

Is the Universe governed by a Devil? By J. F. Smith. Oak Lawn, R.I.: Home Publishing Co. Pp. 14. 15 cents.

Contributions from the Chemical Laboratory of Harvard College. By J. P. Cooke, Jr. Pp. 132.

Hereditary Epilepsy. By Dr. E. Dupuy. On the Seat of the Vaso-Motor Centres. By the same. New York: Reprinted from the "Transactions of the American Neurological Association."

Researches into the Physiology of the Brain. By the same. New York: Putnams. Pp. 31.

 

Anticipations concerning the Phonograph.—Dr. William F. Channing, writing to the Providence Journal on Edison's phonograph, thus presents its future: "The sheet of tin-foil or other plastic material receiving the impressions of sound will be stereotyped or electrotyped so as to be multiplied and made durable. Or the cylinder will be made of a material plastic when used, and hardening afterward. Thin sheets of papier-maché, or of various substances which soften by heat, would be of this character. Having provided thus for the durability of the phonotype plate (a better name than phonograph), it will be very easy to make it separable from the cylinder producing it, and attachable to a corresponding cylinder anywhere or at any time. There will doubtless be a standard of diameter and pitch of screw for phonotype cylinders. Friends at a distance will then send to each other phonotype letters, which will talk at any time in the friend's voice when put upon the instrument. How startling, also, it will be to reproduce and hear at pleasure the voice of the dead! All of these things are to be common, every-day experiences within a few years. It will be possible, a generation hence, to take a file of phonotype letters, spoken at different ages by the same person, and hear the early prattle, the changing voice, the manly tones, and also the varying manner and moods of the speaker—so expressive of character—from childhood up!

"These are some of the private applications. For public uses, we shall have galleries where phonotype sheets will be preserved as photographs and books now are. The utterances of great speakers and singers will there be kept for a thousand years. In these galleries, spoken languages will be preserved from century to century with all the peculiarities of pronunciation, dialect, and brogue. As we go now to see the stereopticon, we shall go to public halls to hear these treasures of speech and song brought out and reproduced as loud as, or louder than, when first spoken or sung by the truly great ones of earth. The ease with which the phonotype cylinders may be stereotyped or electrotyped and multiplied, has been spoken of. Certainly, within a dozen years, some of the great singers will be induced to sing into the ear of the phonograph, and the electrotyped cylinders thus obtained will be put into the hand-organs of the streets, and we shall hear the actual voice of Christine Nilsson, of Miss Cary, or even of Jenny Lind and Alboni, ground out at every corner!

"In public exhibitions, also, we shall have reproductions of the sounds of Nature, and of noises familiar and unfamiliar. Nothing will be easier than to catch the sounds of the waves on the beach, the roar of 