Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/202

188  to add that the projecting machine, as also the camera used in taking the stereo negatives, must be of duplicate construction.

The phonograph—or graphophone—has frequently been used in combination with machines for the production of motion views. By such means Edison hoped to reproduce the sounds accompanying many scenes with such perfection that it would be possible to represent, for example, the complete performance of an opera or a drama, with all its accessories. Up to the present time, however, these anticipations have not been realized. The rich song notes of a Patti or a Melba can not yet be satisfactorily stored up in the phonographic cylinder, to be given out when required with the full tone and perfect expression of the artist. But better things may be looked for in the near future, and it is probable that Edison's attractive scheme will, sooner or later, be carried into effect.

In an ideal exhibition of this nature we should see the animated views appear upon the screen in relief and in their natural tints, while the sounds appropriate to certain scenes would be reproduced with as much fidelity as the optical impressions. Much remains to be done before this ideal can be fully realized; but in the meantime it will be possible, with our present resources, to make some progress in this direction, and to obtain pictures of a novel and instructive type, by proceeding along the lines which I have attempted to define in the present article.



ROFESSOR OSTHOFF, of the University of Heidelberg, has said that phonetic laws are blind and operate with a blind necessity. If, instead of this, he had said that these laws are constant so long as they are the effect of our habits, and that our habits, where nothing contradicts them, are manifested uniformly and regularly, he would have uttered an incontestable truth. But we do not think they are fatal or blind.

Phonetic changes start from one person. If they are not accepted, they remain without effect and are soon forgotten.

At such an age as ours, with a settled tradition of pronunciation, with our schools and academies, the individual has little power. But it has not been so always and everywhere. Suppose that, among