Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/239

 Piano and Phonograph Combined

��t PHONO GRAPH \

��MANY attempts have been made to construct an instrument that would successfully reproduce at the same time phonograph and piano music. Edwin S. Votey of New Jer- sey has taken out patents on an in- strument which he believes meets all re- quirements. His in- vention comprises a piano or player- piano with an open- ing in the wall of the casing for a phonograph or any record-controlled mechanism for the reproduction of the human voice, and a sound -blending chamber in the rear of the sounding- board into which the sounds from the phonograph as well as of the piano mingle for the pur- pose of producing harmonious effects.

The phonograph is mounted in the upper part of the casing of the piano and is pro\-idL-d with an opening in the front of the piano for the placing of records on the machine. For the sake of neatness of design and symmetr\' this opening is duplicated on the opposite side of the piano. Backof the sounding-board is an expansion chamber or sound-blending chamber into which the music from the phonograph is carried In' means of a He.\ible sound-conduit leading from the phonograph to the sound-chamber.

The lower ends of the sound-chamber converge downward and at the lower- most extremity an outlet is provided in the shape of a horn attached to the front casing of the piano, with its open- ing closed by lattice work or a screen. The conduit, passage-way, sound-blend-

��(SOUNO

c ondu it)

��(SOUND PASSA&e)

��: faPANSION < CHAMBER)

���The piano and phonograph are made to play together in the same musical time

��ing chamber and horn taken together constitute a sound-conducting passage. In operation a record is placed upon the phonograph, which is wound through the doors. The per- forated music-sheet is placed with the mechanism of the piano and the in- struments are ready to play. The phon- ograph is started and with it the piano, both of them by hand in the usu- al manner, care be- ing taken to start the piano so that it will commence play- ing as nearly as possible at a certain point with the phon- ograph. The music having begun, the musical time of the piano is adjusted by means of a tempo-lever to ac- cord with the musi- cal time of the phonograph. Thus the two instruments arc made to pla>- to- gether in the same musical time.

��(SOUMOINS BOARD)

��J-V n

��Curious Set of Features Are New Markings on Mars PERCI\AL LOWELL an- nounces from his Flagstaff Ob- servatory that a curious set of features, secondary to the main canal network, have become apparent on Mars. Within some of the polygons made by the inter- sections of the larger canals a tiny dot has been descried, joined to a corner and to the sides of the polygon by lines so slender they usually appear as a string of minute beads. The effect is of a centrally-wo\'en web, spun within the borders of the polygon, of a more minute order of tenuity than the polygon it.self. These details are so minute as to sug- gest a new order of Martian markings.

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