Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/857

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Teaching Music by the Picture Method

ONCE in the duNs ahnost bcNuiid recall, learning the alphabet was the first step toward a possible college presidency; but now children are taught to read at the \cry beginning of their school work. They learn to visualize phrases and sentences l)y associating pictures with groups of words, and they get through se\x'ral story books in the course of a year instead of one little primer.

The same sentence-word-phonetic meth- od is now being applied in teaching rudimentary music. An electrical appara- tus called a "music optigraph" has been invented for the purpose by B. F. Miessner. It consists of a small keyboard, the keys of which are connected V\ith small in- candescent bulbs behind a musical staff printed on glass, on which any combination of notes from two to five in number, within the range of an octave and a half, may be flashed before a student. Thus, whole phrases are visualized at once, instead of being pieced together note by note; just as, for instance, the picture of a tree and the words "This is a green tree" are visual- ized by the child learning a language by the modern method.

The range of the instrument is from middle "C" to the "G" above, and musical phrases are flashed by pressing lettered push-buttons corresponding with the notes desired. The staff lines arc printed on dull, semi-transparent sheets of pyrolin or cellu- loid, behind which are the flashlights. The notes appear on the lines and spaces of this staff as solid ovals of soft red light when the buttons are pressed. The instrument is self-contain- ed in a ma- hogany case resembling a suit - case. The upper part contains the staff, lights, etc., and the lower part the push-but- tons, batter- ies and pitch pipes. The flashligh t type of bat- terj' is used.

���light is garages,

���The electric optigraph whioli teaches the elements of music by causing the pupil to visualize whole phrases at once

��The lamp has thirty feet of cord wound around a reel. A swivel enables it to be extended in any direction

��An Extension Reel for Electric Lamps

WHEREVER an extension needed or desired, as in blacksmith shops, factories, stores or even in the amateur workshop, this automatic reel for the cord will be appreciated. It is equipped with thirty feet of lamp-cord and is secured to the wall or any other convenient place through the arms of a swiv'el-joint.

This swivel-joint is a special feature of the device. It enables the man to walk in any direction with the light. An automatic lock is pro- Aided to hold the lamp any sj)ccified dis- tance from the reel.

When it is desired to sliorten the cord, a slight forward pull unlocks the ratchet, the reel revolves and windsthe cord back.

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