By speaking into the phonograph and reproducing the words, we are
enabled for the first time to hear ourselves speak as others hear us;
for the vibrations of the head are understood to mask the voice a little
to our own ears. Moreover, by altering the speed of the barrel the
voice can be altered, music can be executed in slow or quick time,
however it is played, inaudible notes can be raised or lowered, as the
case may be, to audibility. The phonograph will register notes as low
as ten vibrations a second, whereas it is well known the lowest note
audible to the human ear is sixteen vibrations a second. The instrument
is equally capable of service and entertainment. It can be used as a
stenograph, or shorthand-writer. A business man, for instance, can
dictate his letters or instructions into it, and they can be copied out
by his secretary. Callers can leave a verbal message in the phonograph
instead of a note. An editor or journalist can dictate articles, which
may be written out or composed by the printer, word by word, as they are
spoken by the reproducer in his ears.
Correspondence can be carried on by phonograms, distant friends and
lovers being able thus to hear each other's accents as though they were
together, a result more conducive to harmony and good feeling than
letter-writing.
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