Again it was proved that the diaphragm or tympanum to receive
the impression of the sound and convey it to the carbon button, on
which Edison had laid considerable stress, was non-essential; for the
microphone, pure and simple, was operated by the direct impact of the
sonorous waves, and required no tympanum. Moreover, the microphone, as
its name implies, could magnify a feeble sound, and render audible the
vibrations which would otherwise escape the ear. The discovery of these
remarkable and subtle properties of a delicate contact had indeed
confronted Edison; he had held them in his grasp, they had stared him in
the face, but not-withstanding all his matchless ingenuity and acumen,
he, blinded perhaps by a false hypothesis, entirely failed to discern
them. The significant proof of it lies in the fact that after the
researches of Professor Hughes were published the carbon transmitter was
promptly modified, and finally abandoned for practical work as a
telephone, in favour of a variety of new transmitters, such as the
Blake, now employed in the United Kingdom, in all of which the essential
part is a microphone of hard carbon and metal. The button of soot has
vanished into the limbo of superseded inventions.
Science appears to show that every physical process is reciprocal, and
may be reversed.
Pages:
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331