Mr. Edison has, he says, perfected his phonograph ; and
the account of his new machine, given in the Daily News of Friday, reads like a fairy-tale. According to the detailed narrative, the sender of a message has only to talk into a phonograph, and the sound of his words, which may number four thousand, will be recorded on a " phonogram." This is sent, like a letter or parcel, by mail, and put into another phonograph, say in New York, when the words, with all their special sounds as uttered by the speaker, will be given forth again :—" The tones of the voice in two phonographs I have finished are so perfectly rendered that one can distinguish between twenty different persons, each of whom said a few words." The phonograph reports music with absolute exactness, and as the phonogram will keep for a hundred years, a speech or a piece of music uttered or performed to- day may be repeated in the next century as if the orator or artist were then speaking or singing. The audience of the future will hear the actual voice of Gladstone or Patti. The discovery will be of little use, except to prevent forgery, and distribute music; but yet what an amazing one it is ! And how much more amazing is the contrast between the increasing imbecility of men in politics, and the marvellous development of their intelligence in physics !
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