The Telephone: A lecture entitled Researches in Electric Telephony

The Telephone: A lecture entitled Researches in Electric Telephony

The President: Gentlemen, the Council of the Society of Telegraph Engineers felt that they were sure of doing what the members would consider right in summoning a special meeting for the two-fold purpose of giving a welcome to Professor Bell to this country and affording the Members an opportunity of hearing from him an account, which he has been so good as to promise to give us, of the nature, history, and development of, what may well be called, one of the most interesting discoveries of our age. Our time is very precious this evening. We all desire to hear everything Professor Bell can tell us on this subject, and many gentlemen will probably desire afterwards to ask questions or discuss the subject, for I see present a great number of eminent scientific men. I will not waste another moment, but at once call upon Professor Bell to commence his discourse on the Electric Telephone. Professor Bell: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. It is to-night my pleasure, as well as duty, to give you some account of the telephonic [Pg 2] researches in which I have been so long engaged. Many years ago my attention was directed to the mechanism of speech by my father, Alexander Melville Bell, of Edinburgh, who has made a life-long study of the subject. Many of those present may recollect the invention by my father of a means of representing, in a wonderfully accurate manner, the positions of the vocal organs in forming sounds. Together we carried on quite a number of experiments, seeking to discover the correct mechanism of English and foreign elements of speech, and I remember especially an investigation in which we were engaged concerning the musical relations of vowel sounds. When vowel sounds are whispered, each vowel seems to possess a particular pitch of its own, and by whispering certain vowels in succession a musical scale can be distinctly perceived. Our aim was to determine the natural pitch of each vowel; but unexpected difficulties made their appearance, for many of the vowels seemed to possess a double pitchone due, probably, to the resonance of the air in the mouth, and the other to the resonance of the air contained in the cavity behind the tongue, comprehending the pharynx and larynx. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 55787
Author: Bell, Alexander Graham
Release Date: Oct 21, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Bolton, Frank , Langdon, William Edward