The Telephone: A Lecture Entitled, Researches in Electric Telephony, Delivered Before the Society of Telegraph Engineers, October 31st, 1877 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Alexander Graham Bell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1330427440 ISBN 13: 9781330427446

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2020

Synopsis

Excerpt from The Telephone: A Lecture Entitled, Researches in Electric Telephony, Delivered Before the Society of Telegraph Engineers, October 31st, 1877 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 pitch - one 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. I hit upon an expedient for determining the pitch which at that time I thought to be original with myself. It consisted in vibrating a tuning-fork in front of the mouth while the positions of the vocal organs for the various vowel sounds were silently taken. It was found that each vowel position caused the reinforcement of some particular fork or forks. I wrote an account of these researches to Mr. Alex. J. Ellis, of London, whom I have very great pleasure in seeing here to-night. In reply he informed me that the experiments related had already been performed by Helmholtz, and in a much more perfect manner than I had done. Indeed, he said that Helmholtz had not only analysed the vowel sounds into th

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Product Description

Excerpt from The Telephone: A Lecture Entitled, Researches in Electric Telephony, Delivered Before the Society of Telegraph Engineers, October 31st, 1877

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.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1330427440
• ISBN 13: 9781330427446
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 42