Music Writing Device Records Notes Played on Piano

IF STRAY melodies are always running through your mind and you are averse to setting them down on music paper at the moment of your inspiration, you will find this music writing piano, shown with its inventor, at the right, Dr. Moritz Stoehr, a great help in recording the tunes and keeping them in memory for publication.

The recording device, which writes on a revolving roll of paper in a series of dots and dashes every note played on the piano, consists of a typewriter attachment which can be built into the piano. A touch of the finger on the piano keys is transmitted through a system of pulleys to corresponding small levers which print on the revolving roll of paper marks proportionate in value to the time value of the note. Spaces between notes mark the time value of the rest.

The typewriter-piano keyboard consists of 88 keys to correspond with the 88 keys of a conventional piano keyboard, and are compressed within a space of not over 15 inches. Each key contains a hammer, or striker, which produces in sound the note that will be recorded on the paper.

The music writer also includes a transposing device—a portable keyboard of a conventional type which is superimposed on the regular keyboard. By moving it up or down the scale to the desired key, a composition can be automatically transposed, the indirect pressure effecting the change in key. The selection is played in the regular key— superimposed keyboard does the transposing.

view additional pages

Herb Shriner’s “INDIANA PIANO”

The Hoosier Boy’s harmonica was born in ancient China.

SOONER or later every boy falls under the spell of a shiny new harmonica and a “new easy method” of learning to play it. Years ago it happened to an Indiana boy named Shriner. Now a new generation of boys is yearn- ing for a Herb Shriner Hoosier Boy DeLuxe ($2.49) or for a Herb Shriner Regular ($1.98). Both come with Herb Shriner’s new easy method outlined in cartoon form.

Herb’s special brand of humor derives a good deal from the mood his harmonica sets; he has never made a public appearance, on TV or elsewhere, without one. Associated with the caboose, the calaboose and the haybarn (where it is regarded highly as it will not start a fire), Herb’s trademark goes well with his carefully preserved rube routine. Actually the harmonica has a long, distinguished history going back to ancient China, like gunpowder and spaghetti.

The modern harmonica, more or less as Herb plays and collects it today, dates back to 1829. Its inventor was inspired by the harmonium, a keyboard free-reed instrument with a bellows. Using the free reed or vibrator in a portable instrument seemed like a good idea, so he put together a little box containing several vibrators, each in its own corridor. He called it the aeolina; it wasn’t until years later that farm boys tabbed it the harmonica or “mouth organ.” The inventor of the harmonica was named Charles Wheatstone; in the history books he is mentioned as Sir Charles, the inventor of the electric telegraph. The harmonium, from which he got his idea, was invented by a Dane named Kratzenstein, who got his idea from the ancient Chinese cheng — a sort of teapot with bamboo stuck in the top. You blew through the spout and agitated the free reeds in the bamboo. The harmonica is easier to play, especially with Herb Shriner’s new easy method.

One-Man Chorus All By Himself!

PROFESSOR F. A. FIRESTONE of the University of Michigan demonstrates a device which gives him ten voices. He places a curved glass tube in his mouth and goes through the motions of singing, while he plays a nova-chord. An electrical field translates his unsung words into the sound of the novachord, and the music comes out sounding like a chorus of ten voices! It’s good for breaking leases.

Three-Dimensional Sound for the Home
Three-dimensional sound, the effect created for Walt Disney’s film Fantasia, now can be duplicated in the home with a new multi-speaker radio on the market. A portion of the audio output of the chassis in the new set is fed back into the lighting circuit; extra speakers then may be plugged in anywhere on the same meter circuit, to create the Fantasia effect if the speaker is in the same room, or to carry the program to the other rooms in the house without the need for extra wiring.

view additional pages

Vacuum Tube Orchestra to Supplant Human Players

ALEXANDER’S vacuum tube band is coming to town tomorrow, and perhaps the day after tomorrow Sousa’s vacuum tube band will be playing on the Million Dollar Pier at Atlantic City while Mr. Sousa and his musicians are in the recording studios of a New York musical agency.

For a new magic in music is about to be born that will make today’s electronic reproduction sound like the rankest kind of cacophony by comparison. The new electronic band will breathe the breath of life; it will take on new color, new brilliance and a faithfulness that will permit it to escape once and for all the stinging criticism now levelled at it by our impresarios.

Radio engineers and sound physicians have long since realized that present-day electronic reproduction violates many of the principles of physics. For instance, we are calling upon a single horn to accommodate not only the zoom and boom of the kettle drums, but the blare of the trumpets and the sweet and plaintive notes of the violin at the same time. It has to be a musical jack of all trades and a jack of all trades is master of none.

The new electronic orchestra will be a highly specialized affair. Instead of engineers trying to force such an appalling welter of mixed frequencies through one speaker and through a single system of amplification, there will be one horn and one amplifying system devoted to each instrument of the orchestra. Then we shall have “violin horns,” “kettle drum transformers” and perhaps even “flute vacuum tubes.” If an orchestra having fifteen instruments is to be reproduced, there will be fifteen horns and fifteen separate vacuum tube amplifiers working in perfect unison and harmony.

Recording will be accomplished in very much the same way. The problem of recording is solved by so arranging the musicians in separate soundproof rooms that they may be permitted to play as a unit and yet be recorded independently. A glance at the accompanying sketch will clearly show how this is brought about. Each room has its own microphone and headphones. All of the microphones feed into a master circuit and each musician plugs his headphones into this circuit. This permits the player to hear the orchestra as a unit.

Then there is a second microphone which is used for recording purposes. This second microphone is connected to an independent circuit and recording device which is best suited for the particular instrument it is called upon to record. The leader is also provided with a pair of earphones so that he, too, may listen to the orchestra playing as a unit.

If the orchestra hag five pieces, five records will be made either on film to be reproduced photo-electrically or on wax to be reproduced by an ordinary electric system such as that now used on electric phonographs. In either case synchronization will be possible with very little trouble. If wax is used, a reproducing system similar to that shown in the illustration will be employed. Here the disc will simply be mounted on one shaft. Tiny dots will mark the starting point on each record and the reproducers will be set on this mark. The resulting synchronization of the instruments will be perfect.

This business of the electronic orchestra has a most interesting economic side to it. A ten piece orchestra on the average costs about $600.00 a week to maintain, the electronic orchestra only $100.

view additional pages

Tweeter Globe

By Steven Hahn

This novel addition to your hi-fi system will overcome the problem of high frequency distribution.

ONE problem in high fidelity reproduction is the distribution of high frequency sounds. In the low frequency range, this is a minor problem because of the comparatively large size of the speaker radiating element and the distribution patterns of the sound waves. However, as one increases the frequency, the waves begin to take on more and more the characteristics of light beams; that is, they are comparatively narrow and have a tendency to reflect from various surfaces. The problem is increased by the fact that most high frequency radiators, whether they be horns or tweeters, have a comparatively small radiating surface. If only one of these devices is used to reproduce the high frequencies, a virtual high frequency beam results and if one moves out of this beam, a severe drop in the high frequency response is noted.

The unit which we have built here can be considered a point source of high frequency sound with even high frequency distribution patterns over the entire listening area. It consists of nine 4″ hard cone tweeters mounted in random positions in a 12″ cardboard ball. An L-pad is added for volume control and a 5 mfd oil capacitor serves as a dividing network. The entire unit, tweeters and all, costs about $35 to build.

Construction The ball in this radiator is actually a cheap 12″ cardboard globe, available from many department stores. The first step is to lay out the tweeter openings on the surface of the cardboard globe. This is done with a compass. After marking the opening, a %” drill is used to drill a hole in the center of each speaker opening. An electric sabre saw with a fine tooth metal cutting blade is then used to cut out the openings. All this work is done with the globe fully assembled on its stand. The tweeter openings can also be cut out with a very sharp razor or modelling knife. In addition to the nine cutouts, a %” hole is drilled near the bottom of the globe to accommodate the L-pad and a smaller hole to take the speaker cable. After this work has been done, the globe is cut in half along the equator.

The flange mounting holes for the tweeters are then laid out by placing the tweeters on the inside of the two globe halves and using a pencil to mark the mounting holes. Generally speaking, speakers of this size require four mounting holes; however, two will more than suffice in this instance. An important trick here is to bend back the mounting flange lip of the speaker in order that the speaker can better accommodate the internal curvature of the globe. After the mounting holes have been laid out and drilled, the globe’s rough paper edges of the cutouts and holes should be sanded smooth.

Sofar as impedance match is concerned, standard formulas for figuring impedance are employed. In this case, some surplus tweeters were used having a voice coil impedance of 3.2 ohms. A set of five and four were connected in series, giving an impedance string of 16 ohms and 12.8 ohms. These two strings were then connected in parallel, resulting in an approximate impedance figure of about 7 ohms. Any set of small cone tweeters will do. A reasonably priced unit is the Jensen P 35 VH ($4.00) or Lafayette SK100 (2 for $5.95—bracket must be removed). Consult the Olson Radio Warehouse or Allied Radio catalogs for others.

After the unit has been assembled and wired, the two halves are put together and the globe is mounted back on its stand. A to 1″ masking tape is used to bind the two halves together. If you desire to paint a new color, save tweeter cutouts to use as masks while painting with one of the popular aerosol

“Ether Wave PIANO” Plays all MUSIC

MUSICAL sound waves are literally created from the ether with the new Martenot radio piano, which recently entertained radio audiences in a program given by the inventor, Maurice Martenot, in conjunction with a popular symphony orchestra. Claimed to be the most outstanding musical invention of the twentieth century because of its ability to reproduce the tones of any musical instrument or voice and to create entirely new tones, the device is operated by direct mechanical control of a series of oscillating radio tubes, which generate the sound waves of variable pitch and volume.

The keyboard of the instrument is used as the scale, and the position of the forefinger of the right hand above it regulates the tone produced. Attached to the finger are two finger pieces, connected to a cord that operates a series of condensers in the instrument, thus varying the capacity, and hence the frequency, of the radio circuit.

Volume is controlled by means of a lever at the left hand side of the instrument, its range being from an almost inaudible pianissimo to a ringing fortissimo. Staccato notes are produced by tapping the finger on the volume lever. The rheostat permits the notes to be cut off at will by breaking the plate circuit of the amplifier. Very little effort is required in playing this instrument; an apt pupil can learn to play it easily in about four months.

RADIO LINKS SINGER AND ORCHESTRA
Convalescing from injuries received in an automobile accident, a radio performer recently sang to her audience from a room in a Philadelphia hospital, while she listened through headphones to an accompaniment played by a dance orchestra in a plane flying 5,000 feet overhead. A dual hook-up enabled listeners-in to hear the voice of the star perfectly blended with the music.

MODERN CRAFTSMEN COPY RARE INLAID FIDDLE

Consisting of more than 10,000 separate pieces, an elaborately inlaid example of the viola da gamba, a six-stringed ancestor of the modern violoncello, was exhibited recently in New York City. The rare musical instrument is a copy of one made by Joachim Tielbe, a German craftsman, in 1690 and now treasured in the National Museum at Munich.

Nickel Buys a Tune and a Phone Chat with a Girl as Well

COIN PHONOGRAPHS, or “juke boxes,” widely used in taverns and restaurants, now are sometimes installed in a new form. Operated by telephone from central offices, they permit a selection of 300 or more tunes, as opposed to the 12 or 20 available on ordinary coin phonographs. Girl operators, chosen for their pleasing voices and ready wit, make wisecracks and occasionally sing with the records. When the customer places a nickel in the slot, a light flashes on the operator’s board at the central office. The customer, speaking through a microphone, then gives the number of the record he desires played, and the operator selects the disk from a rack and slips it on a phonograph turntable. Each operator cares for ten turntables, representing as many different “juke boxes.” By putting additional coins in the slot, a customer can have his selected tune dedicated to anyone in the room or in some other place with a similar machine.

view additional pages

Ancient Wind Instruments

HISTORY of the horn is almost as ancient as the history of man. First wind instrument probably was a spiral shell picked up by early man in his search for food along the shore. The Greeks had a myth for it—demigod Triton blowing on a conch shell as a trumpet to whip up or calm the waves.

Besides shells, men also have used animal horns and even hollowed tusks for calls to war and the hunt or for monotoned ceremonies. Wood, then metal, instruments evolved from the single-toned horn, with lip and reed pipes and keyed stops to permit such fancy music as the boys are blowing on these pages. Pictures show some of the instruments developed since 1600 and now displayed at a London Museum. Last wind instrument will be horn Gabriel will blow Judgment Day.

view additional pages

Hurdy-Gurdy

Cranking the Swiss music movement within this box makes the little begging monkey go into his dance.

By Elma Waltner

THE street organ grinder is a rare sight these days and it’s likely that most youngsters have never seen one. However, this little hurdy-gurdy, with its dancing monkey begging for pennies as the small owner grinds out a tune, will prove a popular toy.

The music is furnished by a Swiss music movement of the crank-handle type. Such movements can often be purchased at local hobby supply houses. If you can’t locate one in your own area, a sure source is Walter’s Modern Hobby Shop, 207 French Road, Utica 4, N. Y.

Construction of the hurdy-gurdy is simple, as is evident from the drawings. When the pattern has been cut in the front panel, back it up with a piece of bright-colored cloth. Then assemble the box with small finishing nails and glue, leaving the back off until the works are put inside.

Mount the music movement at the proper height within the box. The crankshaft is bent from a 1-ft. length of No. 9 wire. However, it is installed with only the U bend and the handle is bent after the wire has been passed through from the inside. The crankshaft is secured to the end of the music movement shaft with a coupling and the ends of both shafts are filed flat so that they will not slip after the screws are tightened.

The arms of the monkey are nailed tight to the body. The legs, however, are loose-jointed so that they will swing freely when the monkey bobs up and down. Push the supporting dowel stick into the monkey before driving in the nails which hold the legs to the body. Then the nails are driven in far enough to help secure the dowel but not far enough to bind the legs.

Use a plastic bottle cap for the monkey’s cup. Two holes are drilled through the side and a short length of copper wire is inserted for the handle. Then slip the cup handle over the monkey’s hand and cement the cup and hand together with household cement.

Install the monkey by slipping the slot in the lower end of the dowel over the U bend in the crankshaft. A small brad, bent over at the end, locks it in place.

The length of 20 inches for the leg of the music box is about right for most 4- or 5-year-olds. However, the length may be varied as may that of the neck strap. This strap is made of denim or other suitable heavy material.

Add a door knob to the side of the box opposite the crank handle to permit the child to steady the instrument. Finally, fasten the back in place with four screws.

Painting suggestions are given for the monkey, but best make the face tan in contrast to the rest of the body. Then too, the parts should be painted before they are assembled. The original box was gray, but a livelier color or combination of colors will appeal more to children.

Plastic Phonograph Records Are Decorated in Color

Appropriate color pictures adorn both sides of new plastic phonograph records, made-by Vogue Recording Co., Inc., of Detroit, that not only outlast ordinary shellac records but may be put up in the game room or children’s room as decorations. A noiseless, super-high-fidelity plastic surface on an aluminum core prevents them from breaking or warping and gives true tone without needle scratch. .

Add a Tape Recorder to Your Phono

• With the Gramdeck you can turn your phono into a tape recorder—or back into a phono— within a few seconds. The Gramdeck just slips onto the turntable as easily as a record; the turntable drives the tape spools and the phono loudspeakers provide sound reproduction. A pre-amp/control unit which uses transistors and printed circuits and which is installed permanently on the phono in a few seconds, is part of the kit.

Standard tapes are used, and the erase-head clears them for re-use. The imported tape recorder with control unit and five-inch take-up reel is priced at $49.75. Complete with a moving coil microphone, the Gramdeck costs $62.25, according to the distributor, Andrew Merryfield of Canada Ltd., Import Div., 265 Adelaide St., W., Toronto 1, Canada.

Sugar Violin Plays Music

CONSTRUCTED entirely of sugar by Adolph Hubner, a San Francisco confectioner and sculptor, the novel violin shown above produces excellent music. The instrument was first modeled in cardboard, and finally modeled in sugar with gum tragacanth. A number of famous- violinists have pronounced the instrument excellent in tone.

LOOK AND LISTEN

By JOHN FREE

Voice-controlled hi-fi

At a recent Toshiba press conference I noticed a stack of mini-hi-fi components [PS, Jan.] with a microphone attached. But the mike, I learned, wasn’t plugged in to record music. Instead, it lets you store 15 verbal commands in a microcomputer memory. After that, the hi-fi system responds only to your voice, enabling you to perform 19 functions—operating a cassette deck orally, controlling volume, or selecting tuner channels, for example.

Voice-actuated electronics, familiar to computer hobbyists, is expected to become commonplace in the 1980′s. Toshiba and other firms have also shown voice-actuated TV prototypes. Toshiba’s system may put a question mark on an LED display if it doesn’t understand you. Or a voice generated by the system may answer with “repeat” and then “okay” when your diction is recognizable. Toshiba has no definite marketing plans.

High-definition TV

While voice-operated TV’s may be avail- able in a few years, high-definition TV. under study by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, is further off. TV expert Donald Fink recently outlined the conclusions of an SMPTE panel studying how color-TV fidelity should be improved. Detailed recommendations are slated for the society journal. Highlights:
• Data on how viewers react to superior high-definition (HD) TV is very meager. Public exposure in theaters may be needed prior to home introductions.

• A standard of comparison, for HD TV standards, should be the superior quality of original 35-mm movie releases. A wide-screen aspect ratio, such as 2:1, is preferable to today’s 4:3 ratio.

• Some 1100-1500 scanning lines, compared to 525 in U.S. broadcasts, should be established. A signal bandwidth of about 25 MHz (enough for four TV channels today) is needed.

• Color and brightness (luminance) signals should not be combined as they are now for compatibility.

• A “junior” version of an HD TV system, with excellent pictures, can be achieved today on sets that use all of the station’s signal. Color sets now reject about half the available signal. New techniques such as comb filters ["Hi-fi Color-TV Pictures," PS, Aug. 78], Fink noted, are starting to improve picture fidelity.

• Getting HD TV into homes is feasible with direct satellite-to-home signals [see story on satellite TV in this issue]. In Tokyo, a satellite-to-Earth 1100-line HD TV system has been demonstrated with a five-foot receiving dish. Fiber-optic cable-TV setups might also be used.

As long as experts are revamping color-TV standards, University of Illinois psychology professor Jozef Cohen and colleague Thomas Friden of the University of New Mexico believe the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) technique of encoding color pictures should be changed. “Somewhere, somehow, the NTSC has confused brightness (or luminance) with achrominance (or whiteness). These are very different things,” Cohen writes. His and Friden’s papers on the subject are based on a computer study and historical review of color-perception theory. Cohen believes some of the subtle technical problems with color-TV pictures stem from erroneous signal encoding that starts at studio TV cameras.

Sonic holography

Bob Carver, demonstrating his new C4000 preamp for me, cleaned a disc and put it on a turntable. He began playing a musical in stereo. “Now listen for the off-stage voice,” he said, pushing a C4000 button labeled sonic hologram generator. As he did so, the space between the stereo speakers in the hotel suite seemed to expand dramatically. The 3D expansion of audio space almost seemed to wrap around the room—a far greater change in listening realism than suddenly switching from monophonic to stereo. It was easy, I found, to pinpoint the apparent source of “Fiddler on the Roof” offstage lines.

But while the 4000′s circuits do a remarkable job of adding realism to sound from stereo discs, there’s only a very narrow location in front of the speakers (one person wide) where the sonic “holography” effect is clearly audible. The $867 preamp, with enough push buttons for an F-111B electronic-countermeasures panel, has special noise-reduction circuits, and time-delay circuits that further alter the apparent size of your listening room. Record companies may market discs encoded by Carver’s sonic-holography technique that could be played back without the special preamp circuit.

Quick looks

• IBM has joined forces with MCA and Japan’s Pioneer to produce and market optical video-disc players. GM now has two-thirds of 10,000 players it ordered.

• Latest entry to the video tape and disc software field is Warner Communications’ WCI Home Video Inc. For 1980, it’s planning 55 releases.

• Home-computer firms must redesign their products to meet new FCC standards. Many machines radiate interference on lower TV channels and FM.

• BASF will call its new VCR a Linear Video Recorder (LVR). Planned for marketing soon, this deck moves tape at high speed over a stationary head.

• Two-way cable-TV operations are growing as Warner Cable Corp. and American Express expand the Columbus, Ohio, Qube system into Houston, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere. Shop-at-home systems based on credit cards may be set up.

Curve plotter

Tired of regular TV fare? Apple II computer owners, used to creating their own computerized TV images, can now tackle simple or complex statistics problems with the Stat Pac. This new computer-disk program from Creative Discount Software (256 S. Robertson, Suite 2156, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90211) fits curves to data (above), stores data, and includes key statistics functions.

view additional pages

SEX AND THE BEATLES

The Beatles and their admirers have aroused widespread interest and attention. Fifty million dollars worth of goods bear their name as this article is written. These include wild Beatle wigs, Beatle sweaters, Beatle shirts, Beatle hats, Beatle buttons, etc., etc.

To most adults, the ear-piercing sounds, the jungle screams, and the strange body movements of teen-age Beatle fans are the hardest part of the Beatle-mania burden.

All kinds of speculations and explanations have been published about the Beatle fad. But one aspect seems to have escaped the observers’ attention, namely the sexual involvement of the youngsters.

This is amazing since similar fads of past decades—the Sinatra frenzy and the Presley mania—should have convinced even the most sex-blind layman that it is the sex drive that time and again tosses millions of teenagers into hysterics.

Indeed, the sex glands are clearly guilty in the astounding audience response to the “art” of these mop-topped popwailers from Liverpool. The self-forgetfulness of the young adorers is similar to sexual abandon.

Shrill shrieks break through the moaning—”Yeah, yeah, yeah”—that seem to push toward a climax. Boys here and girls there jump up and down as if they couldn’t hold the contents of the bladder any longer. Some, breathlessly exhausted, drum the rhythm on a neighbor’s chest; others move buttocks, hips and pelvis as if they were galloping on a horse. For some the performance ends when they faint.

Sexual excitement may not be the only trigger to the release of such actions, but it certainly plays an eminent role in bringing this release about. There is even less doubt about the involvement of sexual feelings when two twelve-year-old girls exhibit to each other the signatures of their heroes printed on their panties while they rock ‘n’ roll with the beat of a Beatle record.

Beatle dolls (made of plastic) are passionately hugged in bed. Smaller ones, made of sugar candy, are enjoyed with immense delight. There are even chocolate-cake Beatles that appeal especially to children as young as 5 or 6.

In their attempts to convince parents that the children’s crusade to the lands of the beat is an innocent lark, some writers emphasize the “peculiarly sexless appeal” of the Beatles. A comparison would seem to confirm this judgment.

Frank Sinatra’s crooning warmed up all the longing for wickedness in the bobby-soxers’ hearts; Elvis Presley tried to bulge with sex appeal; the four Liverpoolers appear as if they had intentionally removed themselves from sex competition.

“The way they wag their wigs” is considered cute and funny by their audience but definitely not sexy. Indeed, the mop-style hair-do, adopted in imitation of that of a German female photographer, not only gives them a clownish note, but it also blurs the line between the sexes.

However, this very fact has shaped their appeal to the youngsters who unexpectedly took the clowning seriously.

For if the Beatle enthusiasts are compared with the Presley and Sinatra fans, one difference becomes immediately evident: the majority belong to younger age groups.

The ages of Beatle fans spread as far down as 9 years and include about 30 per cent boys. The solid nucleus consists of girls, 12 to 15 years old, still before or briefly after their first menstruation.

These age groups are characterized by distinctive qualities which every parent and every teacher recognizes.

“Puppy love” is a well-known cliche on the screen and in printed fiction. The treatment usually varies between “haw-haw, how funny,” and “oh, how pitiful they are.” For there they stand, these youngsters, filled with desire for each other yet unable to express it, clumsy, and as a result sometimes so hostile that they thwart their own hopes and intentions.

The cliche may be corny, but it does have some truth. And those mop-headed singers act as if they were pals of the youngsters, partly representing, partly making fun of their clumsiness and their appearance.

Appearance is important. Affected by an awkward but unconquerable irregularity of growth, the older child and the young adolescent feel rather self – conscious. They express their feeling in grouchiness or aggressiveness. The parents are no great help.

Since these youngsters are hard to live with, the adults often show their disappointment. The children don’t like to be cuddled, patted, or kissed. Daddy’s little girl all of sudden spits hatred or sheds tears if father jokingly slaps her on the buttocks.

The snooping mother may find outcries of indignation in the 12-year-old daughter’s diary like the following: “I saw Him touch Her breast. And She let Him.” She may not know that Him and Her are she and her husband.

Sex becomes a problem. The children have become conscious of sin and social prohibitions. And their judgments are usually stricter than the rules require. On the other hand, they may giggle over a word that almost sounds like a well-known obscenity or sex term.

This apparent sexlessness is mirrored in the apparent sexlessness of the Beatles. Their uncouthness dramatizes the pre-adolescents’ aversion to washing and grooming.

In other ways, too, the Beatles provide a safety valve. The frustrations of pre-adolescence and early adolescence are considerable. Overrating their maturity, the young people desire independence, but at the same time they are afraid of it.

The direction of the sex urge is not yet definitely determined. Homosexual thoughts stir feelings of guilt, heterosexual desires arouse feelings of inadequacy.

Confusions and frustrations of this kind seek an outlet in aggression. Yet aggression is not tolerated in our society.

The Beatles give them a legitimate opportunity for both second-hand and direct relief. The Beatle records themselves are an attack on cultured ears. Participation in a live performance does even more for them.

A girl of 15 was asked why she didn’t listen to her four heroes on television rather than standing in line for hours to see them on the stage. She replied: “I didn’t come to listen, I came to scream.”

And that has become an essential part ,of the performance: yelling, pounding, stomping and singing along so loud that the performers themselves cannot be heard. This is an outlet for approval and for defiance. It raises their self-confidence.

Sometimes it also raises the courage to such a pitch that walls and seats and anything breakable cannot withstand destruction. Most often, fortunately, the mood remains within bearable limits, a mere flailing, a noisy rebellion against the demands of a not quite understood world.

Yet a happy rebellion. For those shaggy-haired idols offer the children identification as well as emotional outlets. They are a cool, cynical lot —as cool and unconcerned as their admirers would like to be.

Unperturbed, they admit that they can’t even sing and that they care about nothing except money. Cool. Courageous. Their admirers can see themselves replying to prying adults in similar words.

Hence there is truth in what a 14-year-old girl said when she was interviewed: “They lift my morale.”

But at the same time, the rhythm translates erotic tendencies into movements and moans, a wakening sex force that operates on a deeper level.

These half-adolescents know themselves to be sexually unattractive. They are prevented by the social conventions of the adult world from expressing their sexual urges. Their own group code keeps them from expressing their sentimental wants.

But here, following the lead of those uncombed scrawny fellows with their undisguised backstreet accent, they can admit, amidst tears, aggressive screams and burlesquing, that they too want to hold a hand.

—————————————–

Dr. Beigel, formerly professor in the Dept. of Psychology, Long Island University, is a consultant in personal and sex problems, author of “Sex from A to Z,” editor of “Advances in Sex Research,” and secretary of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex.

Musicians Present Beethoven in Dishpan Symphony

CLASSIC musicians yielded to the influence of Tin Pan Alley in a novel concert recently staged by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the raising of a deficit fund.

Under the direction of Dr. Frederick Stock, leader of the orchestra, all of the members of the percussion section were equipped with pots, pans and other miscellaneous kitchen utensils in preparation for the playing of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8. Much time was expended in testing the various makeshift instruments to secure the proper tone quality during rehearsal periods.

view additional pages

Huge Organ Has Six Thousand Throats

Thirty Thousand Miles of Wire Form Nerves of Instrument for Which Fifteen Electric Motors Supply Power AS you listen to the majestic tones of a great pipe organ mere mechanical things seem far away, but behind that proscenium arch is an electrical and pneumatic system of intriguing complexity.

More than 30,000 miles of wire form the nerves which control the 6,000 throats of one of the largest organs in America which has just been completed at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

What looks like one organ, however, is really seven—the great, the choir, the solo, the pedal, the swell, the echo, and the floating string units—which, played as one, produce every tone possible to a symphony orchestra, except those of the percussion instruments, such as the drums.

Back of the stage is the successor of the small boy who used to pump the church organ—a huge turbine, driven by a thirty-horsepower electric motor, blowing air into the seven wind chests which supply each organ. But even this is not large enough and a ten-horsepower auxiliary motor and turbine automatically start to operate at peak loads. Air-lock doors, something like those used in tunnel – construction work, permit a workman to enter the chambers without altering the air pressure. Thus the valve mechanism can be adjusted or repaired while a concert is in progress.

Electromagnets, controlled from the keyboard by the organist, move the thin strips of wood which operate the valves regulating the flow of air into the pipes which are made of silver, tin, zinc and lead.

Some pipes are doubled over.. Others are turned in loops and circles like a cornet horn. Some taper; others have bell mouths. Many are stopped to produce a slightly softer tone. A few have a “beard” hanging over their mouths which slightly alters the tone.

Seven brick boxes with electrically operated steel shutters, enable the organist to control the volume of sound from a faint whisper to a crashing roar.

Fifteen electric motors furnish the power to operate the various units of the organ.

Phonograph Plays Paper Strips

ONE strip of paper will carry an evening’s entertainment under the new system developed by an Austrian company, under the title of the “Selenophon Piccolo,” by which the “sound tracks,” such as the standard moving-picture sound film carries, are printed in black and white on an inexpensive strip of paper. A thousand feet of this runs twenty minutes; the output of the photo-cell which scans it being amplified in the same manner as the output of the magnetic pickup used with an audio amplifier in phono-radio combinations. A single strip may carry as many as eight sound tracks, on each side. These are very cheaply made by photography.

In the sound track illustrated at the upper right, of the detail above, the wavy edges of the black lines correspond to the waves of sound which the loud speaker actually emits. The compact nature of the apparatus may be seen from the pictures of models of the “Selenophon” above.

• NEW RECORD QUADRUPLES PLAYING TIME •

Since, the introduction of the large electrically-transcribed records in use with motion-picture films, owners of radio-phonograph combinations have wondered why they could not be favored with the similar advantage of a long-playing record. This has at length been provided by a new record which, like the theatre machines, requires a turntable revolving at 33 1/3 r.p.m, instead of 78; and which has the further feature of having half as many grooves again to the inch. The new disc, besides carrying much more recording than the old types is much lighter and thinner, flexible and unbreakable, and has much lower “surface noise.” In addition, a lighter pressure on the needle preserves the point of the latter as well as the sharpness of the record grooves; three ounces on the needle point is 22,000 pounds to the square inch! New needles have been developed as well, with a tip of chromium, which resists wear much better than steel. A single 12-inch record will now carry a half hour’s entertainment, and a needle can play a dozen of these without change.

view additional pages

electronic’s strangest music maker

Music From Nowhere

By James Joseph

The theremin—is it “electronics gone haywire?’1 Picking music from air isn’t as easy as it looks.

MAYBE you were among the hundreds of TV skeptics who, doubting their own eyes, recently flooded a network’s switchboard with angry complaints about what appeared to be a man coaxing music out of thin air.

Plain on your screen loomed an apparent fraud: a keyless, stringless instrument from which, hands hocus-pocusing before its two antennas, a mustachioed “musician” was urging strange and haunting melodies. Seemingly, he was pick- ing notes—and whole sonatas—from nowhere.

His right hand teased—but never touched—the instrument’s vertical antenna. Simultaneously, his left wavered above a looped, horizontal antenna.

No hoax was either the musician, Dr. Sam Hoffman, nor his eerie-voiced music maker—a theremin.

The theremin (pronounced “thur’-a-min”) is one of the world’s strangest electronic instruments. And Dr. Hoffman, a mild-mannered Beverly Hills, Calif., foot doctor, is not only its musical master, but undoubtedly the world’s foremost theremin virtuoso.

Together they’ve teamed to goose-pimple the soundtracks of more than thirty movies, including “Spellbound” and “Lost Weekend,” both Oscar winners. Hypnotizing nothing more than a couple of chrome-plated antennas, Dr. Hoffman has put the theremin’s electronic voice between the covers of half a dozen record albums—one aptly titled, “Music Out of the Moon.” Recently, after years behind the cameras, he stepped before them to prove to skeptical viewers that the theremin is fact, not fantasy.

Strange as is its music, stranger yet is the theremin itself. Some have called it “a radio gone haywire.” Others contend that it is really not a musical instrument at all, simply an oscillatory circuit bib-and-tuckered in a mahogany console.

Though hailed as “the newest of instruments,” it was concocted 35 years ago by Russian-born electronic engineer Leo Theremin. Manufacturing rights were sold to RCA.

Just as paradoxical is the fact that while a beginner in electronics can easily build a theremin (so simple and low cost is its circuitry), few have ever learned to tame its electronic temperament. Perhaps not a hundred people have succeeded in turning the theremin’s squeals into anything approaching music.

Shrugs one electronic engineer: “Queer duck, the theremin. Most guys who build one can’t play it. And most who can play it don’t know beans about electronics … or, in fact, how the darn thing works.”

“It works, but don’t ask me how,” concedes the theremin’s master, Dr. Hoffman.

Not even its inventor, Leo Theremin, ever learned to make his brainchild behave. Neither have some of the ablest of musicians—which explains why RCA put together only a few hundred of the instruments (back in 1929-30), and never produced another.

The scores of theremins lying forgotten in attics are currently worth their weight in gold—anywhere from $500 to $1000.

“Why they should be worth anything at all,” said one engineer, “beats me. A half dozen tubes and as many coils and you can build your own theremin for maybe $50.

(NOTE: Electronics Illustrated will feature complete plans for a theremin in an early issue. Cost: Under $20! Watch for it.) A theremin involves nothing more complex than three radio-frequency oscillators. Two of them beat at an audible frequency. Add hand capacity—as does Dr. Hoffman with his right hand as he gestures before the vertical pitch antenna—and you lower or raise the frequency of one of the RF oscillators, thus the pitch of the beat frequency, which is amplified.

Amplification, or volume, is controlled by a third oscillator. Like the others, its frequency is changed by hand capacity. The player’s left hand wavers above the looped, horizontal volume antenna. The volume oscillator’s rectified output biases an output amplifier tube.

Actually, many oscillating circuits have been devised which give similar musical, or dissident, results. Essential to them all, however, are oscillating circuits controlled by hand capacity. The closer a musician’s right hand to the pitch antenna, the higher the pitch. Some theremins range through four full octaves and can strike notes above a soprano’s high-C.

The farther the left hand from the volume antenna, the louder the theremin’s eerie output.

Most theremins, for example, lapse silent unless a hand interrupts their electrostatic fields. Reason: the two pitch oscillators, one set at fixed frequency, the other motivated by hand capacity, are adjusted to produce a zero beat (no audible sound) unless disturbed. Also assuring “silence” is the fact that, undisturbed, the volume control oscillator biases the “gain control” tube to cut-off.

A musician can limit the theremin’s tonal range simply by turning a knob on the console panel. This in turn sets the fixed pitch oscillator for the lowest note the performer wishes to play.

“In effect,” explains Dr. Hoffman, “turning that knob either spaces the notes farther apart or brings them closer together.”

When, for example, the theremin is set for its full four octave range, the movement of the musician’s right hand toward the pitch antenna “finds” a new note every re of an inch in the electrostatic field. With its tonal output limited, say to two octaves, the theremin’s notes are spaced about 1/8 inch apart.

In the process of “picking” notes from a theremin’s field, the musician’s hands must constantly vibrate to extract from raw notes a subtle vibrato quality which produces what some call “music bewitched.” In its higher registers, the theremin speaks as shrilly as a violin. In its lowest it cries like a cello.

You’d think that your entire hand would cause musical havoc with a new note every 1/16 of an inch. It doesn’t. “Capacity” exists only between the antenna and the tip of your fingers. If, however, you make the musically fatal mistake of contacting the antenna—either the volume antenna with your left hand or the pitch control with your right—silence reigns. Why? Electronically speaking, you’ve grounded the oscillators.

“Critical though hand capacity is,” concedes Dr. Hoffman, “there’s nothing critical in the antennas themselves.” Antennas, about 24 inches in length, are sized for the stature and convenience of the musician. Nor is it significant that one is vertical, the other horizontal and looped. Their structure merely adds dramatic effect. Set at right angles to one another, the chance of conflict between their electrostatic fields is reduced.

Aside from the oscillatory circuits, of course, theremins also must have a power supply, power amplifiers and a loudspeaker. Most theremin speakers are usually 12-inch jobs. Hi-fi, of course, wasn’t in the commercial lexicon when RCA built what few theremins it did back in 1929.

“Hi-fidelity speakers might improve tonal quality,” concedes Dr. Hoffman, “though I’m no authority on such things. My own instrument’s 12-inch speaker chills movie and TV audiences without a boost from higher fidelity. And as a musician, I’m satisfied with its quality.”

So, apparently, are Hollywood moguls who have hired Dr. Hoffman to harry the soundtracks of their greatest spine-tinglers with the invisible “keyboard” of electronics’ strangest music maker.

The Old Songs are the Best Songs

The world’s great music is on Victor Red Seal Records

Let us pause a moment, Gentlemen, and welcome the past. Let us lay aside our invoices and debentures, our politics and our coal-bills. . . . For tonight an old familiar company is with us. . . . Nelly Bly is here, and Old Black Joe . . . Uncle Ned, My Old Kentucky Home . . . Jeanie with the light brown hair . . . Old Folks at Home. . . . And with them their banjos and cotton bales, their slow brown rivers. . . .

Many of these old songs, written by Stephen Foster more than 75 years ago, are known all over the world. Our grandmothers sang them, and our fathers. We ourselves still love them. . . . And now here they are in their entirety, arranged by Nat Shilkret, beautifully played and sung, and collected in a convenient album.

This is the latest of a long series of Victor Red Seal recordings which are bringing to the musical public the world’s most beautiful and important music. Interpreted by the foremost artists and orchestras, recorded with incredible realism by the famous Orthophonic process, they bring within your home the whole horizon of the concert stage. . . . The nearest Victor dealer will gladly play you the Stephen Foster album (four double-faced records, list price $6). Hear it at your first opportunity! . . . Victor Talking Machine Co., Camden, New Jersey, U. S. A.

VICTOR Red Seal RECORDS

Saxophone Combined With Organ

TONE modulation such as only the most accomplished wind instrument artist can achieve can now be duplicated by a beginner as a result of a new instrument called the solfia now being manufactured in Germany. The new wind instrument is played with a mouthpiece similar to that of a saxophone, but the notes are controlled by an organ keyboard. An air chamber within the device modulates the tone and adds resonance.

Inside The Music-Box of Giant Bells

IN the bell loft of the Rockefeller church in New York it suspended the first of the tuned carrillons, the smallest bells of which are shown above. The resonance of a bell, which lasts for several moments, has previously prevented accurate tuning of carrillons, but this age-old annoyance has been eliminated by a system of bell dampers invented by G. M. Giannini.

Right—Where the ancient carrillon players pulled an assortment of ropes, the modern musician sits down to his instrument like an organist. Electricity and compressed air swing the weighty clappers. Left—The Rockefeller church in New York, where thousands are delighting in the tuneful melody of the bells.

Above—The “Music Box” of the giant carrillon. Each peg represents a note in the melody, struck electrically when the giant drum revolves automatically. Left—This damper suppresses the tone of the bell the instant it is no longer contributing to the melody. The damper is the secret of carrillon tuning, and was discovered by Giannini, a young electrical engineer. Each note can thus be heard distinctly, not submerged in a dissonant chorus.

Violin Made Of New “Glass”
ANEW type of unbreakable, flexible material which has the same transparency as ordinary glass, but weighs less, size for size, has been invented in Germany. A product of artificial resins, the new material can be bent, twisted, punched, cut with a scissors, polished and sawed. As a demonstration of the possibilities of the new “glass,” the full-size violin shown above was made entirely from sample sheets, with the exception of the usual strings.

DOG SHOWS MUSICAL TALENT
EVERY now and then a dog is seen on the stage that seems to almost have human intelligence. This dog shows exceptional musical ability when he sits on the bench of an automatic piano and pats the keys, as the piano plays. That he has a musical sense of rhythm is shown by the fact that he pats the keys in time with the piece that is being, played. He is owned by a Berlin vaudeville performer.

view additional pages

the music goes ’round and ’round

People who like phonograph music are getting dizzy trying to keep up with three different systems of playing three sizes of disks.

By Robert Hertzberg

BUYING phonograph records used to be a simple and painless operation. You could walk into any music shop and say, “I want a few of the latest dance tunes for a party.” You’d depart in a few minutes with a neat bundle under your arm. But not any more!

“Phonograph records? Yes, sir,” the clerk now says. “Would you like 10- or 12-inch records for a 78-r.p.m. turntable, or 7-, 10-, or 12-inch records for a 33-1/3 r.p.m. machine, or 7-inch records for a 45-r.p.m. player? The prices range from 60 cents to $4.85.”

If this jumble of figures doesn’t make you dizzy, a demonstration of the three different turntable types certainly will. And after you have seen and handled the six different records, in colors ranging from bright red to somber black, you may decide to cancel the party and go to the movies instead.

The slightly delirious record industry is a big business. Last year, about 15 million owners of phonographs bought approximately 250 million records. RCA-Victor and Columbia Records, the two biggest producers in the industry, are engaged in an undeclared but active “trade war” with this juicy market as the prize.

For as far back as most of us can remember, the standard phonograph turntable speed has been 78 r.p.m. A player of any make would take records having a diameter of 10 or 12 inches. These sizes have maximum playing times of 2-1/2 and 5 minutes per side, which are adequate for popular selections and dance music but, of course, much too limited for long classical works. To eliminate the bother of changing disks manually when a symphony was being played, manufacturers brought out automatic record changers. Some of these machines must have been designed by disciples of Rube Goldberg. They are weird contraptions with flailing arms and complex gear trains, they have a tendency to wreck the records, and they’re out of order about half the time.

Last year, Columbia Records, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Columbia Broadcasting System (keep that little fact in mind), made a big splash with the first really important improvement in phonograph records in almost half a century: a new 12-inch record that turns at only 33-1/3 r.p.m. and plays for a maximum of about 22-1/2 minutes. Coincidentally, it brought out a 10-incher that runs for 13% minutes and a 7-inch baby that last 5 minutes. The smallest one is thus equivalent to the old 12-inch, 78-r.p.m. disk.

“What about those 45-minute records I read so much about?” you ask. The 12-inch, 33 -1/3 -r.p.m. disk is the 45-minute record, played on both sides. That expression “45-minute record” was used a bit loosely in the initial advertising and publicity. You had to read down into the fine print to learn that the figure represented two sides, not one. At that, more than a third of an hour of uninterrupted music is a lot of music, and Columbia’s LP (for long-playing) Microgroove records were a quick success.

The word Microgroove explains the secret of the new disks. As you probably know in a general way, a phonograph transcription consists of a wiggly spiral cut into the face of a flat plastic disk. A sensitive needle, attached to a tone arm, follows the grooves and translates the undulations into impulses, which are increased in volume and reproduced by the amplifier section of a radio or by a separate phono amplifier. In 78-r.p.m. records, the grooves run between 85 and 100 to the inch, the needle point is about three thousandths of an inch thick, and the pressure of the pick-up against the record is between one and three ounces. In the LP records, the grooves hit between 225 and 300 to the inch, the needle tip is one thousandth, and the pick-up pressure is about a fifth of an ounce.

The tone quality of the LP disks is generally regarded as superior to that of the older records. A notable feature is absence of scratch noise, a result of the very light needle tracking.

Right off the bat. you can see that the new records won’t work on an old machine. Columbia was all prepared for this. When the records were announced, Philco had a new player and a tone arm to go with them. Fortunately, no revisions had to be made in the amplifier circuits. Any owner of a high-grade phono-radio combination could tie in a 33-1/3 r.p.m. turntable in a matter of minutes.

And it was a simple matter for manufacturers to rush out two-speed equipment fitted with dual tone arms or single arms containing separate pick-ups that could be switched in and out at will. This was a wise move, because there are millions . . . probably billions . . . of perfectly good 78-r.p.m. disks carefully preserved in albums, and their owners have no intention of throwing them away just for the sake of new records that play longer. Existing automatic changers could readily be adapted in manufacture to the two-speed turntables because the physical dimensions of the 12-inch LP records are identical with those of the 12-inch 78-r.p.m. disks. Only four LP records, changed and flopped automatically, can thus provide three solid hours of music—providing the changer doesn’t decide to chuck them across the room into the fireplace.

Just when the two-speed turntable and the LP records began gaining momentum, RCA-Victor threw a small atomic bomb into the happy picture in the form of a new 7-inch record that turns at 45 r.p.m. and has a 1-1/2 inch center hole instead of the 1/4-inch opening found in all other records. Its grooves run between 250 and 275 per inch and the needle size and pressure are the same as for the LP disks. The playing time per side is 5-1/3 minutes.

People in and out of the radio industry rushed to criticize RCA-Victor for bringing out another “nonstandard” record. A point not generally appreciated, but deserving a lot of attention, is that with the record itself the company introduced a new automatic player of highly ingenious but simple construction. The entire changing mechanism is enclosed in the stubby center post or spindle, with no outside arms, levers, carrying pans, or anything else. The spindle takes a stack of ten records, giving a total of more than 50 minutes of playing time. The records drop into position quickly and quietly. Anyone accustomed to the erratic and sometimes spectacular behavior of ordinary automatic changers will be intrigued by the effortless functioning of this new device. Its simplicity makes it especially valuable for children’s use, for dance parties, etc.

The 45-r.p.m. records themselves have a construction feature not found in any others. The label area, immediately around the spindle hole, is thicker than the playing surfaces; so the latter cannot rub against either each other or the top of the turntable. This undoubtedly makes the disks last longer and give better music during their life. Most ordinary records have to be discarded long before their grooves actually wear out because they get so scratched up.

The advent of the RCA records caused the New York newspapers a few months ago to give front-page prominence to reports of a “record war” between that company and Columbia. This surprised no one because the Columbia Broadcasting System, which owns Columbia Records, has been feuding with the National Broadcasting Company, which is owned by RCA. The head of Columbia records issued a long and somewhat angry statement denouncing RCA; RCA officials said nothing and went right ahead with a million-dollar campaign to put their new system over.

Turntable manufacturers lost no time in. revamping their products to accommodate the 45-r.p.m. disks. By the time this issue of Mechanix Illustrated appears, there will be on the market dozens of three-speed players, with double tone arms, that will handle any records now sold. If you want to play some of your old favorites, you shift the speed lever to 78, push in a 1/4-inch spindle, select the three-mil pick-up, and load ‘er up. If you want to go high brow and listen to Brahms or Shostakovich for a couple of hours, shift to 33-1/3, leave the 1/4-inch spindle in position, select the one-mil pick-up, and pretend you’re in Carnegie Hall. If there’s a special new number on a 45-r.p.m. disk, shift to 45 on the turntable, plug in the special 1-1/2-inch adapter spindle, and let it roll.

If you’re perfectly happy with your prewar phono-radio combination and don’t feel inclined to invest money in a new two- or three-speed player, you won’t be missing a thing. Both Columbia and RCA have announced that 78-r.p.m. duplicates will be made of all new recordings.

Columbia and RCA-Victor advance excellent reasons for their choices of record speeds. Mostly, they’re very technical and are tied up with the distortion effects that occur at different speeds in relation to the diameters of the grooves. As far as quality of reproduction is concerned, I doubt if one listener in ten thousand could detect any appreciable difference between the two makes. When you get down to it, the RCA 7-inch 45-r.p.m. record, playing five minutes, is virtually identical with the Columbia 7-inch 33-1/3-r.p.m. “Long-Playing” disk, which also runs five minutes; RCA just doesn’t use the term long playing, because a five-minute record certainly is not a long-playing one. The 13-1/2- and 22-1/2-min-ute Columbia records are something else. For classical music, they undeniably are wonderful. Personally, I am of the opinion that RCA-Victor isn’t much concerned about the high-brow trade and figures that it can do plenty of business with the many more people who go for the popular stuff. Pay your money and take your choice!

The World’s Largest Saxophone
THERE is plenty of music in this horn. Standing six feet, seven inches in height, this saxophone is believed to be the largest in the world. In spite of its height it may be played from a sitting position—provided the musician is sufficiently expert.

view additional pages

HOW TO MAKE A PHONOGRAPH

By WALTER LEE

IN case any person of a mechanical turn of mind wishes to try his hand at building a talking machine, I will explain what I used and how I used it. But before I do so, it may be well to explain, in a general way, the principle of phonography, so that the experimenter will know just what he is doing and why he is doing it that way.

When a pig squeals, the vibrations of the cords in his throat, or wherever his squeal apparatus is located, cause the surrounding air to vibrate. The vibrations move away from that center, in all directions, like the ripples in a placid pool of water when a pebble is thrown into it. They are called sound waves. They come in contact with the drums of our ears, which, in their turn, begin to vibrate, and this vibration of the ear drums is what we call a noise. We hear the pig squeal, but his squeal was perfect silence until it reached our ear drums. If there were no ears, there would be no sound, but the sound waves would be present, ready to be converted into sounds, just the same.

A recording phonograph is a machine with an ear drum. The ear drum is a glass disc, .or diaphragm, which vibrates as an ear drum, when sound waves come in contact with it. The record makers cause the sound vibrations, by singing, or playing, or talking, in the immediate vicinity of the machine, and the waves then vibrate the diaphragm, which has a sharp needle so attached to it that it will make certain movements in exact correspondence with the diaphragm. The machine is so built, that a plate or plane of wax is revolved with its surface in contact with the needle, and thus, when the diaphragm vibrates, the needle moves, and traces a wavy line in the wax. This wavy line represents the sound waves that vibrated the diaphragm. Now, if the wax is hardened, and the angle of the needle is changed so it will go over the same path again without digging into it, the wavy line will cause the needle to move, and the needle will cause the diaphragm to vibrate, and that will set up a corresponding vibration in the air. The sound waves thus created, reach our ear drums, which in turn vibrate, and we hear the same sounds that were originally thrown into the recording phonograph.

My home-made machine consists of the following articles, which I picked up around the house and basement. One soap box, one movement from a discarded eight day clock, one tin megaphone, two feet of three-quarter-inch gas pipe and three elbows, a piece of a worn out inner tube, a diaphragm of hard rubber from a telephone receiver, an old scarf pin, various pieces of wood, nails, bolts and one pie tin. There were also two iron washers. The tools I used, were a pair of pliers, a pocket knife and a hammer.

The clock movement I removed from its case, then took from it, the dial and hands, its hour and minute wheels. Then I removed its escapement, which is the mechanism which controls its speed. In some clocks, this is simply the pendulum and verge, but in this clock it was the balance wheel and hair spring, pallet fork, and escape wheel. You can tell what these are by going over the wheel train. The first wheel or pinion, is the one on which the mainspring is wound, the second is the center wheel or pinion, on which the minute hand is mounted and from which the hour wheel is geared. The third is an idler. The fourth is the one on which the second hand is mounted, but it is always present, whether there is a second hand on it or not. The fifth is the escape wheel, the sixth is the pallet pinion, and the seventh is the balance wheel, which has a very fine spring on it, and which turns in opposite directions alternately. The balance wheel, the pallet and the escape wheel form the escapement.

The rest of the wheel train could now turn at high speed, from the power of the mainspring. Using two of the wheels I had removed, and two pieces of the hairspring, I made a speed governor and set it so that the train would turn the center pinion at eighty-five revolutions per minute. I attached the governor to the fourth pinion, or the one which was now last in the train.

I now whittled a little block of wood into the shape of a spindle and fastened it rigidly to the center pinion, in the place where the minute hand had been. It should be tight enough so that it will not wobble, and it must run true. In the bottom of a pie tin, to one side of which I had glued a disc of cloth, taken out of an old overcoat, I now punched a hole in the exact center, and fastened it to the spindle with a screw and another piece of wood to act as a continuation of the spindle.

My tin pan now would revolve by the power of the clock spring. I made a friction brake with a lever and a piece of wood, to act against the fourth wheel. Then I mounted the whole in a soap box, so that the spindle with the tin pan on it was on top and on the outside. By means of a hole in the side of the box, I could reach in with my hand and wind the spring, or control the brake.

The next step was to make the reproducer and its conducting line to the horn. Two large iron washers, about two inches in outside diameter, I fastened together, first sandwiching between them two rubber washers of the same size, with the telephone diaphragm between them. The washers were held together with three small bolts and six nuts, not through them, but against the outer edge, like clamps. A long, strong scarf pin with its head and point cut off, I now fastened to the center of the diaphragm with wax, and at the point where the pin passed the edge of the iron washers, I doubled it around on itself, to form a loop. Through the loop I ran a small piece of wire and fastened both ends of it between the washers to act as a support for the pin. On the end of the pin I impaled a small block of wood, which had a small hole in the other end, about the size of a regular phonograph needle. With a very small wood screw, I fastened the needles in the hole.

I then took the shell of an electric light socket, the small end of which was fortunately a good tight fit to the inside of the washer behind the diaphragm, and the other end was an equally tight fit over the outside edge of an elbow for three-quarter-inch pipe. The elbow, L screwed to a ten-inch length of three-quarter-inch pipe, with another elbow at the other end, and a second length of pipe with a third elbow was then put on!

To the third elbow I fastened the tin megaphone.

Then I attached this rig to an upright which I nailed to the soap box, in such a way that it would be free to swing, and balanced a little to the left, so its tendency would be to swing that way. The adjustment of this somewhat delicate balance was the hardest part of the entire job. .

My phonograph was now complete and I set a record on it. To my surprise, it really played! Not exquisitely, perhaps—let us rather say with surprising ability and persistence.

Had I been obliged to purchase the material out of which this home-made and homely machine is made, it would have cost me from one dollar to two dollars, the greatest expense being for the clock works. I have an idea, however, that the resources of nearly any attic or basement storeroom contain all the requisite materials.

Tones of New Stringless Cello Generated by Electricity

AN ELECTRIC cello without strings capable of producing tremendous volume and exquisite tone has been invented by Leon Theremin, who is shown in the photo on the left demonstrating how his new instrument is played.

Tones are varied by running the fingers of the left hand up and down the heavy black line which replaces the strings, while the right hand works the pump to control the volume.

An external oscillator, amplifier and loud speaker are used with this cello and the tones are generated by the oscillating tubes in the instrument. As the fingers are run up and down the black line, under which a coil is concealed, the player varies the capacity of the circuit which alters the frequency, or pitch, of the oscillating tubes.