Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1895 — Do Flies Talk? [ARTICLE]

Do Flies Talk?

An ingenious inquirer, armed with a microphone, or sound magnifier, has been listening patiently through long hours to the curious noises made by house files, and reports his belief that they have a language of their own. The language does not consist of the buzzing sound we ordinarily hear, which is made by the rapid vibration of their wings in the air, but of a smaller, finer and more widely modulated series of sounds, audible to the human oar only by the aid of the microphone. Probably this fly conversation is perfectly audible to fly ears, which, as every schoolboy knows who has tried to move his hand slowly upon them, are very acute. The hope is expressed that, since the heretofore inaudible whispers of flies have been detected and recorded, some inventor may construct a njlcrophrino which will enable us to make out the language of the microbes, and so surpriso them in the horrible secret of their mode of operations.