Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1899 — CHICAGO MAN OUTDOES EDISON [ARTICLE]

CHICAGO MAN OUTDOES EDISON

jlpnjfflM T W■ Cl f I(I I In Per fcetlag the Talking Machine. A Chicago man has given a pointer to Edison on talking machines. For years the phonograph has been the great wizard’s pet He has spent all his spare time In vain attempts to eliminate tbe metallic, rasping quality of Its tones. Leon F. Douglass, a young Chicagoan, who looks about 20 years old, has succeeded in doing this by a remarkably simple Invention. *1 worked for something like ten years on It, and tried a hundred complicated arrangements, pud then a very easy solution of the difficulty occurred to me,” said Mr. Douglass. He has enlarged-the cylinder, or “record," of tbe Edison machine five times Its former else.' By this he accomplished two things—dispensed. In great measure, with the unnatural and harsh tone, and increased the volume to its ordinary strength. Hie trouble with the talking machines heretofore has been that the little ball which caught In the irregular tone grooves of the cylinder would touch the high points and skip the low ones. The result was like picking out all the thin, harsh tones of the human voice, and blending them Into the phonograph voice. Mr. Douglass reasoned that by enlarging the cylinder the size of all the points of contact could be proportionately enlarged, so that the ball, In passing over the recorded surface, would touch each one. Tbe result has been very satisfactory. Tbe machine repeats words .and music quite realistically, and stands other tests as well.

Mr. Douglass has devised another attachment for increasing the tone. It may be applied to any type of talking machine, and Is so simple that one wonders why It was not thought of long ago. It consists of applying two diaphragms tandem fashion, with the reproducing points so close together that the sound, though twice reproduced, Is closely blended. In short, tbe effect Is exactly that of the sounding box of stringed instruments or the sounding board of the piano. Mr. Edison himself acknowledges the superority of the Chicago man’s Invention, and commends It very highly.

W. R. Milburn, John Holmes, M. R. Dagger, E. L. Stetson, of Buena Vista County, lowa, report as follows of the Canadian Northwest as to its suitability for farming, and the advantages it offers to the agricultural immigrant from the United States: “We came here solely to look up improved farms and, If suitable, to select such as pleased us best. We have not visited the homestead districts at all, though we believe them to be very Inviting. Onr inquiries have been confined solely to the district around Hartney, Deloraine and towards the Souris river in Manitoba. Our impressions of all that region are iu every way satisfactory, and we have decided to go back to lowa at once, and, having disposed of ottr several Interests there, to return to Manitoba in tbe month of March next, and. effecting onr purchase of improved farms, which we find we can do at reasonable rates. Immediately begin farming. We are greatly pleased with all that we have seen iu that part of Western Canamt The soil we |od to be more than equal to that of our own country for wheat growlfig, and the other conditions of climate, schools, markets, etc., are all that We could wish for. “To show what an energetic man can do we may mention that we found one such at Hartney who had rented a farm on shares, receiving two-thirds of the returns as his share of the crop. When he came to sell his own produce he found that his two-thirds, when converted into cash, was enough to bay the farm he rented out and out, which he accordingly did, and Is now Its owner. It is onr intention to lsduce as many of our friends as possible, who are practical farmers, to remove from lowa to this country, where we Mlieve there Is a better future for the Industrious man than is now to be found anywhere on this continent Wa are weli*known In our part of the State of lowi, and we Invite correspondence from its residents In all parts with fegard to this region of Western Canada which we have visited, and to whltb we intend to return."