Now my apparatus gives the number of the vibrations, but with far less strength than the original ones; though also, as I have cause to think, always proportional to one another up to a certain degree. But because the vibrations are throughout smaller, the difference between large and small vibrations is much more difficult to recognize than in the original waves, and the vowel is therefore more or less indefinite.
Whether my views with respect to the curves representing combinations of tones are correct, may perhaps be determined by aid of the new phonautograph described by Duhamel. (See Vierordt’s ‘Physiology,’ p. 254.)
There may probably remain much more yet to be done for the utilisation of the telephone in practice (zur praktischen Verwerthung des Telephons). For physics, however, it has already sufficient interest in that it has opened out a new field of labour.
Philipp Reis.
Friedrichsdorf, near Frankfort-on-the-Main,
in December 1861.
[Though the foregoing memoir, as printed in the ‘Jahresbericht,’ of the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-the-Main, is dated “December 1861,” it was delivered verbally on October 26th preceding, as the ‘Proceedings’ of the Society show. From the ‘Jahresbericht’ for the succeeding year we learn that three weeks after the delivery of this communication Reis made a second communication to the Society on a kindred matter. The entry is as follows (‘Proceedings’ of the Society, p. 13): “On the 16th November, by the same: Explanation of a new Theory concerning the Perception of Chords and of Timbre (‘Klangfarben’), as a Continuation and Supplement of the Memoir on the Telephone.” So far as can now be learned, the substance of this communication was embodied in the latter part of the paper “On Telephony,” when written out in December for publication. On the 8th of January, 1862, the formal thanks of the Society were voted to Reis for the manuscript which he had contributed to the ‘Jahresbericht.’
It is of interest, moreover, to note that the matter did not immediately drop. Professor Böttger, who as one of the regular lecturers of the Physical Society, held fortnightly discourses on matters of scientific novelty, took occasion on the 7th of December to recur to the subject then attracting so much attention. The title of his discourse (see ‘Proceedings’ of the Society, p. 11) was “Application of an Experiment relating to the Transmission of Musical Tones to any desired distance by means of the Galvanic Current.” It is not quite certain whether Reis was present on this occasion. Early in the spring of 1863, appeared in Böttger’s ‘Polytechnisches Notizblatt’ (No. 6 of that year) an article which contains in condensed form Böttger’s discourse. This article was copied into Dingler’s ‘Polytechnisches Journal’ for May 1863. vol. clxviii. p. 185, and also into the ‘Polytechnisches Centralblatt’ for July 1863, vol. xxix. p. 858. An extract of Reis’s own paper, condensed from the ‘Jahresbericht’ by Dr. Roeber (now President of the Physical Society of Berlin), appeared in the ‘Berliner Berichte’ (i. e. the ‘Fortschritte der Physik’) for 1861, vol. xvii. pp. 171-173. It is interesting to note that Reis’s paper was then deemed worthy to stand in the pages of the ‘Fortschritte’ by the side of the classic researches of Thomson on Regelation, and of Maxwell on Magnetic Lines of Force. The following is a translation of Böttger’s notice mentioned above.]
[2.] On the Transmission of Tones to a Distance as far as desired, by the help of Electricity (Telephony).
[Translated from the original notice by Professor Böttger, which appeared in Böttger’s ‘Polytechnischen Notizblatt,’ 1863, No. 6, p. 81, in Dingler’s ‘Polytechnisches Journal,’ 1863, vol. clxviii. p. 185, and in the ‘Polytechnisches Centralblatt,’ 1863, t. xxix. p. 858.]