A speaking-machine has been invented in Germany, with which have been distinctly pronounced the words, mamma, papa, mother, father, summer. This instrument consists of a pair of bellows, to which is adapted a tube terminating in a bell, the aperture of which is regulated by the hand, so as to produce the articulate sounds.
SOUND ALONG A WALL.
Whisper along the bare wall of an apartment, and you will be heard much further than in the middle of the room; for the trough or angle between the wall and the floor, forms two sides of a square pipe which conveys the sound.
SOUNDS MORE AUDIBLE BY NIGHT THAN BY DAY.
The experiment with the glass of champagne (page 40) has been employed by Humboldt, in explanation of the greater audibility of distant sounds by night than by day. This he attributes to the uniformity of temperature in the atmosphere by night, when currents of air no longer rise and disturb its equilibrium; as the air-bubbles in the champagne interfere with the vibration within the glass. Again, the universal and dead silence generally prevalent at night, renders our auditory nerves sensible to sounds which would otherwise escape them, and which are inaudible among the continual hum of noises which is always going on in the day time.
MUSICAL ECHO.
If a noise be made in a narrow passage, or apartment of regular form, the echoes will be repeated at equal very small intervals, and will always impress the ear with a musical note. This is, doubtless, one of the means which blind persons have of judging of the size and shape of any room they happen to be in.
VENTRILOQUISM.
The main secret of this surprising art simply consists in first making a strong and deep inspiration, by which a considerable quantity of air is introduced into the lungs, to be afterwards acted upon by the flexible powers of the larynx, or cavity situated behind the tongue, and the trachea, or windpipe: thus prepared, the expiration should be slow and gradual. Any person, by practice, can, therefore, obtain more or less expertness in this exercise; in which, though not apparently, the voice is still modified by the mouth and tongue; and it is in the concealment of this aid, that much of the perfection of ventriloquism lies.