FIG. 4.
Fig. 4 illustrates an apparatus devised by Mr. Munro, and to which the name thermo-microphone might be given, as it is a microphone in which thermo-electric currents are employed in the place of voltaic currents, its special feature of interest lying in the fact that the heated junction of the thermo-electric couple is identical with the microphone contacts of the two electrodes. In this very elegant experiment a piece of iron wire gauze, G, is supported in a horizontal position by a light metallic support, B. To another support. A, is loosely hinged a frame, which at its further extremity carries a little coil of German silver wire, C, which by its weight rests upon the center of the gauze plate, G; and in contact therewith, and to increase the pressure of contact, a little bar weight is laid within the convolutions of the core. The two electrodes, the gauze, and the coil are connected, as shown, to a receiving telephone, T. Upon the application of heat, as from the flame of a spirit lamp placed below, a thermo-electric current is set up throughout the circuit; in this condition the apparatus becomes a very perfect microphone, and when the pressure between the electrodes is properly adjusted it is a very efficient telephonic transmitter, transmitting articulate speech and musical sounds with remarkable clearness and fidelity.
FIG. 5
Mr. Munro is, with the aid of Mr. Warwick's manipulative skill, extending this portion of his investigation further by experimenting with gauzes and coils of various metals forming other couples in the thermo-electric series, as well as with iron and other gauzes electrotyped with bismuth and other metals, and we hope in due time to lay the results of those experiments before our readers.
Mr. Munro has, moreover, observed that if two pieces of gauze of identical material and in microphonic contact be heated, a peculiar sighing sound is heard in a telephone connected with them and with a battery, and he attributes this phenomenon to the electrical discharge between the gauze plates being facilitated and increased by the action of heat, but we are rather inclined to trace the effect to the mechanical action of the one gauze moving over the other under the influence of expansion and contraction of the metals by the variable temperature of the flame and convection currents of heated air, such movement producing the sounds just as would be produced if one of the electrodes of an ordinary microphone were as delicately moved by the hand or other agent.
FIG. 6
Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate another and distinct form of metallic microphone transmitter designed by Mr. Munro and Mr. Warwick, in which a small chain, preferably of iron, forms the microphonic portion of the apparatus. In Fig. 5, A is a plate of sonorous wood forming a diaphragm or collector of the sonorous waves; to the back of this is attached a short length of chain, C, the opposite ends of which are by the wires, X and Y, included in the telephonic circuit. The points of junction of the links with one another constitute the variable microphonic contacts, and the normal pressure between them is adjusted by the spiral spring, S, the tension of which may be varied by the cord and winding pin, B. Fig. 6 is the section of a transmitter constructed upon this principle, and in which two chains, c and c', are employed attached at one end by a wire, f, to a diaphragm mouthpiece, N, and at their opposite extremities to the adjusting springs, s and s'; an induction coil, D, may be employed if the resistance of the line render it advantageous.