We print in another column a letter received from Mr. D. E. Hughes concerning the distinction he finds between his microphone and Mr. Edison's carbon telephone. Mr. Hughes is very confident that the two inventions have nothing in common, and that they bear no resemblance to each other in form, material, or principles.
We would not question Mr. Hughes' sincerity in all this. No doubt he honestly believes that the invention of Mr. Edison "represents no field of discovery, and is restricted in its uses to telephony," whilst the "microphone demonstrates and represents the whole field of nature." But the fact of his believing this is only another proof that he utterly fails to understand or appreciate the real scope and character of Mr. Edison's work.
To those familiar not only with Mr. Edison's telephone but with the long line of experimental investigation that had to be gone through with before he was able to control the excessive sensitiveness of the elements of his original discovery, it is very clear that Mr. Hughes has been working upon and over-estimating the importance of one phase, and that a limited phase, of Mr. Edison's investigations.
We propose shortly to review at length the evidence of Mr. Edison's priority in the invention or discovery of all that the microphone covers; this purely as a question of scientific interest. For the personal elements of the controversy between Mr. Edison on the one side and Messrs. Preece and Hughes on the other we care nothing.
[ THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN EXPORT EDITION.]
The inquiry for American manufactured products and machinery abroad seems to grow in volume and variety daily. And though, in comparison with our capacity to produce, the foreign demand is yet small, its possibilities are unlimited. To increase the demand the immediate problem is to make known throughout the world in the most attractive fashion possible the wide range of articles which America is prepared to furnish, and which other nations have use for. As a medium for conveying such intelligence the monthly export edition of the Scientific American is unequaled. The table of contents of the second issue, to be found in another column, will give an idea of the wide range and permanent as well as timely interest of the matter it circulates. It is a magazine of valuable information that will be preserved and repeatedly read. The handsomely illustrated advertising pages supplement the text, and make it at once the freshest, fullest, and most attractive periodical of the sort in the world. An examination of the index of advertisers will show how widely its advantages for reaching foreign buyers have been appreciated by leading American houses. In the advertising page xxv. appears a list of some eight hundred foreign commercial places in which the circulation of the paper is guaranteed, as evidence that it reaches those for whom such publications are intended.
[FOUNTAIN PENS.]
For several days we have had in use in our office examples of the Mackinnon Fountain Pen, and find it to be a very serviceable and effective instrument. This is a handsome looking pen, with a hollow handle, in which a supply of ink is carried, and the fluid flows from the point in the act of writing. The necessity of an inkstand is thus avoided. One of the difficulties heretofore with pens of this character has been to insure a free and certain delivery of the ink, and also to bring the instrument within the compass and weight of an ordinary pen. The inventor seems to have admirably succeeded in the example before us. The ink flows with certainty, and there is no scratching as with the ordinary pen; it writes with facility on either smooth or rough paper; writes even more smoothly than a lead pencil; may be carried in the pocket; is always ready for use; there is no spilling or blotting of ink. The construction is simple, durable, and the action effective. One filling lasts a week or more, according to the extent of use. These are some of the qualities that our use of the pen so far has seemed to demonstrate; and which made us think that whoever supplies himself with a Mackinnon Pen will possess a good thing. The sole agency is at No. 21 Park Row, New York city.