[LB056399], Letter from Alfred Ord Tate to Richard C Johnson, Indiana. Institution for the Deaf, April 28th, 1892
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Title
[LB056399], Letter from Alfred Ord Tate to Richard C Johnson, Indiana. Institution for the Deaf, April 28th, 1892
Author
Mentioned
Date
1892-04-28
Type
Folder/Volume ID
LB056-F
Microfilm ID
143:212
Document ID
LB056399
Publisher
Thomas A. Edison Papers, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
Has Version
Item sets
Transcription
April 28, 1892.
Richard C. Johnson, Esq., Sup’t.,
State of Indiana Institution for the Education of the Deaf.
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Dear Sir:-
Your unsigned letter of 12th instant came duly to hand, but reply to the same has been unavoidably delayed.
Mr. Edison was very much interested in the experiment conducted in your Institution with the phonograph as a means of teaching articulation to the deaf, an account of which you kindly sent to him. He says, however, there he can make but few suggestions on the subject, as he really does not comprehend it. The only difference that he can see between a phonograph and an ordinary speaking tube, when used for the purpose in question, is the excessive sharpness of the sound makes from the former as compared with those from the latter, and it may be that this extreme sharpness is what caused the effect produced. Mr. Edison noticed in the case of a friend of his who is very deaf that he could bear a tune reproduced by the phonograph which was purposely made sharp and that he could not hear the reproduction of the same tune, although equally loud, when this sharpness was absent. If this sharpness is the explanation, records can be made in which the sound waves would be extremely sharp.
Yours very truly,
A.O. Tate
Private Sec’y.
Richard C. Johnson, Esq., Sup’t.,
State of Indiana Institution for the Education of the Deaf.
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Dear Sir:-
Your unsigned letter of 12th instant came duly to hand, but reply to the same has been unavoidably delayed.
Mr. Edison was very much interested in the experiment conducted in your Institution with the phonograph as a means of teaching articulation to the deaf, an account of which you kindly sent to him. He says, however, there he can make but few suggestions on the subject, as he really does not comprehend it. The only difference that he can see between a phonograph and an ordinary speaking tube, when used for the purpose in question, is the excessive sharpness of the sound makes from the former as compared with those from the latter, and it may be that this extreme sharpness is what caused the effect produced. Mr. Edison noticed in the case of a friend of his who is very deaf that he could bear a tune reproduced by the phonograph which was purposely made sharp and that he could not hear the reproduction of the same tune, although equally loud, when this sharpness was absent. If this sharpness is the explanation, records can be made in which the sound waves would be extremely sharp.
Yours very truly,
A.O. Tate
Private Sec’y.