Professor is describing several experimental inventions....
THE BOTTLE THEORY OF SOUND
I expressed my cheerful readiness to be banker to genius.
"Thanks," said the professor, pocketing the scrip and resuming his position at the camera. "When I have pictorially captured smell, the most palpable of the senses, the next thing will be to imprison sound--vulgarly speaking, to bottle it. Just think a moment. Force is as imperishable as matter; indeed, as I have been somewhat successful in showing, it is matter. Now, when a sound wave is once started, it is only lost through an indefinite extension of its circumference. Catch that sound wave, sir! Catch it in a bottle, then its circumference cannot extend. You may keep the sound wave forever if you will only keep it corked up tight. The only difficulty is in bottling it in the first place. I shall attend to the details of that operation just as soon as I have managed to photograph the confounded rotten-egg smell of sulphydric acid."
The professor stirred up the offensive mixture with a glass rod, and continued:
"While my object in bottling sound is mainly scientific, I must confess that I see in success in that direction a prospect of considerable pecuniary profit. I shall be prepared at no distant day to put operas in quart bottles, labeled and assorted, and contemplate a series of light and popular airs in ounce vials at prices to suit the times. You know very well that it costs a ten-dollar bill now to take a lady to hear Martha or Mignon, rendered in first-class style. By the bottle system, the same notes may be heard in one's own parlor at a comparatively trifling expense. I could put the operas into the market at from eighty cents to a dollar a bottle. For oratorios and symphonies I should use demijohns, and the cost would of course be greater. I don't think that ordinary bottles would hold Wagner's music. It might be necessary to employ carboys. Sir, if I were of the sanguine habit of you Americans, I should say that there were millions in it. Being a phlegmatic Teuton, accustomed to the precision and moderation of scientific language, I will merely say that in the success of my experiments with sound I see a comfortable income, as well as great renown.
Edward Page Mitchell, December 1875
(The phonograph was conceived in 1877, perhaps July, by Thomas Edison; working by December 1877.)
THE BOTTLE THEORY OF SOUND
I expressed my cheerful readiness to be banker to genius.
"Thanks," said the professor, pocketing the scrip and resuming his position at the camera. "When I have pictorially captured smell, the most palpable of the senses, the next thing will be to imprison sound--vulgarly speaking, to bottle it. Just think a moment. Force is as imperishable as matter; indeed, as I have been somewhat successful in showing, it is matter. Now, when a sound wave is once started, it is only lost through an indefinite extension of its circumference. Catch that sound wave, sir! Catch it in a bottle, then its circumference cannot extend. You may keep the sound wave forever if you will only keep it corked up tight. The only difficulty is in bottling it in the first place. I shall attend to the details of that operation just as soon as I have managed to photograph the confounded rotten-egg smell of sulphydric acid."
The professor stirred up the offensive mixture with a glass rod, and continued:
"While my object in bottling sound is mainly scientific, I must confess that I see in success in that direction a prospect of considerable pecuniary profit. I shall be prepared at no distant day to put operas in quart bottles, labeled and assorted, and contemplate a series of light and popular airs in ounce vials at prices to suit the times. You know very well that it costs a ten-dollar bill now to take a lady to hear Martha or Mignon, rendered in first-class style. By the bottle system, the same notes may be heard in one's own parlor at a comparatively trifling expense. I could put the operas into the market at from eighty cents to a dollar a bottle. For oratorios and symphonies I should use demijohns, and the cost would of course be greater. I don't think that ordinary bottles would hold Wagner's music. It might be necessary to employ carboys. Sir, if I were of the sanguine habit of you Americans, I should say that there were millions in it. Being a phlegmatic Teuton, accustomed to the precision and moderation of scientific language, I will merely say that in the success of my experiments with sound I see a comfortable income, as well as great renown.
Edward Page Mitchell, December 1875
(The phonograph was conceived in 1877, perhaps July, by Thomas Edison; working by December 1877.)
This...Edward Page Mitchell person,....Asides from all those $10 words and phrases, what sort of hallucinogenic drugs was he on back then?
Oh wait..!
Seems that in these modern times, a lot of professor's, teachers, etc, are on some pretty strong drugs as well.
Ya know the types... pushing some non-binary garbage to the vulnerable masses.
That "cork" would come in handy today.
Good lord almighty!
Oh wait..!
Seems that in these modern times, a lot of professor's, teachers, etc, are on some pretty strong drugs as well.
Ya know the types... pushing some non-binary garbage to the vulnerable masses.
That "cork" would come in handy today.
Good lord almighty!
I'd never heard of him, but perhaps he should be there with Verne, Welles, Kapek among the greats of early science fiction. Not so much for bottled sound, but for some of his other ideas that're now standard plotlines in modern science fiction.
His potted bio on Wikipedia is worth a read...
Not to worry, there are hoardes of modern-day Mitchells lurking on the internet these days, professing all sorts of rediculous things...
And yes, even on here!
And yes, even on here!
Laudanum was a popular hallucination agent then, an alcohol solution of morphine.
Difficult to obtain now...
Possibly in use when above was created by the author...
Seen references to it in the original Sherlock Holmes books / stories.
Sorry if against rules.
Difficult to obtain now...
Possibly in use when above was created by the author...
Seen references to it in the original Sherlock Holmes books / stories.
Sorry if against rules.
He was an author. Not sure what you have against people with an imagination or with an adult reading level in their mother tongue.
I really hope you are not saying what I think you are here. Would you care to clarify or shall I just request your posts deleted?Ya know the types... pushing some non-binary garbage to the vulnerable masses.
I should note at this point I am a parent and one of my children IS non binary, but oddly seems a lot less vulnerable than you are. And more intelligent and more accepting of diversity in the world.
Pay it no mind. The internet is full of people who think everyone beside themselves is an idiot. Yes, even on here!
Excuse me ma'am but why would you bring politics into a thread about 19th-century speculative fiction concerning audio recording? That's way off topic, lady.This...Edward Page Mitchell person,....Asides from all those $10 words and phrases, what sort of hallucinogenic drugs was he on back then?
Oh wait..!
Seems that in these modern times, a lot of professor's, teachers, etc, are on some pretty strong drugs as well.
Ya know the types... pushing some non-binary garbage to the vulnerable masses.
That "cork" would come in handy today.
Good lord almighty!
Perhaps a young H.G. Wells read, and was influenced by, Edward Page Mitchell's short stories.
Mitchell's story, The Clock That Went Backward, was published 14 years before Wells published his novella, The Time Machine.
Similarly, Mitchell's Crystal Man preceded Wells' Invisible Man by 16 years.
https://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff9/tachypmp.htm
I’ve now read a couple of these stories and they are rather remarkable. The professor who wants to bottle sound succeeded and went on to built a teleportation device. That didn’t end particularly well for him, though he does survive - in a way.
So much science and science fiction in the 1870s. I can understand it 20 years later, but this seems far ahead of its time.
So much science and science fiction in the 1870s. I can understand it 20 years later, but this seems far ahead of its time.
THANKS for pointing me towards that REMARKABLE Author, I was impressed.
VERY advanced respect to others, and that in an era chock full of advancements and inventions, the very base of our Modern World.
Can´t believe I never heard or read anything by him before, but now found something in Project Gutenberg (a mighty cultural advance and enterprise by itself)
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602521h.html
I know Moderators frown on posting links to literary matter, but being at Gutenberg means it´s already copyright free, and in fact encouraged to share, so just download and ENJOY.
A very gifted Author.
Some rules breaking posts have been deleted.