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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
242
The
years
1876-8
will
be
distinguished
in
the
history
of
our
time
for
a
triad
of
great
inventions
which,
so
to
speak,
were
hanging
together.
We
have
already
seen
how
the
telephone
and
phonograph
have
originated;
and
to
these
two
marvellous
contrivances
we
have
now
to
add
a
third,
the
microphone,
which
is
even
more
marvellous,
because,
although
in
form
it
is
the
simplest
of
them
all,
in
its
action
it
is
still
a
mystery.
The
telephone
enables
us
to
speak
to
distances
far
beyond
the
reach
of
eye
or
ear,
'to
waft
a
sigh
from
Indus
to
the
Pole;
'the
phonograph
enables
us
to
seal
the
living
speech
on
brazen
tablets,
and
store
it
up
for
any
length
of
time;
while
it
is
the
peculiar
function
of
the
microphone
to
let
us
hear
those
minute
sounds
which
are
below
the
range
of
our
unassisted
powers
of
hearing.
By
these
three
instruments
we
have
thus
received
a
remarkable
extension
of
the
capacity
of
the
human
ear,
and
a
growth
of
dominion
over
the
sounds
of
Nature.
We
have
now
a
command
over
sound
such
as
we
have
over
light.
For
the
telephone
is
to
the
ear
what
the
telescope
is
to
the
eye,
the
phonograph
is
for
sound
what
the
photograph
is
for
light,
and
the
microphone
finds
its
analogue
in
the
microscope.
As
the
microscope
reveals
to
our
wondering
sight
the
rich
meshes
of
creation,
so
the
microphone
can
interpret
to
our
ears
the
jarr
of
molecular
vibrations
for
ever
going
on
around
us,
perchance
the
clash
of
atoms
as
they
shape
themselves
into
crystals,
the
murmurous
ripple
of
the
sap
in
trees,
which
Humboldt
fancied
to
make
a
continuous
music
in
the
ears
of
the
tiniest
insects,
the
fall
of
pollen
dust
on
flowers
and
grasses,
the
stealthy
creeping
of
a
spider
upon
his
silken
web,
and
even
the
piping
of
a
pair
of
love-sick
butterflies,
or
the
trumpeting
of
a
bellicose
gnat,
like
the
'horns
of
elf-land
faintly
blowing.'
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