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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
251
Again
it
was
proved
that
the
diaphragm
or
tympanum
to
receive
the
impression
of
the
sound
and
convey
it
to
the
carbon
button,
on
which
Edison
had
laid
considerable
stress,
was
non-essential;
for
the
microphone,
pure
and
simple,
was
operated
by
the
direct
impact
of
the
sonorous
waves,
and
required
no
tympanum.
Moreover,
the
microphone,
as
its
name
implies,
could
magnify
a
feeble
sound,
and
render
audible
the
vibrations
which
would
otherwise
escape
the
ear.
The
discovery
of
these
remarkable
and
subtle
properties
of
a
delicate
contact
had
indeed
confronted
Edison;
he
had
held
them
in
his
grasp,
they
had
stared
him
in
the
face,
but
not-withstanding
all
his
matchless
ingenuity
and
acumen,
he,
blinded
perhaps
by
a
false
hypothesis,
entirely
failed
to
discern
them.
The
significant
proof
of
it
lies
in
the
fact
that
after
the
researches
of
Professor
Hughes
were
published
the
carbon
transmitter
was
promptly
modified,
and
finally
abandoned
for
practical
work
as
a
telephone,
in
favour
of
a
variety
of
new
transmitters,
such
as
the
Blake,
now
employed
in
the
United
Kingdom,
in
all
of
which
the
essential
part
is
a
microphone
of
hard
carbon
and
metal.
The
button
of
soot
has
vanished
into
the
limbo
of
superseded
inventions.
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