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Show Miscdlany Talking Money. That "money talks" is no nows. yet if we should hear it proclaim its genuineness gen-uineness in actual words wo would doubtless bo astonished. This is precisely pre-cisely what A. E. Bawtroo, au English ciectro-chomical engineer, proposes to make it do at any rato, when it lakes tho form of tho bank noto. Mr. Bawtroo Baw-troo is of the opinion that photo-engraving has now mudo such progress as toreador to-reador counterfeiting, easy enough to lompt many dishonest persons who lor-mcrly lor-mcrly lacked tho roquisito skill to en-m'o en-m'o In it. To restore to their uofar-ious uofar-ious work tho difficulty of which modern mod-ern invention has partly relieved it, no proposes to serrate tho odgca of bunk notes in such fashion that t.hoy will act as phonograph records when used witn an appropriate reproductive device. The real J0 bill will then speak its own name, whereas its counterfeit presentment, present-ment, although perhaps exactly similar in appearance, will cither remain dumb or omit only uninlclligiblo sounds. J.11 La Nature (Piwi, December 20) V. For-. For-. bin writes of Mr. Bawtroo 's device: "Tho invention possesses two ioa-tureglho ioa-tureglho fabrication of bank mils having edges serrated with apparont irregularity ir-regularity but corresponding to determinate deter-minate sound waves: and tho construction construc-tion of small special phonographs that will produce the souuds corresponding lo these waves. , "In France, bills havo straight edges, but this is not so in many other countriesin coun-triesin England, in Germany, in America whero bills, printed on hand-inado hand-inado paper, havo irregular edges caused by I ho quality of the pulp, tor in-I stance, there are no two bills of tho Bank of England exactly similar and superposable. Mr. Bawtroo proposes to 'regularize these irregularities' and mako them a new obstacle to this increasing in-creasing boldness of tho counterfeiters. "With the aid of a photo-engraving process, which it is unnecessary to describe de-scribe here, ho obtains a mold whoso edge, with its zigzags and curves, represents rep-resents oxactlv the lino traced by the ncodlo of a phonograph on which has been recorded, for instance, tho words ' fivo pounds. ' With tho aid of a very simple machine, it is easy to reproduce, on the edges of ono or moro sheets of paper intended for five-pouud notes, thcso zigzags and these curves. 'I bus all five-pound notes would carry a serrated ser-rated edgo that is the facsimile of the phonographic record for tho words 'five pounds,' "In order to hear the bill pronounce thcso magic syllables, tho evidence that it has boon honestly mado, tho inventor hns devised two pieces of appartus, which aro described in his specifications. specifica-tions. Ono consists of a greatly sun plilled gramophone, whoso neodlo follows fol-lows tho sinuosities of tho notched border; bor-der; tho sounds so produced aro loud enough to be porceived when tho observer ob-server puts two acoustic tubos to his ears, whilo ho slides tho paper botweon two metal plates. In the other device, tho exporimenter blows into a tube, and tho air, penetrating into tho sound chamber tbroueh tho notches on tho edge of the bill as it slides botwocn the motnl plates, produces noiso whose frequency and intensity correspond to the determined sound waves and reproduce repro-duce tho desired words. If tho bill remains re-mains mute, it is counterfeit! "Finally. Mr. Bawtroo has further mnlitlod his pvstom of advising the SPof metallic matrices t hat reproduce tho notches of a "A, &,-,V. nernosing those on a iiispcctod hill, it. will be .easy to sou whether the t colli correspond exactly. 7-Translut.on made for tho Literary Digest. |