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Show INVENTIONS of j lipp IE AD BIGLOW j WStS By HUGH PEN DEXTER had BigloiU's Phonographic Type "The Words Begin to Make Harmonic Sounds." "I'm going to harness up," informed Irad Biglow's kinsman, now determined deter-mined to be rid of the old man. "All right, Edgar," meekly replied Irad, disconsolately fumbling with his beard. "Cousin Freeman will be expecting ex-pecting me." While this was theoretically the-oretically true, he could have added that his arrival would delectate Freeman Free-man none. In fact, it was becoming u sharp question with Irad as to where he could find more than a transient welcome. "You'll have many a long evening to set and chat with him," maliciously reminded Edgar, who had grown peevish, peev-ish, over his relative's repeatedly postponed post-poned departure. "I can see you two chinning away by the kitchen stove like two brothers. Mebbe, he'll read to you." . Irad's aged eyes sparkled suddenly, and after pausing long enough to control con-trol his voice, he gently corrected: "We'll read from the same book, you mean. He's mighty keen over the proposition." "What proposition be you talking ftbout?" asked Edgar, shortly, looking at his watch. "Freeman ain't no leader." "I I had reference to my ahem! To my phonographic type books," explained ex-plained Irad, looking from the window win-dow at the tops of the distant hills. "It will revolutionize book making and all printing, as you well know. Man has always been hampered by speech. You try to describe a beautiful sunset or a yoke of likely steers and you can only say: 'Handsome as a picter,' meaning the scenery; or, 'Best I ever seen,' meaning the steers. It's so about anything you try to describe; you're long on thoughts and short on descriptions. So is every one. But when you open a book printed in my phonographic 'type it's all changed, fhe second the mental current from the eye strikes the printed page the words begin to make harmonic sounds and describe what you're reading about and " "Of all the simon pure bosh " began be-gan Edgar, his eyes bulging. "Not bosh, but science," insisted Irad. "I sensitize the type, or, as Freeman says, mesmerize it so if you're reading about a battle you instantly in-stantly hear the popping of guns and the boom of the cannon and the patter pat-ter of retreating feet. It's a cross between be-tween psychological and phono type, 1 guess." "What in all git out do you mean?" cried Edgar. "Say it's a April shower. The second sec-ond you read the words you hear the soft drop-drop of the rain and the iweet swish of the spring wind and (he cooing of birds. If the heroine is a sweet girl graduate you'd hear them forceful words: 'Beyond the Alps lies Italy.' We'd git ten dollars per for school books now selling foi 1 65 cents. After a magazine editor pays two dollars a word for a story he'd pay seven dollars a word to sensitize sen-sitize the type. Say It was a story about a feller singing a merry song; besides reading the song you'd hear It sung in a deep, rollicking voice. As to newspapers No, we'll let that go till you drop over to Freeman's for a evening. Want me to help harness?" "Wait a minute," mumbled Edgar, rubbing his right ear. "There's lots of money In it?" "Lots of money? Ho! ho!" cried Irad, hunting for a pencil. "Take ten cents a line, flat rate, for mesmerizing mesmeriz-ing the type in newspapers. We'd put It on with a brush so thin it wouldn't last more'n one reading. The royalties from newspapers alone would be $11,000,000 for the first year. And that don't include advertising. Just thing of it! 'Buy Bing's Baked Beans,' reads a ad. And it speaks, loud and clear-like at the same second. The minute you stop reading the type stops talking. Now if you're ready " "What's your rush?" demanded Edgar. Ed-gar. "Ain't our food wholesome? The hoss Is lame and I'm glad of it, if it keeps you here till to-morrer. Now you can's budge to-day, and that's settled. set-tled. How do you make this type act so?" "All you do is to scratch a crease on each letter, using a diamond cutter cut-ter and making a crease you can't see with the naked eye. Then you fill in the creases with my psycho-magnetic fluid, and when the type strikes paper pa-per It leaves a trace of the phonic fluid, which one glance of the human eye will cause to evaporate into spoken words, strains of music, and so forth. And there you be." And Irad smiled triumphantly. "But Great Scott! How long does it take to scratch all them dinged type?" gasped Edgar. "If a man's provided with a high grade diamond cutter, made to order, guaranteed a hundred proof, and providing pro-viding the type is plastic by being treated in our specially constructed carbo-furnace, carrying a relay of three different kinds of gases, I rigger rig-ger a man ought to do one type a day else he's a skunk and loafinc on his Job," said Irad. "Is that all?" whispered Edgar, his face pfcrple with suppressed emotion. "Sure there ain't some billion-dollar, extry super-microscopic self-adjusting, diamond hilted pin wheel to be fetched fetch-ed in?" "I6We.ii! I did forgit the diamond dust to be used in filing the diamond cutter after each type is scratched," cried Irad. "Good joke on me, eh? We'd slap lf-on with a low geared emery wheel " x "I'll come over tke first evening you an' Edgar have a reading bee," grimly grim-ly promised Edgar. Copyright, 1310, by W. a. Chapman. v. |