FABER'S SPEAKING MACHINE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sut,—Your correspondent at Munich seems to describe the Speak- ing Machine there altogether as a novelty, but it is about twenty years since Faber exhibited in London a mechanism producing similar results in a mostly satisfactory manner, though I know not how far he may have since improved upon it. The figure was not at that time taken to pieces before spectators ; but there was something very suggestive in the mode in which it was worked by a few keys fingered in various combinations—evincing, e.g., that the letter m has the same relations to b p as n has to d t, or ng to y k, and many other such points that should be mastered by comparative etymologists. It is probable that if such machines could be made generally accessible, or if a thorough account of their working were once published, it would be of great service to persons bent on methodically acquiring the pronuncia- tion of foreign languages, and that the theories of grammatical and phonetic writers might advantageously be tested by some expedients of this kind. I should therefore be very sorry to anticipate with your correspondent that the machine and the idea may per- haps drop away together into oblivion and ruin ; but it is to be feared that their development has been already retarded by the regrettable neglect of the public, and I hope fervently that this injustice to the skill and merit of the inventor will be atoned (though it can no longer be repaired to him) by the more intelligent curiosity of a new generation.—I am, Sir, &c., C. B. C.
Previous page
