Details are given in the Daily Mail of Wednesday of
an invention which fills us with dismay. According to the account furnished by the inventor, his new phonographic voice-trumpet magnifies musical and vocal sounds in such volume as to render them unendurable in a room and satis- factorily distinct two miles off. In time he hopes to extend the stentorophonic capacity of this terrible trumpet to thrice that distance. His first idea was to enable ship-captains to converse in a heavy sea-fog or at night. Now, however, he has realised that by the aid of his sound-magnifier telephones can be made which will allow a political speaker or profes- sional vocalist to entertain three or four audiences seated in halls wide apart at one and the same time. The power which is thus placed in the hands of those who are fond of hearing their own voices is nothing short of devastating. Imagine, again, the inflammatory effect of a debate in the French Chamber being " switched " on to the working quarters, or of Sir Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett simultaneously ravishing the ears of the House of Commons and of a "demonstration" in Hyde Park. Seriously, it is impossible to profess enthusiasm for an invention calculated to enhance the dominion of din under which modern dwellers in cities incessantly groan.
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