of Science An astonishing demonstration of the advance of science was given recently in the Imperial College of Science, South Kensington. At a lecture given in connexion with the exhibition of the Physical Society of London and the Optical Society, a blind girl read by telephone with perfect accuracy two lines of a book which had been selected at random. As I selected the page myself, and as Sir William Collins, a famous eye spe dalist, took an intimate interest in the experiment, I have no hesitation in saying that its result was beyond dispute, a "Morning Post" representative reports. A distiaguished doctor put the thing in a nutshell. His remark was, "It beats Maskelyne and Cooke."
Leaving out all technical details, of advancing discovery and apparatus made to fit the discoveries, the main principle of the new system is this: By the use of selenium it is possible when tracing a delicate instrument over printed paper to translate the differences between white and black into musical notes, and the expert can transliterate each note into its ap propriate letter, and spell out the words as they come out. The form of each letter causes it to sing its own little tune. They sound, at the first encounter, as similar as the chords blown on a mouth organ but after some practice the diligent. student can distinguish between them. Five cardinal notes come into play, and are indicated to the careful ear—the lower G. and then the middle OE. D. E. and G.
Put a printed page on the machine, work it at the desired speed, and the blind reader can spell out the words—always supposing, of course, that he or she is good at spelling, for the optophone can do no more than represent the sound equivalent of the dark blotches, meaning the letters, it encounters on the body of the white paper.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.