poor, all tend to broaden their first elements. That of (eə) is the low-front-narrow vowel. The other two begin with lowered forms of the wide (i) and (u) respectively. In (uə) the lowering is often carried so far as to make poor almost, or completely, into pore (pɔə).
The following arrangement of the English consonants will show their organic relations to one another.
| j | r; | þ,ð | s, z; | ʃ, ʒ | wh, w; | f, v | ||
| l | ||||||||
| k, g | t, d | p, b | ||||||
| ŋ | n | m |
The “aspirate” (h) may be regarded either as a throat-consonant or as a breath-glide.
Characteristic features of the English consonant-system are the large number of hisses and buzzes, the sharp distinction of breath and voice, and, negatively, the absence of the open-back consonants, and of the voiceless forms of the vowel-like consonants (l, r) and the nasals, most of which still existed in Old English.
Bibliography.—The most important general works are: H. Sweet, A Primer of Phonetics (3rd ed, Ox ord, 1906); E. Sievers, Grundzuge der Lautphysiologie (5th ed., Leipzig, 1901); W. Vietor, Elemente der Phonetik des Deutschen, Englischen und Franzosischen (5th ed, Leipzig, 1904); O. Jesperson, Lehrbuch der Phonetik (Leipzig, 1904); M. Trautmann, Die Sprachlaute (Leipzig, 1884–1886); Le Maître Phonétique, organe de l'association phonétique internationale (apply to Dr P. Passy, Bourg-la-Reine, France). For the laws of sound-change, see the above-mentioned work of Sievers; H. Sweet, A History of English Sounds (Oxford, 1888); P. Passy, Les Changements phonetiques (Paris, 1890). For phonetics in language-teaching see H. Sweet, The Practical Study of Languages (London, 1899); O. Jesperson, How to Learn a Foreign Language (London, 1904). For phonetic shorthand, H. Sweet, A Manual of Current Shorthand (Oxford, 1892). For the application of phonetics and phonetic notation to the practical study of special languages, H. Sweet, A Primer of Spoken English (2nd ed., Ox ord, 1895); F. Beyer and P. Passy, Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Franzosisch (2nd ed, Cothen, 1905); W. Vietor, Deutsches Lesebuch tn Lautschrift (Leipzig, 1899). (H. Sw.)PHONOGRAPH (Gr. φωνή, sound, γράφειν, to write), an instrument for imprinting the vibrations of sound on a moving surface of tinfoil or wax in such a form that the original sounds can be faithfully reproduced by suitable mechanism. Many attempts had been made by earlier experimenters to obtain tracings of the vibrations of bodies emitting sound, such as tuning-forks, membranes, and glass or metallic disks. In 1807 Thomas Young (Lectures, i. 191) described a method of recording the vibrations of a tuning-fork on the surface of a drum; his method was fully carried out by Wilhelm Wertheim in 1842 (Recherches sur l'élasticité, 1er mém.). Recording the vibrations of a membrane was first accomplished by Leon Scott in 1857 by the invention of the “phonautograph,” which may be regarded as the precursor of the phonograph (Comptes rendus, 53, p. 108). This instrument consisted of a thin membrane to which a delicate lever was attached. The membrane was stretched over the narrow end of an irregularly-shaped funnel or drum, while the end of the lever or marker was brought against the surface of a cylinder covered with paper on which soot had been deposited from a flame of turpentine or camphor. The cylinder was fixed on a fine screw moving horizontally when the cylinder was rotated. The marker thus described a spiral line on the blackened surface. When sounds were transmitted to the membrane and the cylinder was rotated the oscillations of the marker were recorded. Thus tracings of vibrations were obtained. This instrument was much improved by Karl Rudolph König, of Paris, who also made with it many valuable observations. (See Nature, Dec. 26, 1901, p. 184). The mechanism of the recording lever or marker was improved by William Henry Barlow, in 1874, in an instrument called by him the “logograph” (Trans. Roy. Soc., 1874). The next step was König's invention of manometric flames by which the oscillations of a thin membrane under sound-pressures acted on a small reservoir of gas connected with a flame, and the oscillations were viewed in a rotating rectangular mirror, according to a method devised by Charles Wheatstone. Thus flame-pictures of the vibrations of sound were obtained (Pogg. Ann., 1864, cxxii 242, 660; see also Quelques experiences d'acoustique, Paris, 1882). Clarence Blake in 1876 employed the drumhead of the human ear as a logo graph, and thus obtained tracings similar to those made by artificial membranes and disks (Archiv. fur Öphthalmol., 1876, v. 1.). In the same year Sigmund Theodor Stein photographed the vibrations of tuning-forks, violin strings, &c. (Pogg. Ann., 1876, p. 142). Thus from Thomas Young downwards successful efforts had been made to record graphically on moving surfaces the vibrations of sounds, but the sounds so recorded could not be reproduced. This was accomplished by T. A. Edison in 1876, the first patent being dated January 1877.
The tinfoil phonograph, however, was an imperfect instrument, both as regards the medium on which the imprints were taken (tinfoil) and the general mechanism of the instrument. Many improvements were attempted. From 1877 to 1888 Edison was engaged in working out the details of the wax-cylinder phonograph. In 1885 A. G. Bell and S. Tainter patented the “graphophone,” and in 1887, Emile Berliner, a German domiciled in America, patented the “gramophone,” wherein the cylinder was coated with lampblack, and the friction between it and the stylus was made uniform for all vibrations. Incidentally it may be mentioned that Charles Cross deposited in 1877 a sealed packet with the Académie des Sciences, Paris, containing a suggestion for reproducing sound from a Scott phonautograph record. The improvements made by Edison consisted chiefly (1) in substituting for tinfoil cylinders or disks made of a waxy substance on which permanent records are taken; (2) in substituting a thin glass plate for the parchment membrane; (3) in improving the mechanical action of the marker; and (4) in driving the drum carrying the wax cylinder at a uniform and rapid speed by an electric motor placed below the instrument.