#joseph faber

[handeaux]

Cincinnati Was Fascinated By Talking Machines Whether Good, Bad Or Bogus

Professor Faber’s amazing “talking machine” arrived in Cincinnati to great fanfare in 1872 when that contraption shared a bill at Wood’s Theater with the famous Bandmanns, Daniel and Millicent. The celebrity thespians presented “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Corsican Brothers.” The talking machine recited whatever the professor told it to.

As early as 1844, the Cincinnati Enquirer carried reports of Austrian Joseph Faber’s progress in developing a mechanical device that could replicate human speech. The original “Professor” Faber, unhappy with progress on his own invention, killed himself in 1850, but the project was taken on by his nephew, also named Joseph Faber, who perfected the device and took it on tour. The Enquirer [25 January 1872] described it in some detail:

“On looking at it you see a table, on one end of which is a key-board with a number of levers similar to the hammers of a piano leading to an upright beam. At the front of this beam you see a mask from which you hear, in tones that remind one of a child’s trumpet, the measured enunciation of words. Back of this beam stands a pair of bellows which is operated by a treadle, and furnishes the air that is required to supply the instrument.”

Faber’s device was a sort of analog speech synthesizer, an ancestor of the Vocoder and similar electronic devices of the Twentieth Century. The operator, by pumping pedals and pressing keys, generated sounds resembling human speech. The Enquirer’s reporter, imagining no “practical utility,” was nevertheless impressed with the machine’s performance.

“During the exhibition the machine was made to speak in English, German, Greek and Hebrew. It beats the Professor speaking English, and but for the example of broken English he sets would speak almost as closely as anyone. It pronounced such words as Mississippi, Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia with ease and clearness. Although it speaks with a decided German accent, one has less difficulty understanding it than the average German who has been three or four years in this country.”

While touring the United States, Professor Faber impressed impresario Phineas Taylor Barnum so much that the great showman renamed the machine as The Euphonium and engaged it and its operator for six months on a contract worth $20,000. Barnum brought the newly christened Euphonium back to Cincinnati in July 1872 as a highlight of his “Great Traveling World’s Fair.” That extravaganza also featured four giraffes, sea lions, herds of trained elephants, Fiji cannibals, American Indians, various dwarves and midgets and three rings of continual circus acts. Barnum’s Fair occupied the Union Baseball Grounds for four summer days at a time when Cincinnati had no professional baseball team. Reports indicate that Barnum got his money’s worth as his show became the hottest ticket in town. Barnum did well enough that he extended Faber’s contract for at least another year. The Euphonium continued to receive star billing when Barnum’s circus returned to Cincinnati in 1873.

Professor Faber continued to exhibit his talking machine well into the 1880s, several years after a very different sort of talking machine made its debut. Thomas Edison, the Genius of Menlo Park, unveiled his phonograph in 1877 and Cincinnati shifted its attentions to the new gadget in town. The Cincinnati Commercial dispatched a reporter to Edison’s laboratory and he filed [3 April 1878] a breathless dispatch:

“I saw the talking-machine, talked to it, and it talked back. You have heard about it, of course, but the story can not be an old one for years to come, and although the phonograph is as simple as a jackknife, it excites the awe of the beholder as a telegraph wire stirs up an Indian’s superstition”

It was another year before an actual phonograph arrived in Cincinnati, almost simultaneously with an early telephone. The Enquirer [5 June 1878] announced the dawn of a new age:

“The phonograph now on exhibition at Greenwood Hall had an increased number of visitors yesterday, our most prominent citizens leading what must become a rush to witness this real wonder, which, with the telephone, marks an era in science. It is impossible to describe the sensation created by this ‘talking’ machine, which gives back to one his own very words and tones in either speaking or singing, and which, many believe, is to revolutionize many things in social and business life.”

Edison’s mind-blowing machine inspired a couple of Cincinnati con artists to offer talking machine service to the great unwashed. At a time when phonographs cost the equivalent of $500 and cylinders the equivalent of $15 per in today’s coin, the opportunity to try out this revolutionary device for one thin dime was irresistible. According to Frank Y. Grayson’s wonderful book, “Pioneers of Night Life on Vine Street,” the flim-flam men set up shop just south of the canal.

“Across the front of the dump, spread a canvas which bore these words: ‘Come In and for a Dime Hear the Most Amazing Invention of the Age – the Talking Machine Extraordinary.’”

The dupes who fell for the pitch surrendered their ten cents and were handed a rubber mouthpiece attached to a long hose. They said their piece while the operator furiously cranked a large wheel, waited a moment and – voila! – their words of wisdom emerged from a rubber bulb sprouting a tin funnel.

“News of the wonderful invention flashed up and down the good old avenue, and the come-ons fell all over themselves getting into the place. The crooks made hay while the sun shone.”

Their demise came when the local beat cop stopped by and tested his elocution. He shouted, “What am I?” into the mouthpiece, the customary pause ensued and “What am I?” emerged faintly from the funnel – followed by a sneeze. “I didn’t sneeze,” said the cop and descended into the basement where he found a fat man in shirtsleeves, managing the other end of a couple of rubber hoses.

Talking machines so excited the imagination of Cincinnati’s residents that they infested the hallucinations of our cranks. The Enquirer [21 October 1900] related the case of Mrs. F.C. Lykins of Walnut Hills, who sent letters accusing a young man residing at the Union Bethel of annoying her with his talking machine. A detective determined that there was no such resident at the Union Bethel, and no one by that name living in the area. Mrs. Lykins insisted that voices from a talking machine filled the air around her head. The detective just smiled, closed his notebook, and headed back downtown.

[dosartistas]

(vía Joseph_Faber%u2019s_“Euphonia”_talking_machine.jpg (Imagen JPEG, 639 × 850 píxeles))

Photograph of Joseph Faber’s “Euphonia” talking machine, ca. 1846

[echera]

The Euphonia was a talking machine created in the early to mid-nineteenth century by the Austrian inventor Joseph Faber and exhibited in 1845 in Philadelphia and in 1846 in London's Egyptian Hall. An earlier version of the invention had been destroyed in 1844 by Faber.

For the inventor and his machine, the London theater manager John Hollingshead provided the most complete, but also the most depressing description: “The exhibitor, Professor Faber, was a sad-faced man, dressed in respectable well-worn clothes that were soiled by contact with tools, wood, and machinery. The room looked like a laboratory and workshop, which is was. The Professor was not too clean, and his hair and beard sadly wanted the attention of a barber. I had no doubt that he slept in the same room as the figure—his scientific Frankenstein monster—and I felt the secret influence of an idea that the two were destined to live and die together (...)"

Faber’s speech synthesizer “Euphonia” with a female operator at the keyboard.

After taking Faber to London for the Egyptian Hall exhibition, Barnum showed it at his American Museum of curiosities in New York City, where Mathew Brady’s studio photographed it (see the upper photo), c. 1860, and later in his touring circus. Faber’s talking machine was still being shown in Barnum’s Circus when it played at the Exhibition Grounds on Grenville Street in Toronto in August 1874. The newspaper Toronto Mail noted large crowds around the machine but observed that it must have had a cold or a dislocated jaw because all of its words sounded monotonous and similar.

Sadly, Joseph Faber ended his life tragically around 1850, when he committed suicide.

[prettyboysinmyheart]

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[ptakognia]

[jiminy-crickets]

happy draft day my darlings, a good number of the hockeys in the meat market are coming from the USNTDP, so it’s time for…………

¹ its MY silly poll, and i get to decide whats gay!!! ² its MY silly poll, and i get to decide whats a meme!!! ³ its MY silly poll, and i get to make it have my relatively niche media faves in it!!! ⁴ US National Development Program (where they put the teenage hockeys together, the developer of many many top draft picks, and the starting place of many hrpf ships)

images, videos and explanations for each option under the cut.

^ Smith College Girls for i-D magazine 2004

^ wake up sleepyhead vine

^ jedediah and octavius from night at the museum

^ but im a cheerleader full movie (this might not be available in your country on youtube, still i highly recommend watching it, such an amazing movie)

^ Olive and Brendon pretended to have sex in Easy A (2010)

^ P!nk opening a speech for the human rights campaign national dinner with "hi I'm Alicia hi I'm a Virgo I'm 31, I'm gay.......... actually I'm not"

^ Pool Boy SNL sketch

^ Lauren Phillips Lifting Alice Merchesi

^ The summer of like, warped tour 2005 when pete wentz and mikey way got into situationship so messy and life changing it gave us the majority of at at least three fall out boy albums.

^ ur so gay by Katy Perry

do I really need to explain taking an am I gay quiz?

[hockeybazooka]

Okay guess I'm gonna attempt this, Hello y'all I'm a VERY beginner hockey gossip blog. But don't play with me bc I don't condone racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism or misogyny (and yes that includes at wags). Send in anonymous asks/questions/gossip, but I will be expecting some sorta evidence.v🧐

P.S. if I find your ask redundant/ignorant its getting ignored!!!

_______________NOTES___________________

Please, please, please do not send a fuck ton of asks for the aforementioned people: Jack and Sammie, Olivia and Quinn and Auston and Megan. Ofc you can still send in asks about them but I've noticed when a blog gets an ask about they get flooded with more and become centered around them. 💀💀💀

P.S: I am a woc(woman of color) so don't be on some ignorant shit 🙏🏾

-----------------MY HOES💯💯🤑😈------------

Aka. the players I live laugh love 👇👇👇

[esonetwork]

Sweet Tooth Season 2 Review

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/sweet-tooth-season-2-review/

Sweet Tooth Season 2 Review

Gus and his fellow hybrids continue to seek sanctuary from a sick world that hates and fears them. Mike, Mike, and Joseph Martinez discuss the mysteries and revelations contained in the second season of the Netflix series. All this, along with Angela’s A Geek Girl’s Take and Shout Outs.

We want to hear from you! Feedback is always welcome. Please write to us at feedback@earthstationone.com and subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcast, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, wherever fine podcasts are found, and now we can be found on our own YouTube Channel.

Links The Earth Station One Website Earth Station One on Apple Podcasts The New Earth Station One YouTube Channel Earth Station One on Stitcher Radio Earth Station One on Spotify Past Episodes of The Earth Station One Podcast Angela’s A Geek Girl’s Take Ashley’s Box Office Buzz Michelle’s Iconic Rock Talk Show Kameleon Cosplay Kamikaze Vol. 3 Unique Crafts by Jenn

Promos Tifosi Optics The ESO Network Patreon ESO Network Tee-Public

If you would like to leave feedback or a comment on the show please feel free to email us at feedback@earthstationone.com

[thegirlwiththelantern]

2024 Literary Books

This is a really exciting year for me. I’m looking forward to literary fiction in ways that I haven’t before. The Storm We Made: A Novel by Vanessa Chan | 02 / 01 / 24 – S&S/Marysue Rucci Books Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into…

[dewarism]

'TIS MY BIRTHDAY YIPPEE

[kasiafaber]

J Ryan Faber True view Commercial

[theanticool]

Benson Henderson vs Anthony Pettis 1 - WEC 53

Another throwback! This was 14 years ago. That’s crazy.

Continuing to add context to fights of historical significance all MMA fans should try to watch. The WEC was an MMA promotion founded in 2001, bought by the UFC in 2006, and run independently until it was folded over into the UFC in 2010. It hosted a lot of future MMA stars and legends like Nate Diaz, Urijah Faber, Dominick Cruz, Jose Aldo, Joseph Benavidez, Donald Cerrone, and of course Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson. While they originally had all the major divisions, what they eventually became known for were their bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight divisions.

Eventually Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson would both be UFC lightweight champion, actually fighting one another for the title in 2013. But in 2010, they are the exciting young lightweight up and comers that have climbed the WEC lightweight division. Pettis is 4-1 in the WEC with all his wins being finishes. He’s a flashy exciting striker with a very opportunistic submission game. Benson Henderson is the defending WEC lightweight champion, having gone through Donald Cerrone twice and former champion Jamie Varner to become champ. He’s a very smooth wrestle-grappler with an arsenal of TKD kicks that he uses very well. Because of UFC bias and a bunch of other promotions floating around at the time, neither Pettis or Benson were considered ‘top’ lightweights at the time but they are seen as some of the best up and coming fighters in the sport.

WEC 53 would be the last WEC event before the UFC would fold over all the divisions into the UFC in 2011. This title fight was essentially supposed to be a #1 contender fight for a shot at the UFC title (though Edgar/Maynard 2 going to a draw basically shot that in the foot). But with that in mind, it makes complete sense why we saw this absolute classic unfold the way it did, with Pettis whipping out one of the most insane kicks in the history of the sport in the 5th round of this fight.

[invisibleicewands]

“In every room I go into, every office, every institution, people tell me, this is what we’re doing to encourage more working-class writers.  They reel off all the things they’re doing, and it sounds impressive, it sounds amazing. And you think: if all these people are doing all this, WHY ARE THINGS NOT CHANGING FASTER? WHAT IS GETTING IN THE WAY?”

Under the hot, bright lights of a packed-out auditorium at the 2024 London Book Fair, Michael Sheen is getting angry. His is an unthreatening, crowd-rousing kind of angry, but still, in an appropriate way – he’s mad.

The actor and philanthropist is speaking on a panel convened to discuss A Writing Chance, the programme co-founded by the actor with New Writing North and Northumbria University that helps working-class writers enter the writing industries. So far, the programme has been successful. The theme emerging on the panel is, if changes have been made in some areas, what’s holding things back in others? And what cultural changes might have to come before we solve the problem?

“You have to admit there’s a fundamental conflict between the system that’s set up, and what we’re trying to achieve,” says Michael. “I don’t know what the whole answer to that is, other than revolution.”

It says a lot about the mood in the room – and, we suspect, the rest of the country – that the laughs prompted by this conclusion feel rather approving. We firmly believe that elites have been hogging and hoarding opportunity for too long now. The support for A Writing Chance confirms that many, many people agree.

The initiative was launched in 2021, with 11 unpublished writers awarded places on a programme of support and mentoring. One, Tom Newlands, publishes his first novel this summer; another, Maya Jordan, signed a deal at the book fair. A new cohort will be selected soon, with the programme now supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Michael Sheen, the Charlotte Aitken Trust, Faber & Faber, The Daily Mirror, Substack, Audible, with research supported by AHRC, Northumbria University, Bath Spa University and York St John University.

For the London Book Fair panel, Michael is joined by Professor Katy Shaw from Northumbria University, plus Tracey Markham, head of UK at Audible, Farrah Storr, head of writer partnerships at Substack, and the Huddersfield-based novelist Sunjeev Sahota. Katy and Michael begin by reflecting on the successes of the first completed programme: writers emboldened and published, policymakers in the Houses of Parliament briefed and, most importantly, great writing exemplifying the talent out there waiting to be discovered. “What came in was just way beyond anything we had hoped for really,” says Michael. “And there was a sense of revelation, the feeling you were seeing into worlds that have just been closed off, into experiences I had never thought about.”

Ideas about how to give working-class writers more confidence and access to publishing are peppered through the hour-long conversation: a creative curriculum in schools; intervening with gifted people at younger ages, like sports coaches; encouraging more people to take advantage of digital platforms, even if printed-book authorship remains the ultimate goal. Around halfway through, Sunjeev makes a brilliantly clear-eyed analysis of what being working class really means, and how it relates to identity politics. At the same time, he provides a devastatingly simple explanation of why working-class writers need support.

“Publishing is an elite space, but it’s quite a diverse space in terms of people’s racialised or sexualised identities. However, it’s not at all diverse it comes to people’s economic backgrounds, or family income. Indeed, many of the non-white people I encounter in publishing are often from just as comfortably-off backgrounds as their white counterparts.

The creative industries, he says, have tended to treat class as being another cultural identity, as if class should be considered in the same way that we might talk about race, gender, or sexuality. “But I think a more universal, class-first politics will do more for the weakest members across all identities than any identity-first kind of politics. I find that taking an identity-first approach just tends to benefit the elites within the identities.”

Lest anyone doubt the existence of a market for work originating outside the elites, the extremely upbeat Tracey is on hand to reassure them. Audible attracts a notably diverse audience, with large black and Asian listenerships, and a high proportion of young men. To satisfy this audience, the old-style audiobook, with its middle- and highbrow titles and Received Pronunciation narration, has been overhauled in favour of books more suited to audience tastes, and accents.

“Our customers really want accents! We spend a lot of time working with voice agents to widen access to the audio-narration industry. I think what’s super-important now is that your accent is not prohibitive – if you have a Welsh accent, say, that doesn’t mean you can only read stories set in Wales.”

Tracey stresses there is “so much more to be done” to widen socio-economic diversity in the whole publishing industry. But although it might still be a case of taking “baby steps”, a wonderful thing about books is their power to drive change elsewhere. “You know, it’s hard to explain to someone that’s not from the UK how much your accent kind of signifies to people when they first meet you. And with voice, we can kind of break down a lot of those barriers, and actually encourage it and welcome [diversity].”

There’s a similar note of flexibility and responsiveness to audience needs in Farrah’s account of what Substack offers. The relationship between digital and print is always evolving, and in her vision, it’s a question of the one complementing the other. Printed books still have more prestige than publication on digital platforms, but the latter can help offset the material challenges associated with the former, she argues. Echoing Sunjeev, she points that “the problem for people from a working-class background is that your advance gets paid in separate lump sums. People feel, I don’t have a regular income, I can’t make this work, I might end up falling out of the writer ecosystem.

“So, on Substack, we say, well, okay, you’re writing the book, but you’re probably going to have thousands of words leftover. So just put them on Substack and talk about the novel at the same time.”

Lots of people she works with end up making liveable incomes and building readerships for their work, which ultimately is what keeps them in the game. It’s a reminder that we shouldn’t necessarily define “writing” as the production of traditional forms such as novels and plays.

No one at this event – the queue for which was so long that dozens were unable to squeeze inside – believed all the barriers facing working-class writers would be dismantled any time soon.  Few, though, can have left without believing that A Writing Chance has begun the job – and that that job is worthwhile.

Wrapping up, Michael recalls someone from the inaugural group who told him that in their community, becoming a writer seemed about as likely as becoming an astronaut.

“They said that there was no chance of it. They said, ‘I didn’t know anybody else who lived where I live who was a writer, so I didn’t know how to begin, or where to start. It was like saying I want to go into space.’ But that changed for them.

“And of course, now, there are all these wonderful spacemen.”

[hockybish]

Other Writings: One Shots, Blurbs, & Drabbles

Turning - Brock Faber

The Fighter - Arber Xhekaj

Forget Something? - Brandon Duhaime

Missing You Now - Connor Dewar

Get Out - Seth Jarvis

What Would Happen - Alex Turcotte

I Can't - Matt Boldy

Baby Grand - Joseph Woll

Masterlist l Other Writings

[ardenrosegarden]

Amnesia: The Bunker, Toussaint Beaufoy: "From this hour, go into darkness!"

Frictional Games, Amnesia: The Bunker Laurent Tatu and Julien Bogousslavsky, Neuropsychiatric Disturbances, Self-Mutilation and Malingering in the French Armies during World War I: War Strain or Cowardice? Laszlo Versényi, Oedipus: Tragedy of Self-Knowledge Joseph Heller, Catch-22 M. G. Shields, Sight and Blindness Imagery in the "Oedipus Coloneus" Sophocles tr. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, Oedipus Rex M. D. Faber, Self-Destruction in Oedipus Rex

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

✨ AUGUST WRAPUP ✨

Total books finished: 30 (wtf?)

DNF’s: 7

Pages read: 8,746

Hours listened: 70.92

[instagram]

Currently reading:

📖 Sucker Punch: Out of the Blue by Kayla Faber (8%)

🎧 Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (30%)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

-A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher*

-Sucker Punch by Kayla Faber*

-The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (reread) 🎧

-The Heart of the World by Amie Kaufman*

-Gentlest of Wild Things by Sarah Underwood*

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

-Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White*

-The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles

-A Case of Possession by KJ Charles

-The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman (reread) 🎧

-This Fatal Kiss by Alicia Jasinska*

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

-Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall (reread) 🎧

-Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

-Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall*

-Winter of the Wolf by Amanda Willimott*

-The Gentleman’s Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee (reread) 🎧

-Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas*

-Hot Summer by Elle Everhart

-Flight of Magpies by KJ Charles

-Murder at the Matinee by Jamie West*

-Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee (reread) 🎧

-Countess by Suzan Palumbo*

-Saving Graces by Ruby Landers*

-I’m Not Really Here by Gary Lonesborough*

-Nightbirds by Kate J Armstrong (reread) 🎧

-Fyrebirds by Kate J Armstrong*

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

-One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny

-Queen B by Juno Dawson*

⭐️⭐️⭐️

-Thyme Travellers edited by Sonia Sulaiman*

-The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

-Who Could Love You, Astor Price? by Amy Jane Lehan*

DNF

-Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens (16%)

-You’re the Problem, It’s You by Emma R Alban* (37%)

-Netherford Hall by Natania Barron* (26%)

-Not For the Faint of Heart by Lex Croucher* (54%)

-A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft* (47%)

-SMP title* (28%)

-At the End of the River Styx by Michelle Kulwicki* (34%)

*indicates gifted item