The Faber talking machine is a mechanism that reproduces the sounds of human speech.
His idea belonged primarily to the Austrian mechanic scientist Wolfgang von Kempelen (died in 1804 ), who in 1778 invented a talking machine that made a number of vowels and consonants (not all). Kempelen gave a description of his car in his famous essay “Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebst der Beschreibung einer sprechenden Maschine von W. v. Kempelen ”(Vienna, 1791). A description of it (with a drawing) in Wolf’s book “Sprache und Ohr. Akustischphysiologische und pathologische Studien ”(Braunschweig, 1871, pp. 64–67).
Professor Joseph Faber in Vienna , who lived in the first half of the 19th century , improved and modified the Kempelen mechanism, and in the late 30s Faber’s machine was already shown to them in different cities of Germany . The inventor and subsequently his heirs rejected lucrative offers to sell this invention. After the death of the inventor, his car went to his nephew, also Joseph Faber (born in Vienna, in 1839), who, in turn, made some technical improvements in it, being a mechanic by profession. With the car of his uncle, Joseph Faber Jr. traveled all over Europe and America , and was also twice in Russia . On January 20, 1883 , Faber’s machine was demonstrated in Kazan at a meeting of the physico-mathematical section of the Society of Naturalists at Kazan University .
 | At the request of some of the years. Section members, the meeting was specifically designed to demonstrate the talking machine of Mr. Faber, a demonstration combined with historical and scientific explanations, which Professor I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay and privat docent V. A. Bogoroditsky favorably took upon themselves. Under a preliminary agreement with Mr. Faber and his wife, who controlled the machine, the section was obliged to pay Mr. Faber 25 rubles for this meeting. It was supposed to collect the indicated amount from the persons present at the meeting, and for this purpose 25 kopecks were levied from everyone entering the meeting room. However, only 21 rubles were collected in this way. The missing 4 rubles are credited to the section. [one] |  |
Device
Faber’s machine consists of air fur, driven by a foot pedal and responding to the lungs of a person. The air displaced from the fur with the help of a number of keys is directed to tubes of various sizes, corresponding to different positions of the glottis and the oral cavity. Faber did not succeed in achieving a perfectly exact correspondence to the human speaking apparatus. To some extent approach the mobility of the extension tube of the human organ of speech, which was extremely difficult to reproduce mechanically, the inventor had to arrange six metal , rather thick diaphragms vertically one after the other in the extension pipe of his machine, rising and falling to different heights, and movements and the positions of these diaphragms are combined with each other in different ways. Thanks to this device, it is possible to modify the shape and volume of the extension pipe of the machine and receive sounds of different quality and timbre . The voice tone in the Faber machine is produced by vibration of a thin plate of ivory on a rubber lining, giving a very sharp and loud sound. There is no correspondence with the real organ of the human voice — soft vocal cords or vibrating membranes. The sound “p” in Faber’s machine is also produced by vibration not of the tongue, but of a hard plate placed behind the larynx in front of the mouth of the fur. The tube depicting the nose is not located on top of the extension pipe depicting the mouth, but below it, etc. The mechanism itself (keyboard, pedal, etc.) is extremely rude and heavy, requiring great effort from the player playing this “speaking organ” ", As Techmer successfully calls him.
Due to the clumsiness and inaccuracy of the device, the sounds themselves, extracted from the car, are rude, loud, monotonous and not always similar to the sounds of real human speech. Nevertheless, of the famous talking devices in science, the Faber projectile was one of the most successful.
Literature
- I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay . Brief historical information concerning the talking Faber machine (message made on January 20, 1883 at a meeting of the physico-mathematical section of the Society of Naturalists at Imperial Kazan University // Proceedings of the Kazan section of the physico-mathematical sciences. Collection of meeting minutes of a section of the society of natural scientists at Imperial Kazan University. T. 1. Sessions I – XXVIII, from April 1880 to May 1883. Kazan: printing house of the Imperial University, 1883. P.16–20.
- V.A. Bogoroditsky . A few words about the talking Faber machine ... // Ibid. S.21–32.
- Du Monsel , “Telephone, Microphone, and Phonograph” (translated from the 2nd French edition, St. Petersburg, 1880).
- Lermantov V.V. Talking machine // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- For other literature, see the indicated message by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay.
Notes
- ↑ Minutes of the 23rd meeting of the Section of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Society of Naturalists at the Imperial Kazan University // Transactions of the Kazan section of physical and mathematical sciences. Collection of meeting minutes of the section of the Society of Naturalists at the Imperial Kazan University. T.1. Sessions I – XXVIII, from April 1880 to May 1883. Kazan: printing house of the Imperial University, 1883. P. 14.