After M. Cros, and before Mr. Edison, MM. Napoli and Marcel Deprez attempted to make a phonograph, but with so little success that they believed at one time the problem to be insoluble, and threw doubts on Mr. Edison’s invention when it was announced to the Société de Physique. They subsequently resumed their labours, and lead us to hope that they may eventually produce a phonograph of more perfect construction than that of Mr. Edison. We shall have more to say on this subject. In conclusion, the mechanical reproduction of speech was first effected by Mr. Edison, and in so doing he has accomplished one of the most curious and important discoveries of our time, since it has shown that this reproduction was much less complicated than had been supposed. Yet the theoretical consequences of the discovery must not be exaggerated, since I do not consider it by any means proved that our theories on the voice are incorrect. There is in fact a great difference between the reproduction of a sound which has been uttered, and the mode in which the same sound was produced. The reproduction may be easily effected, as M. Bourseul has remarked, as soon as a mode has been discovered of transmitting the vibrations of air, however complex they may be; but in order to produce the complex vibrations of speech by the voice, several special organs must be exercised--first, the muscles of the throat; secondly, the tongue, the lips, and even the teeth--and for this reason an articulating machine is necessarily very complex. Surprise was expressed that the speaking machine, which was brought from America two years ago, and exhibited at the Grand Hôtel, Paris, was so extremely complicated, since the phonograph solved the problem in such a simple way. This is because the latter instrument only reproduces speech, while the former utters it, and the inventor of the speaking machine had to employ in his mechanism all the organs which are necessary in our organism for the reproduction of speech. The problem was infinitely more complex, and this invention has not attracted all the attention it deserved. We shall speak of it presently. We must now describe the phonograph and the different applications which have been, or which may be, made of it.