Music in Motion (1954)

[Music] e [Music] the flam likee patterns you have just seen were pictures of musical sounds similar patterns also are made of voice sounds for the spoken word is of course the most important sound studied in telephone research if my voice sounds familiar to you it is probably because you have heard me on the Bell systems radio program the telephone hour I'm Tom Shirley usually I talk about the things telephone people are doing to serve you and your neighbors sometimes I tell about the research work down at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to help your telephone company make your service better and keep its cost to you as low as possible so you can imagine that we of the telephone hour were much pleased when we got a call from one of the research men well there is a way you could help us besides telling about our work we'd like to be present at one of your telephone hour rehearsals to make High Fidelity recordings of some of the instruments of the orchestra in particular oh uh say the harp the cello and the flute we want to use them in our study of the characteristics of sound sounds interesting but tell me why music well as you know we carry the music of radio and television over the same telephone Network that carries the telephone calls but more important the study of ways to transmit music has had a lot to do with the good telephone service we have today okay why not come next Monday fine then we'll be there at rehearsal next Monday afternoon be looking for you goodbye goodbye and so this film has been made to show you some of the research work going on to improve the telephone and at the same time we hope you will enjoy a brief glimpse of the telephone [Music] hour [Music] don don the balance is fine would you like to jump down towards the end of the walls good uh 10 measures before letter H [Music] please [Music] all right quite good gentlemen we have uh two scientists from the Bell Telephone Laboratories here at rehearsal with us today they are doing research on the characteristics of different sounds and they need some music samples are you all setting there w-e are you ready gentlemen yes we are Mr Miguel we're all set in here Don fine now gentlemen we'll need samples from the harp the cello and oh yes the flute all right you'll take your directions from the control room please meanwhile the rest of us will have a break all set take one [Music] shallo [Music] oh good afternoon Mr R hello Scot so glad to see you how you feeling very fine thank you just checking over the score of your first number the Irish tune from County Dairy looks very good I believe fine I am ready anything oh good now we can call the orchestra back in about a minute the only instrument we have left to record is the [Music] heart [Music] that was fine thank you all very much for your help I think we got some good samples I think that's it Mr Miguel okay that's fine but don't leave yet if you do you'll miss one of the greatest violence in the world Zeno Francis KY he's our guest artist tonight on the telephone hour radio [Music] [Music] program [Music] that was really one of them I'm sure glad we stayed so am I I wouldn't miss that for anything yes at the Bell Telephone Laboratories scientists and Engineers study spoken words music and many other kinds of sound so that you can hear more clearly and easily over your telephone here they are translating into visible patterns the music samples recorded at the telephone hour rehearsal any portion of that sound can be picked out and reproduced for better study in the form of the flam like patterns the music of the flute and of the cello are very different to the ear everyone knows the flute has a purer more piercing tone the flute sound has narrow energy Peaks and few harmonics while the the cello sound head over a broad harmonic pattern these wall charts are pictures of voice sounds it is years of study of voices and music that have made possible the telephone service we have today let's consider for a moment the telephone in your own home when you pick it up to make a call you use it with confidence you expect it to work properly you expect to hear and to be heard clearly naturally hello Dorothy this is Margaret I'm cing about but this didn't just happen your telephone was designed and built you might say tailor made to respond Faithfully to the harmonic patterns of your voice years of research in sound have produced the telephone instrument endless tests have been made made to be sure that the transmitter and receiver their very shape and size will have uniform response to all frequencies in the fluctuating valleys and peaks of speech the very heart of these studies is this small condenser microphone it is the measuring unit that accurately records the slightest sound it never changes regardless of temperature or humidity it makes possible the delicate measurements that tell the scientist the effect of the changes he has made this tiny microphone came out of research in devices to reproduce Faithfully speech and music this same measuring unit is used at the plants of western electric to test every telephone instrument before it is placed in service if the moving dot on the screen follows a path like this the handset is performing properly your telephone passed this exacting test to ensure that it would Faithfully reproduce your voice but important as it is the work in sound research is only a part of the Bell Telephone laboratory's job of making your telephone service ever better and of greater value to you other scientists work constantly on the telephone instrument itself seeking ways to make it more efficient more durable and easier to use the instrumentation laboratory is equipped with all the necessary measuring and analyzing devices because research is essentially measurement often incredibly fine measurement it is in this way that telephone research charts its path as it moves ahead with this equipment impurities in materials on the order of one part in a billion may be detected such extreme Precision is necessary in many fields it was necessary in the development of a new refining technique for geranium in which the molecules of the metal are actually rearranged this is germanium the metal that made possible the Bell Telephone laboratory's great development the transistor the most important invention in electronics since the vacuum tube a new device that can do many of the jobs done by the vacuum tube and many the tube can't do as to wires and cables they are giving better and more economic telephone service because telephone scientists and Engineers have found ways to send many conversations over the same pair of wires at the same time here is one type of coaxial cable as many as 1,800 telephone conversations can be sent at the same time over a pair of coaxial tubes like these or a pair of tubes can carry 600 telephone conversation ations as well as two television programs exploration in still another field microwaves PVE the way for another method of communication radio relay telephone research is thus constantly finding new ways to make your telephone service better to bring you the voices of friends the pictures of television and the music of radio [Music] e [Music] e [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] so that's our story we hope you enjoyed the music and equally important we hope we have helped you to understand more about the work of the telephone scientists in making it possible for you to talk around the world or across the street