SOUNDS FAMILIAR

e [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello hello Tom well hello there you in town today no but I'll be in tomorrow good come on over will you right see you then goodbye goodbye George that was George how did I know he didn't tell me his voice sounds familiar have you ever noticed how often this happens you hear a few words just familiar sounds and recognize the voice because what comes over the telephone is more than sound more than a voice it is the person oh uh listen see if this person sounds familiar to you hello hello Thomas yes well hello how are you I'm mighty fine Tom sure got big doings going on five visitors are here from a HomeTown I brought them up to see where we work they're ball players aged 10 to 12 I've got them up here with me in the catb bird seat say that again will you I've got some friends here too and I'd like to see if they know who you are I said I've got them up here with me in the cat bird seat doesn't that voice sound familiar of course who else could it be but the old redhead himself red Barber will you say hello red why sure hi folks you all having a good day now Tom what I want to ask you these kids would like to watch a TV show they've seen you so often that they' feel right at home with you could you get them in the studio you bet I could bring them over here later on and thanks red you just proved again what I've been talking about how a whole personality travels over the telephone wire did the folks recognize my voice absolutely that's good so long Tom we'll see you goodbye red fellas it's all set thank you Mr Barber we'll go right down there after the game hello hello may I speak to oh it is you isn't it red sure thing how are you anyway my goodness I haven't seen you since that Sunday night you tried so hard to disguise your voice thought you had us there didn't you you couldn't quite get away with it well not for long listen red you do know who this this is why certainly you're not the only one who's good at guessing you know I know you're arene Francis ah you've got it and you know I am asking you to be a guest on one of my morning shows will you do it red I don't see why not say Alene did you ever notice how easy it is to recognize a person on the telephone you know your voice brings up a whole picture of you what do you mean red you can cover up your eyes but you can't mask on the fun and that voice of yours ah thank you red and thanks so much for saying you'll be on the show I'll be looking forward to it arene goodbye bye hello hello Arlene this is uh hello Arlene you know who this is that voice sounds familiar wait a minute Arlene there's someone on this wire someone it's me that means trouble for you chump Arlene don't let that Fierce tone frighten you don't worry Red Riding Hood it isn't Grandma it's to Wolf all right now that sounds like in the Box son I'm warning you the little blow sir don't threaten me those two voices have to be Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy second billing again that's my life for you Charlie get off that wire I'll have to take that telephone out of your bedroom I'm not in my bedroom I'm In Your Den what are you planning on doing with this gadget here Burgen going to run for Congress my fellow constituents Charlie you know that's my speaker phone and it's helpful when I'm working oh helpful when you're working say that could be the end of me if it gets any laughs I'll tear that voice box out don't get excited Charlie it's no threat to you it's just a handy way to use the telephone H look ma handy no hands now Charlie please get off the phone will you I have something to ask Arlene well ask her we're old friends I'm like one of the panel let's face it you are the panel that's why I Pine for you Arlene Arlene I called to ask if you could come to a party I'm giving next week why I'd love to Edgar fine Wednesday at 700 yeah I'm free that night too wonderful Edgar did you ever think how you hear a person's voice on the telephone it sounds familiar and then all at once your mood changes you know if Bergen is good and mad at me I can tell it even by the way the telephone rings Charlie Arlene is saying that your personality your your attitude even travels over the wire you ought to treat a person on a telephone as you would a guest in your home or a very good friend H you you won't give mad at me then Nina when Charlie when I sound familiar you're not really a bad wolf Charlie you're just sort of pesky and lovable like a wood chuck goodbye you two goodbye arene goodbye arene H I'm Mr Bergen's residence a number one boy sticky uh V Los don't try to fool me I know that voice it's surely Charlie well then it's surely shirely don't tell me I can't recognize a familiar voice when I hear it did you know it it can work that way Tom know it that's just what I've been saying hello hello all right who's that character it's ber of course how are you Edgar oh it's you Tom fine what are you and Charlie talking about how you recognize people on the telephone from The Familiar sound of their voices the way I recognized you and you Charlie even though it wasn't really you I heard talking whatever do you mean you make me sound like a dummy that can't say a word no no Charlie everyone knows you're a personality I mean that what I hear is not your voice voice but your voice reproduced by the phone you know how a telephone instrument Works don't you uh yes I do as a matter of fact you talking to the little holes here that strains the lumps out of your voice and now this Gizmo we call a cender transmitter I'll accept that answer boy and then uh you see the voice is degenerated into a a magnetic uh procrastinator and then you add the whites of two eggs and then it goes through an Asif fire and then it comes out of your phone look here Tom why aren't you telling me if you know how it does it well it's like this your voice has variations in volume and tone that are distinctly your own do you think my voice has tone what would you call it Timber ah please that goes against the grain well each person's voice takes on its own pattern of high and low tones loudness and softness shrill tones or mellow ones a pattern characteristic of you you can see how complex it is on a device we call an oscilloscope ah looks different from a a a the pattern on the osilloscope is made electronically it pictures the variations among the sound waves as they strike the telephone sound waves are caused by vibration your voice comes from vibration so does the sound of this guitar [Music] string you can't see sound waves but we know what they are like soundwaves are waves of pressure traveling through the air they occur this way the air around the string is composed of tiny molecules as the string moves it pushes some of the molecules of air aside these molecules in turn push other molecules and the motion proceeds from molecule to molecule in waves of pressure that travel outward from the string as long as it vibrates if the string moves out far the sound is loud if the string moves less the sound is soft if the vibration is slow as when the string is not so tight the sound is low in Pitch if the vibration is fast as when the string is tighter the sound is high the sounds of your voice are produced by the vocal cords in the throat which also vibrate differences in vibration and breathing produce different kinds of sound waves which take on still other differences as the sound waves bounce around in the air passages and are formed into words when the sound waves come out of the mouth they have a complex pattern as individual as a fingerprint a sound pattern that is your voice my my bgen don't go throwing those sound patterns around your personality rides on the sound waves your voice produces boy what a Tailwind the sound waves enter the telephone mouthpiece carrying your personality with them whoops I'm a goner get me out of there inside the telephone the sound waves carrying the sound pattern of your voice strike against a thin metal disc or diaphragm the sound waves push the diaphragm forward and release it again in a pattern of movement unbelievably slight yet this pattern of movement still conforms to the pattern of your voice behind the center of the diaphragm is a tiny package of carbon grains when a soundwave strikes the diaphragm it sends a wave of pressure through the carbon grains inside the telephone also there is electricity flowing along a wire this electricity must flow through the carbon grains which resist its flow when the pressure on the carbon grains is increased their resistance is less and more electricity gets through when the pressure on the carbon grains is decreased their resistance is greater and less electricity gets through the pressure on the carbon grains is regulated by the pressure of the metal diaphragm which in turn is regulated by the pattern of sound waves so the electricity takes on a pattern of strength and weakness that is like the pattern of the sound waves in other words your personality riding on all the varieties of sounds that make your voice Personally Yours enters the transmitter and there the sound waves of your voice set up a pattern of strength and weakness in the electric current the variations in electric current carry the pattern of your voice along the wire the pattern of your voice may go across the street across the town or anywhere Beyond it goes through Central offices where it is directed by switches to any one of millions of telephone lines for long distances the pattern of your voice May travel through cables or by microwave radio strengthened at intervals by amplifiers along the way in short the sound pattern of your voice rides on the electrical signals all the way to the telephone receiver at the other end of the line if inside the receiver is another diaphragm this diaphragm is moved back and forth by the action of two magnets one is a permanent magnet the other is an electromagnet the permanent magnet by itself would exert a constant pull on the diaphragm the electromagnet regulates this pull according to the electric current flowing through its windings and thus it controls the movement of the diaphragm now along the wire comes the electric current which is taken on the varying pattern of your voice in the receiver this current passes through the windings of the electromagnet and causes the diaphragm to move according to the pattern set up by your voice as it moves in and out the diaphragm sets up new sound waves that are like the ones your voice sent into the transmitter these sound waves reproduce your voice and your personality she blows folks it's all done with wires well you don't have to shout Charlie the more pleasant and Charming your voice is when you send it into the transmitter the more pleasant and Charming it is when it reaches someone's ear quite a voice thrower the telephone eh the telephone is a remarkable instrument but it speaks only when and what you speak it into it h no back talk eh you see Charlie how your personality travels over the wire when you're speaking on the phone put a smile in your voice you you mean make it sort of H phonogenic yes oh Tom the lights flashing on my other line here will you hold on while I see who it is hello hello who's there just me it looks like who is this Uncle Mo Uncle MO oh he ain't here no more he got himself shot out of a cannon at the fair and we ain't heard from him since oh this is Mart marimer well where in the world are you and why does your voice sound so strange I don't know I was just looking around and and this oldfashioned phone made me feel kind of homesick so I just sat down for a spell I forget now just where I am I kind of like these old telephones with a crank on them you know the new ones all got sell starters hold on marimer Tom yeah it's marimer he's lost some place where there's one of those old crank type telephones oh good Heavens I I think I hear him he he must be right behind me in that display of early telephones how do you suppose he got there I wouldn't know but Mortimer can get into trouble almost anywhere well keep him on your wire while I go see about him I'll hang up on this line hello Mortimer are you still there still well we'll just be patient for a moment Edgar he's here right where I thought oh good see Tom but what happened to your voice I'm using this early telephone we hooked up for the show it's almost 50 years old did you hear how different my voice sounds how much less of my my personality comes across uh does my personality come across over the telephone well not so much over that one no it would come across much better over a modern instrument well gol I ain't the modern type I should have stood with smoke signals well Edgar this phone is really just for demonstration let me hang up here and call you back later okay you know unlike Mortimer most of us find the improvements in the telephone instrument over the years a great advantage since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone both the transmitter and the receiver have been redesigned many times by Bell Telephone Laboratories Engineers they have made the instrument lighter in weight easier to handle and more pleasant to use they have found ways to make your voice over the telephone sound more natural and all this along with a great Improvement in telephone lines makes the modern telephone an instrument capable of transmitting and reproducing a voice that sounds just like you the personality that is you of course so responsive an instrument has to be quite complex inside in the unit that holds the transmitter and the receiver there are 84 tiny parts and in the base of the telephone there are 48 [Music] parts and each one of these parts contributes to the Fidelity with which the telephone transmits your voice still complex responsive precise and handsome as it is the telephone wouldn't do you or me much good if it costs so much that only a few people could have one to be a real telephone service the instrument has to be produced on a mass scale from the color that goes into the Plastics which house the mechanism to the preparation of the tiniest parts inside each step in the process is subject to strict control and each step is performed by a person trained to do exacting work by mass production methods turn out one Perfect part to do one thing right try the performance it's going to be a precise instrument [Music] retest it's going to be a sensitive mechanism do each job with Precision with care for detail with concern with knowledge with skill with the pride of the Craftsman with the joy of competence and the satisfaction of working with others at this big job of producing thousands of sensitive accurate instruments for these are the instruments that will bring the voice the words the personality of one person to another hundreds of thousands of times in every minute of every hour of every day and night from here to there everywhere in the world the people who manufacture the telephone do a good job of it and the job when it is finished becomes a mighty neat piece of sound reproduction equipment well Edgar I promised to call you back martim was fine he's right here with me thanks Tom I'll send for him right away oh Mr Bergen I'm going to ask Tom if I can have one of those old telephones for myself now why bimer people can't hear you as well on it no but then it won't matter so much if I ain't saying nothing worth listening to B's got something Tom the modern telephone is precise and sensitive but do we use it just for precise work scientific formula or mathematical equations no no we use it for ordinary things like calling the grocer but that's what telephone service is for to make things easy and to make it fun just to talk to our friends often it isn't the words you hear but the sound of a familiar voice that counts oh wait a minute Edgar Charlie I want to get the operator to get some more people on this wire operator operator will you do me a favor I want you to set up a conference call you pick up the receiver and what comes over the wire sounds familiar sounds your friend is there almost in person it's the old redhead wishing you all good luck yeah the lights grow bright a welcome guest arrives and you've guessed who it is arleene I hope you've had a good time your spirits lift they go up the scale you are never alone life has color and tone when you answer the phone it will bring you good cheer if the word that you hear or the voice in your ear sounds familiar [Applause] a [Music]