Letters, Oct. 19, 1931

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TIME felicitates Author Sinclair on his return to health, gladly prints this correction of his reported ailment.—ED.

Bowdoin's Gibson

Sirs:

In your Sept. 21 issue, under Business & Finance, I read your article on Harvey Dow Gibson with a great deal of interest.

I notice in your articles that generally when a man is a Harvard or Yale man or a graduate of some of the other large universities you mention the fact. Why wait for an obituary notice to let the world know that Mr. Gibson is a Bowdoin alumnus?

LUTHER DANA

Westbrook, Me.

Trapped Miner

Sirs:

TIMEsters will be interested to hear of the outcome in the case reported in the current issue of TIME: a miner trapped in the mine eight or ten miles from Montgomery, W. Va., and emergency amputation of the right arm, bravely and successfully performed under adverse conditions by Dr. W. B. Davis (TIME, Sept. 28). The left arm was fractured in the slate fall.

This morning I am informed by our orthopedic surgeon that the convalescence thus far has been satisfactory and that the prognosis is C. L. WOODBRIDGE, M. D. Montgomery Clinic Montgomery, W. Va.

Maidofallworks

Sirs:

Every inventor feels he has invented everything, but even after discounting this professional weakness, I was surprised to read about the claviphone in your columns (TIME, Sept. 14).

Some time ago, a celebrated German pianist visited my house and laboratories at Gloucester, Mass. He saw and heard the Piraphon, my child, then some years old. He called it "maid-ofallworks" in German, and it was. The "Pi" for piano, "ra" for radio, and "phon" for phonograph were embodied in a single instrument which had been carefully studied by the Aeolian Company of New York. In this instrument, a common radio tube amplifier builds up radio, phonograph, and piano tone, making a baby grand sound like a concert grand and producing radio tone, which through the piano acoustics are far superior to any boxed radios. The combination is my dream of the instrument of tomorrow, and I am happy that Bechstein has the vision to promote it.

I am also equally happy that the U. S. Patent Office has granted me some basic claims on the invention.

JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, JR.

Gloucester, Mass.

In the Manchester Guardian lately appeared the following:

Seated one day at the organ, I was feeling excessively cross, As grim as a grisly old Gorgon And generally quite at a loss; So, seeking to make my horizon Less damnably dismal and blue, I pushed every knob I set eyes on To see what that organ could do.

At first I secured a loudspeaker Which bellowed and blustered away, And then, as its volume grew weaker, A gramophone started to play; A spinet I found I could wangle, And then I perceived I had hatched A really magnificent mangle With vacuum cleaner attached.

A harp, a trombone, and a mincer

In rapid succession were seen;

There followed a washer and rinser,

A loom and an adding machine;

But a twist from the knob that was neater

Than any I'd hitherto tried,

Delivered a slap-up two sealer

In which I went forth for a ride.—ED.