SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

151

noisecalculations are given in column 12, and values If we consider only the octavefrequencies 125, 250, of Zr from Eq. (41) or 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000, then the following equationis approximatelycorrect. Z r = B,-]- ZXB,-]8-t-K-/0' (41) (00) /5,= - 10 log{Y'.W10-kn0} are given in the last column. where k takes the successive valuesof 125, 250, 500, APPENDIX 2: HEARING LOSS FOR SPEECH 1000,2000,4000, and 8000. The weightsare givenby In this appendixthe relationshipbetweenthe hear/ 1.4k ing loss for speech '4 and the hearingloss audiogram will be considered. Let/s be the hearing lossat the frequencyf for a pure tone. It is the ordinate in the audiogram. If we consider/s has the sameeffectupon For 125 c.p.s. W=0.000, 250 c.p.s. W=0.003, 500 the threshold level as an attenuation --R from the c.p.s. W-0.104, 1000 c.p.s. W-0.388, 2000 c.p.s. flat response system,then by analogy to Eq. (23) the W=0.395, 4000 c.p.s. W--0.106, 8000 c.p.s. W-0.004. hearinglossfor speech/,is given by So for most purposes one needsto consideronly the four frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 and use

Wk= Jo.7k Gflf'

,4H. Fletcher,"3, methodof calculating hearing lossfor speech rect to take an average of the hearing loss at 500,
from an audiogram,"J. Acous.Soc.Am. 22, 1 (1950).

10-'/'= f0 G'lO-s/'df' (99)For a fairly flat audiogramit is approximatelycor1000, and 2000 c.p.s.
ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
VOLUME 22, NUMBER 2
MARCH, 1950

weights0.1, 0.4, 0.4 and 0.1.

THE

JOURNAL

OF THE

The Speaking Machine of Wolfgang yon Kempelen*

HOaE DUDLEY

Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY

Biophysical Laboratory of theInstitute for Anthropology of theMuseumof Natural History,Budapest, Hungary (ReceivedOctober17, 1949).

The physiological motions involvedin speaking can be indicatedto the eye or to the ear. For the eye suitably chosen symbols may be written to indicate the physiological positions assumed in formingeach sound; for the ear synthetic sounds may be producedby motions in a mechanismbuilt to simulate the speech organs. The degree of phonetic success may be estimated in the case of the visiblesymbols by listening to sounds formed whenthe indicated physiological processes are carried out, andin the case of the speechsimulating mechanism by comparing the synthetic speech produced to normallyspoken speech. Significant advances alongboth the visualand the aurallinesare described from earliest timesdownto the present. Wolfgang von Kempelenproducedthe first speakingmachineworthy of the name around 1780. This

paper gives hisbackground, a description of theapparatus he built,anda discussion of themethods used in

producing the varioussounds, fitting his work into the over-allpictureof speech-imitating devices from the speaking of idolsof ancienttimesdownto the automaticelectrical reconstructing of speech in the vocoder. For portraying to the eye the physiological characteristics of speechthere are discussed the more outstanding methods from claimed symbolic alphabets of ancientlanguages downto the recentspectrographic visible speech.

garian, Wolfgang Ritter yon Kempden, or, in of the humanvocalsystem. In 1791he published a 456Hungarian, Kempden Farkas Lovag, first built a com- page book,' illustrated with 25 plates, describing his plete and, on the whole, a surprisinglysuccessful observationson human speechproduction and his speaking machine.Speech wasformedby manipulation experiments during the two decades he had been working on his speakingmachine.The appearance of his * Orally presentedbefore the AcousticalSociety of America, book was a great social event. Introductory to the

elementssimulatingthe essential parts OWARDthe endof the 18thCentury a Hun- of mechanical

May 5, 1949, New York, by Dudley with original draft by Tarnoczy. The paper here, in general,followsthe oral presentaxMechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebst der Beschreibung tion includinga set of figuresand also other material not in the seiner sprechenden Maschine. Also publishedin French at the original draft. sametime (1791).

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

152

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY'

book are listed,assubscribers, 122namesof outstanding application. to modern civilization. is indicated by the industries built uponspeech since vonKempelen's day. peopleof Austria,Russia,Italy, and Hungary. Von Kempden was born on January 23, 1734, in Man's unaidedvoice carrieslessthan a mile at a speed actuallysomewhat Pozsony,a city in westernHungary, now Bratislava, of only 12 milesper minute,a speed Czechoslovakia, and died in.Vienna on.March 26, 1804. less than. that of a fast jet plane of today. But the

He reached high government positionin the Habsburg monarchybecoming, in. 1767, Aulic Counselor of the Chamberof the Domain. of Empress and QueenMaria Theresa.He traveledwidelyoverEurope.He madethe

pla_n.s of the fountain in SchSnbrunn and later the.

designs of the Royal Castleof Buda. He organized the woolmanufacture in.South-Hungary. He wasa skillful engineer and a geniusin organization. The question arises as to what motivated yon Kempelento attempt the building of any speaking machine,for no one had, so far as known.,attempted this difficulttask in.the centuries preceding the day in in. factallorganized society, depended then 1769he starteda job that, off and on.,wouldtake over professions, and written. word.By speech two decades to complete. The answer in part, nodoubt, as now uponthe spoken is that he had someinterestin the problemof speech man.raisedhimselfto a positionabove and distinct in ancienttimes, by deaf-mutes.But, more fundamentally,there were from the lower animals.Accordingly, as a symbol of his divineoriginand several factors favorable to the development of a speak- man.took speech speakinggods. ing machine by a man.of his ability and inclination at assumedhis gods were, somehow, that particulartime. Pervading all timeshasbeen. the Naturally then.,the prieststried to make their idols to speak directly to thepeople. For thispurpose basicimportance and significance of speech. But, in appear waspipedin.from a concealed priestto make addition to thisgeneral urge,therewasstirring abroad speech in yonKempelen's dayan. aroused scientific curiosity in. words issue forth from the mouth of the Oracle of on the Isleof Lesbos. 'In onerevelation., this the wakeof the Reformation, and from this therehad Orpheus predicted the violentdeathof Cyrus arisengradually the faint beginnings of physiologicaloracleaccurately against theScythians. In the phonetics as a science. Thesethreefactorswill be dis- the Greatin hisexpedition MiddleAges, a thousand years later,RogerBacon and cussed briefly beforereturningto his book. built smalltalkingheads of bronzeand woodas Speech is of suchbasicimportance that civilization. others of ingenuity with concealed tubes bringing in.a asknown. todaycould not existwithoutit, yet like the models voice but without intent of superstitious air we breathe,it so envelops us that we fake it for speaker's granted.The continuing importance of speech in. its deception.. Von Kempelen wasborn. in a time of aroused scientific curiosity. Galileohadpassed on. less than.a century earlier. Therewasstirringa healthful skepticism which demanded that,truth be sought not in a blind faith but

telephone industries carrythespoken. wordthousands of milesand at speeds of millionsof milesper minute; radio industries providefor audiences numbering millions of people at a time; phonograph industries preserve speech for unborn generations to hear.Transmission of the written word has been accomplished by thetelegraph andmorerecently thefacsimile industries. And evenin yonKempelen's timestherewereindustries handling the printed word which have expanded enormously in. the intervening yearsto flood us with books,magazines, newspapers, maps, folders,pamphlets,advertisements, etc. Religion,education., the

by experimental methods of cut-and-try. Thisscientific vigormanifested itselfstrongly in the design of automatatoproduce motions ofvarious Sorts when. energized as by windinga spring. Thus a Frenchman named
Vaucan. sonabuilt a man-like figure, or android as it wascalled, that playeda flutewith all the complicated motions needed for the lipsand fingers. He later made an automaton. for simultaneously playinga shepherd's

pipeheldin onehandwhilebeating a tambour with the otherhand.He alsodeveloped a miraculous duck, perhaps in someways the most extraordinary automatoneverconstructed. It movedits wingsand walked in. a natural manher. It drank water, muddlingin. the
act. It would take corn from one's hand and swallow it

with a complete simulation. of the digestion process

The Scientific Papersof Sir Charles Wheatstone (1879). Sir David Brewster, Letters on NaturalMagic (1832). aSci. Am. 24, 32 (1871). An Account of theMechanism of an Automaton, etc. (translation by J. T. Desaguliers) (1742).

FO. 1. Automat6nchessplayer of von Kempden. Courtesyof

Oxford University Press.

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

153

aided by chemical means. Another Frenchman, Le Droz, made up a writing child while his son made a bullfinchthat would jump up from a snuffbox, wag its tail, spreadits wings,pour forth a melodious song,and
then dart down into the box as the lid closed.

Now yon Kempden was also a skilled mechanician. In the spirit of mechanical ingenuit2 of the timeshe built4 in 1769 his famous"chess automaton" (Fig. 1) with a turbaned Turk playing an almost unbeatable game of chessseated at a desk on which there was
mounted a chess board. The device was exhibited over

Europe in the next four years by yon Kempden and after his death by Maelzel in Europe and later in
America until burned in a fire in 1836. Before the exhibition the cloak at the back of the Turk was lifted

and, severalat a time, various compartments of the deskwereopened up'to showtheir apparentemptiness. When everythingwas closed,with a lot of noisefrom insidemachinery,the Turk laid down a long-stemmed pipe and started a chess move.Von Kempden himself remarkedthat this chessplayer was not a true automa.ton,its only outstandingfeature being the skill of the deception.The deceptionapparently consisted in having a skilled player concealhimself in the cabinet and play the game from information receivedin the upward displacement of a small iron ball under each squareon which there wasplacedoneof the chessmen, each of which containeda strongmagnet. The c.hess player is said to have beaten Napoleonin one of its games. In 1821,whenthe playerwasbeingexhibited in
London, Robert Willis, noted for his later researches on

Fro. 2. Hebrewletter M as a tongue position .

accordingto Helmont.

syntheticvowel production 5 wrote a 40-pagebooklet 6 on the chess player. His attempted ar/alysisdoesnot agreeentirely with Murray's explanationof the automaton mechanism.

The difficulty of the problem, the mechanicalingenuity, the breadth of view and to some extent the

feel and daring for showmanship manifested by yon Kempden in the chess player are characteristics shown in his development of the speaking machine startedin the same year, 1769. But the chessautomaton was completed in six months while the speakingmachine occupied yon Kempden for much of the time for over

twenty years before hepublished hisresults in 1791.

This aroused and growingspirit of experimental investigationin science in generalnaturally led to questions as to the physiology of speech production, thus laying the foundationof experimental phonetics as a science.A century before yon Kempelen's studies, Baron Franciscus Mercurius ab Helmont publisheda book 7 in Latin contending that the Hebrew alphabet

4H. J. R. Murray, A Historyof Chess (OxfordUniversityPress, London, 1913), pp. 876-7. 5 Robert Willis, Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. $, 231 (1829). 6Robert Willis, An Attempt to Analyze.the Automaton Chess Player of M. de Kempden with an Easy Method of Imitating the Movements of that Calebrated Figure, with 10 Plates (1821). 8BishopJohnWilkins, An Essay Towards a Real Character and Language(1668). 7Baron FranciscusMercurius ab Helmont, Alphabeti vere a Philosophical Naturalis ttebraici BrevissimaDelineatio (1667). 9It, FletchehSpeech and Hearing(1929), p. 6.

was a "natural" alphabetin that the letter symbols represented the actual tonguepositions and so should be usefulin teachingspeech to the deaf-dumb.Von Kempelenreproduced four of Helmont's illustrations,' oneofwhich isshown hereasFig. 2. The tongue position is for M, the 13thletter of the Hebrewalphabet, pronounced Mem, asindicated in Hebrew below thepicture of the head.The figuresin the borderof the headband are related forms for the letter M, those numbered "4," for instance,being copied from ancient coins. Von Kempden criticizedHelmont, pointing out that for the sound of M, the tongue position is of little importancebut that the significant positions are in the opennasalpassages and the closed lips, althoughthe latter are shownopenby Helmont. The small element aheadof the distortedtongueis part of the Hebrew letter M but seems to haveno phonetic significance. A more serious representation of alphabeticcharactersby the useof phonetic symbols portrayingvocal tract positions waspublished in a book sa yearlater by Bishop JohnWilkinsin England.Figure3 is a copyof page378 of his book.Here are illustrated the pictures of the he/d with' vocal positions for 34 soundsconsisting of eightvowels and 13pairsof voiced consonants with unvoiced counterparts. Comparing the consonants in the list with thosegivenby Fletcher onenotesthat both listscontainfour voicedand four unvoiced stop consonants, four voiced and four unvoicedfricatives, and five voicedsemivowels. Wilkins differsin showing

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

154

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H. TARNOczY

FIO. 3. Illustrated physio-

logical alphabet symbols of

Wilkins.

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

155

a completeset of unvoicedsemivowels hl, hm, hn, hng, and hr, and omittingthe threetransitionals y, w, and h. The unvoicedsemivowels are found in somelanguages with Welsh containingall five. He lists y as a vowel, probablyconsidered w as a vowel (we= r) and really provided a multiplicity of h soundswith his five unvoiced semivowels. He showedonly eight vowels as against11 in the Fletcherlist. In the upper right-hand
corner for each of the 34 sound illustrations are Wilkins'

Englishalphabet,and two diagrams tctdefinethe chief consonantand vowel symbols,respe. ctively. In the universalalphabettable, consonants are represented in columns 1-4; the vowels in 6-8; glides in 5; throat
sounds and modifiers in 9 and 0. The first six rows of

proposed phoneticsymbols.In the upper left portion of Fig. 3, nine headsare shownwith no sectioning in a three-by-three arrangement for those soundshaving significant lip positions. In eachof the other 25 illustrations, a sectionis shownto reveal the positionof vocal parts within the mouth and throat. Some physically significantsymbolsused are a circle for the rounded lips of the o sound,a pair of closedlips for p, closed lips with a semicircle or small wave to representvocal cord action for b, a straighthorizontalline through the mouth to representthe flow of air through.the mouth for the consonants wherethere is a relatively free flow, and a slightly curved line at the top to representthe flow of air through the noseas in the caseof m, hm, n,
and hn.

Wilkins, in the samebook,page376, shows a sort of syllabaryreproduced hereas Fig. 4. Consonants following a vowel in a syllableare shownin small letters as listedin column1; thosepreceding the vowelare shown by capital letters as listed in column9. Column 2 gives the consonantsymbolsfor indicating the consonants alone. The row numbered ! gives the six vowels he usedand row 2, their symbols. Columns 3-8 givevowelconsonant combinations-and columns 10-15, the con-

consonants are the unvoicedones, with' the voiced counterparts given in the next six rows with short insidebars addedto represent voicing.The diagramat the left showsthree cord positions,bar for voicing, a circle for wide open as in producingthe soundh of column9, row a, i.e., 9a, and an X for the closed glottis in 9c. A partial opening as in whispering is shown by an oval in 9b with a bar addedto showhoarse vocality as in 9h. The pointof constriction (aperture) isrepresented in the diagram by the concavequarter of the threequarter circles. The aperturemay be at the back of the tongue,the front of the tongue,the point of the tongue or the lips producingthe consonant columns1-4 which are called back, front, point, and lip consonants, respectively.In rows b and h of the consonant symbols thereis a minoraperture in the quarteropposite to the main apertureas represented by a pair of small threequarter circles; the indicated consonants are termed back-mixed,front-mixed, point-mixed,and lip-mixed. In rows c and i the main quarter of the symbol is indented to represent dividing the air stream as in the sound f (4c); such consonants are called backdivided, front-divided, etc. Mixture combined with

division gives themixed-divided consonants represented

in rows d and k. Rows e and 1 have the three-quarter circle closedby a straight line representing a "shut" positionas in the stop consonants; thus l e is the backshutconsonant k, 11is the back-shut voiceconsonant g, etc. In the final rows f and m of the consonants, the wavy line from the uvula in the diagram refers to closingthe nasal pa. ssages with the uvula to give the nasalconsonants calledback-nasal, etc. The meanings .of the symbolsfor the tonguepositions for vowelsare

other at the top. Thus u as in pull listedas 6k wouldbe defined as a high-back-wide-round vowel.This explanation covering 84 consonants and vowels,-many not to x0 Alexander Melville Bell, VisibleSpeech--TheScience of Uniis considered adequatefor versal Alph. abetics (D. Van Nostrand Company,Inc., New York, be found in any language, 1867). showing howthe physiological production of the various n AlexanderGraham Bell, Mechanism of Speech (1907), second speech sounds is indicatedin greatdetail by Mr. Bell. edition. The International Phonetic Association,founded in ' From ;Explanatory Lecture on VisibleSpeech (1870).
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

sonant-vowel combinations. He employsa small circle placedhigh, middle, or low for the first three of his vowelsand a semicircle similarly placed for the other three. His consonant list of Fig. 4 includes h, w, and y, though these are not in the illustrated list of Fig. 3. The reasonfor including them here is that they combine with the vowels. At the bottom of the figure is the Lord's Prayer written with thesesymbols. To round out the picture of phoneticportrayal, we note that since yon Kempelen's time, considerable further advance hasbeenmade.In particular,Alexander Melville Bellt worked out a set of symbolshe termed "visible speech," showing in minute detail the complete vocal action in producingnot only the speechsounds but also whispers, whistles,sobs,grunts,clicks,hisses, sighs, coughs, sneezes, kisses, and all other sounds producible by the human vocal mechanism.A detailed explanationof the symbolsis also given by his son, Alexander Graham Bell.n Figure 5t2 showshis basic "universal alphabet," the soundsfrom it used in the

given in the rightdiagram. An upright bar indicates a

vowel as in columns6-8 throughout, while the small
horizontal bars in the lower six rows indicates round

vowels,i.e., vowelsspokenwith round lips. The back, front, and mixedpositions of the tongueare represented by dots or hooksat the left, right, and left plus right of the vertical vowel bar, respectively. The hook indicates that the voice channel is openedwide, the dot not sowide.The elevationof the tongueis indicated by the dot or hook positionson the vertical bar, a low elevationby the bottom position,a high elevationby the top position,and a mediumor mid-elevation by the
combination of one dot or hook at the bottom and the

156

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY

6 7
8

16

FI6. 4. Wilkin's English lan1

guage syllabary fora philosophical

language.

z]

2.'

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

157

1886, drew up an International PhoneticAlphabet in dividedinto five chapters, thus' 1888 providing symbolsfor presumablyall speech Chapter I, pp. 1-28--Speechin General; sounds but without' specialphysiological connotation Chapter II, pp. 28-56--Origin of Speech; ChapterIII, pp. 57-177Vocal Parts and Their Functions; as in the caseof symbols shownin the presentpaper. Languages; Recently Pottera and his co-workers have developed ChapterIV, pp. 178-387Soundsof European visible speech analysiswith the soundspectrograph, ChapterV, pp. 388-456--The SpeakingMachine. portraying the sound spectrum automatically, thus The first two chapters give brief discussions of speech replacingassumed positionsof the vocal parts with and its origin in quite generalfashion.In the third objectivelyrecorded physicalcharacteristics of actually chapterhe examines into whichbodilyparts contribute spoken speech. The words"visiblespeech" from sucha to the formingof speech sounds and how theseparts spectrogram are shownin Fig. 6a, while Fig. 6b shows functionnormallyand underfaulty conditions. He thus the set of manualalphabetic symbols usedin an experi- explainsthe voice, considering particularly the funcmental training program to portray the distinguishing tioningof the lungs,trachea,glottis,nose, mouth,tongue, characteristics of speechsoundsas revealedby spec- teeth, and lips. In the fourth chapterhe lists most of trograms. the European alphabetic sounds. He then proceeds for In the century preceding yon Kempelen,there was each soundand by groupsto consider what would be muchspeculation by linguists, physicists, psychologists, the simplest hand-operated mechanism to produce fair and speech teachers on the mechanism of speech. The imitations of these sounds. First he observes his own understanding of physicalscience was advancing from vocal systemas objectivelyas possibleto determine philosophical speculation to scientific experimentation experimentally the relative mouth and tongue-channel with physical apparatus. Von Kempelen, as stated openings for the vowels a, e, i, o, and u, with these earlier, started working on his speakingmachinein results:
1769 and continued to 1791 at least. Others were also

active in this period. Thus, in 1779 the Imperial Academyof St. Petersburg offeredits annual prize for explaining physiological differences in, andmakingapparatus for, producing the five vowel sounds/A(father), E (they), I (machine),O (note),and U (crude).These are the long vowel soundsas used on the Continent and 'so,for consistency, will be used here. The prize was won by Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, 4born in Wernigerode,Germany, who became a Professorof Physiology first at Halle and later at Copenhagen. He made five tubes as shown in crosssectionin Fig. 7. These tubesroughly approximatedthe size and shape of the vocalpassages when set to producethe different sounds. All were energized by free reedsexcept the I tube whichwasblown into directly in the fashionof an organpipe. It is interesting to note that Robert Willis,5 showedthat the shapesof Kratzenstein'stubes were not impoitant as the required resonances could be obtainedfrom a singlepipe the length of which was adjustedfor the different sounds, and that, in fact, the vowel seriescould be coveredalternately forward and in reverse as the pipe lengthwas increased. From the foregoing background we return to a review of the highlights of yon Kempelen's book.This book is
15 Potter, Green, and Kopp, Visible Speech (D. Van Nostrand Company,Inc., New York, 1947). Someother writers have describedapparatusfor automatic writing of the symbolsby the voicebut the symbolslack in definiteness and uniformity so that they canhardly be classified as alphabetic in the stageof development described. See, for example,J. B. Flower, "phonographic alphabet" in "The true nature of speech,"Trans. A.I.E.E. 35, 213-48 (1916)and J. Dreyfus-Graf,"Steno-sonographic alphabet" in "Le sonographe: e16ments et principes," Schweizer Archiv 14,
353-62 (1948).

Vowelsound
a e i o u

Mouth opening Tongue-channel opening

5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 5.

The numbersshowrelative sizes,increasing from ! to 5.

He extends his observations to fit into this tabulation

sevenother vowelsfor a total of 12. Then he proceeds to the consonants. Figure8, yon Kempelen's Plate XII, illustrates his method of practical visualization and adaptationas he reduces applicable vocal parts to the simplest manuallyoperable mechanism for a groupof sounds. In this figure,for making the voicedexplosive sounds B and D, he substitutesfor the mouth a wooden box, for the lips a pair of hingedwoodenshutters,for the tonguea hingedwoodenflap, operable by a string, and for the air supplya tube to whichcouldbe fitted a reed for voicing.The two top subfigures are for the B sound beforeand after the start of the explosive emission of air; the two lower ones, for D. These cut-and-try designs were usefulto yon Kempelenin clarifyinghis understanding of the mechanics of sound production by the human mechanism.His final speaking machine
sometimes used less idealized methods as even in this

a4 "Tentamen coronatumde voce," Acta Acad. Petrop. (1780). The completearticle is in "Sur la naissance de la formation des voyelles," J. de Physique 21, 358-80 (1782).

case of the B and D sounds, as will be explained later. Von Kempelenin the fifth and final chapterof his book describes the stepsof buildinghis speaking machine, his tests as he went along and finally how to producethe different soundsand combinethem into speech. He beganwith a searchfor a suitablesound sourcefor imitating the tone from the vocal cords. The most natural-sounding sourcehe found after examining many musicalinstruments was a drone reed from a bagpipe.He first tried to producethe vowels with a bell-shaped mouth attachedto sucha reed as

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

158

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY

Con$onanl

to$ition$

b/owe/ Posit/on$

"

THE

UNIVERSAL

ALPHABET.

Connt8.

son

Column 5,
Columns
o.

Colnmn , 0.
h

and odis.

Voeatil Con,. sonants. Labialo, ed Olides, Labialid Voloels.

gtn to m,

TheMarginal Numbers andLetters may beused, instead of theVisible Speech Letters, to express the mechanism of sounds in common type. The following examples show the English, Scotch, andIrishpronunciations of the
words ' Visible Speech"

4i8d2h 41 3i

4e ob 3e 3b

Fro.

5a.

shown in Fig.9. Instead of using thesliding plateshown at the bottom he usuallyplacedhis hand on or near thebellmouthin various positions to formthe different sounds but only obtained non-vowel tonesand later
vowel-like tones with a characteristic "ah" sound no

trolling air froma common bellows to separate passages each containing a reed,thususing individual reeds for
the differentvoiced sounds. He tried rectangularboxes
such as the two at the left and then round boxessuch

as the four at the right. He writeshe obtained some

good vowel distinctions forthefirsttime, forming a fair obtained fair consonant sounds for very satisfactory so for his second modelhe built a a, o, andu. He also he formed simple words like console asshown in Fig. 10with 13piano-like keyscon- p, m, and1. With these
matterhowhishands wereplaced. The results werenot
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

159

THE

ENGLISH

ALPHABET.

[The Italicletters aretheEnglish equivalents of theVisible Speech Letters in thecorresponding

sections of the Universal Alphabet.]

'

5
he ro

III

..

'

eel

s s w
.f
tin

up[
boy
near -tn* -ces*

ale[[
ell
ill

old
d

ask

-al*

air

ink

hint lamp

[arm ir

an
.

I
oldl[ all pull-ure*

I
k
m
8 9 0

[zeal azure way .] l v ] then

,

I
n
3 ,

z
m
4

oro
b
i

.i

n [
1

o -or
6' 7

The sounds marked* occuronly in unaccented syllables;as in I[1) (mention); DC[lIffi. places; O[iil% (fatal; IDC. D[[ (pleasure); OI;lD%Oi (history;[%ti (orator). The' glide' 5a heardbetween a vowelandr; asin hero, airy,fiery,glory,&c. The sounds in ' ale' and ' old' includethe ' glides'$c.and $1. Thus :--

(ale);}tl (old).

R final or beforea consonant, as in air, arm, &c., is the ' Point. Glide' $d.

Thus :-it G)[[OI

(air); ][ (arm).
(be'fore) the syllable to which
(refers).
FIo. 5b.

Accentis alwayson the first syllableunless otherwise

(ex'pre$sed).The mark is placed[[(

Fro. 5. The "universal alphabet" of Alexander MelvilleBell with symbol-defining diagrams and illustrations
in English.(Seeopposite pagefor Fig. 5a.)

"papa" and "mama"but noticed two troubles;first, the around the closure onbothsides. He experimented with sounds did not blend togetherin a natural way, and an adjustable wireto change the effective lengthof the second, vowels in particular cameonratherexplosively, vibratingreedand thusalter the pitch but he foundit thus adding a k-like sound. difficultto obtain a variablepitch so he satisfied himHe decided that to overcome the first trouble he selfwith a monotone, stating that he left thisimproveshould doawaywith hismultiplicity of reeds, producing ment to later workers in the field. In this connection, all voiced sounds fromthe same reed.Then, to prevent it is of interest to notethat J. R, Ewald 1developed the explosive oncoming of vowels,he lined the reedand aJ. R. Ewald,"Zur konstruktion yonpolsterpfeifen," Pfltigers the edgeit beat againstwith thin soft glove leather Archivf. die gesamte Physiologie 152, 171 (1913).
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

160

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY

'

somespringed cushions to vibrate in a pipe in close about one-half inch from the mouth; for u the hand is resemblance to the human mechanism and that the held flat with the openingof the mouth reducedto a artificial larynx inventedby R. R. Riesz x6gave a fair minimumshortof stopping the reedvibration; but with rangeof pitch variation according to the air pressure the openinggreater than for i; for i the flat hand is the mouth openingand the index applied to the vibratingreed,increasing pressure giving placedtightly across increasing pitch; also that the methodyon Kempelen fingerthen crooked, sothat there appears at the second tried had long been successfully applied to pipe organ knuckle a small opening,more air pressure being rereeds. quired for this vowel than for the others. He saysthe Having thus failed in his first two attemptsto make positions for othervowelssuchas the umlautsare interand can easilybe located a speakingmachine along the lines represented in mediateto the givenpositions Figs.9 and 10, yon Kempelenthen startedanew.This with a small amount of practice, His descriptionof third effort resultedin his final speakingmachine,the positionsinfers he tried to modify a secondresonant essentials of which are shown with a scale indicating frequency of the vowelspectrum as doeshis considerasize in Fig. 11, a reproduction of his Plate XXV. The tion of the two openings, tongue-to-palate and mouth. bellowsX shownin part at the top is used to set up An over-allpicture of the consonants made on yon an air pressure in "wind-box"A. With by-pass keys s Kempelen's machine is obtained by comparing the and sch closed,the excess pressure in box A can only ones he claimed with a list of the 24 consonants used be reduced by leakage as discussed later and by passage in Englishas givenby Fletcher:9 of air againstthe reededge,thussettingit in vibratory Class Produced Not produced

motion.

Semivowels

1, m, n, r,

ng

A brief description will be givenof how the different Stops sounds are produced according to yon Kempelen.The Fricatives

operator rests hisrightarmonthebellows X andpumps

it with an up-and-down motion,speech beingproduced on the down motion. The fingersof the right hand are set to operatethe special consonant controls marked r, sch,n, m, and s. The left handis placed palm inward beforethe openingbc of bell C. The vowelsare producedby workingthe bellowswith the right elbow while blockingthe nostril-imitating tubesm and n by fingers of the righthand,with the left handsetin such

Transitionals

p, b; t, d; k, g; ch, j (judge) f, v; s, z; sh, zh; th (thin), th' (then). h, w, y (German j) '

Yon Kempelenalso produced the soundof ch (ich)

found in German but not in English for a total of 19 consonantsounds.Of the six soundslisted as not produced,noneare mentionedby yon Kempden. Of these six sounds, only ng is foundin the Germanlanguage. Of the four semivowels listed as producedby yon

Kempelen sound 1 wasmadelike the vowels but with

the left thumb curving inside the rubber mouth to

to the way 1 is produced in normal speech position beforeC as listening and practiceindicated correspond
bestfor the particularvowelbeingproduced. For sound with the tongue arched to divide the air stream in by closing the a the hand is kept distant from the mouth opening; the mouth. The soundof m wasproduced for e the hand is hollowed slightlywith its bottom edge mouth with the left hand while leaving open both againstthe mouth and its top edgeabout one inch nostrilsand soundn by leaving open only one nostril

away; for o the top of the hollowed hand should be of thespeaking,machine. To produce r headjusted his

FIG. 6a. Recentvisible speech spectrogr.m (Potter).Courtesy of D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.

R.R.Riesz, "Description. and demonstration ofanartificial larynx," J.Acous. Soc. Am. 1,273 (1930).
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

161

Fro. 6b. Manualsymbols for alphabet of recent visible speech (Potter).Courtesy of D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.

positions for the following vowel and then depressedwhich was claimedto producea trilled r that was not but betterthan manypeople couldmake. the key markedr which pusheda wire into contact perfect Of the six stop consonants produced, he made p by with the vibrating reed, thus giving a rattling effect
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

162
sssssssssssssssssss

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY
ssmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Fro. 7. Schematic representation of Kratzenstein's five vowelsynthesizers (from Young'sNatural Philosophy, 1845).

duced zh, one would think, but von Kempelen does up, releasing the hand suddenlyfrom in front of the not mention zh at all. The by-passtube from wind-boxA to bell C evidently mouth. This soundwas rather weak at first so he provided an auxiliary storagebellowsunder the left side wastedsomeof his air for he tells how he could only of the wind-box,not visiblein Fig. ! 1 but clearlyshown produceshort combinations of soundsin connected in the next figure. He found that building up the pres- speech, from a complete depressionof the bellows sure in the "wind-box" and the mouth for sound p resulted, upon release of pressure,in sufficient air passing the reedto produce a voicingeffectsohe placed a small by-passing brasstube as shownin Fig. 11 near the sch key between the wind-box A and the bell mouth C. This, he saysled to a goodp sound.Adding voicing to p gave b. For t, d; k, g, he did not provide separate means as would seem indicated but after

dlosing allopenings andthen, when pressure was built

considerable experimentation hedecided thathecould

modify the p and b sounds in a way, that he doesnot describe in detail, to give tolerableresemblances to the
desired sounds.

Of the five fricatives and three transitionalsproduced, he made f from the leakage of air with all openings closed while exertingstrongbellows pressure. He made h in the sameway but with the mouth left openand with lesspressure on the bellows;Germanch was made like h but with the bellowspressed slightly harder but not enoughto vibrate the reed. He made v like f exceptthat a small escape of air waspermitted at the mouth openingbc, sufficientto vibrate the reed. With less air but a larger percentageof vibrational power from the reed, the soundbecamew. The sound of s was made by depressing the key marked s with everything else closed; in this case the depression of key s openeda by-passto air at the side of the reed with the air escaping through the small funnel shown underthe s key, this funnelbeingdesigned of a resonant sizeand shapeto make a hisslike the sounds. Adding a little voicingto s gavez. Similarly,sh (alwayswritten schby yon Kempelen)wasmadeby depressing the key marked sch, whereuponth.e air was by-passedto the other side of the reed through the escapetube shown at the bottom which tube was designed for an sh sound resonance. Adding voicingproducedy, i.e., German j. Fro. 8. Von Kempelen'sschematicshowingessentialfeaturesfor An intermediate amount of voicing could have promechanizing productionof B and D sounds.

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

163

althoughthe bellows had six timesthe air capacityof the lungs.Because of this, he waslimited to producing shortphrases at a time suchas "Leopoldus Secundus," while the human vocal system can produce phrases several times longer on a single expiration of the
breath.

Summarizing, of the 19 consonant sounds yon Kempelentells of producing, we find six (p, b; t, d; k, g)

FIG. 9. Von Kempelen's first vowelsynthesizer.

FIG. 11. Von Kempelen's final speaking machine.

were stop consonants madewith an arrangement designed for p; five,consisting of thethreefricatives, f, v, and Germanch, and two transitionals, h and w, were

madeby using escaping air having a hissing sound

similarto f; seven(s, z; sh, y; m; n; r) weremadeby switching in fivedifferent resonant passages; andone,1, was made,as in human speech, by splittingthe airstream in the mouth.

This completes the description of yon Kempelen's work on his speaking machine. While he mentions his
belief that the final machinecan easilybe fitted with

keyslike a piano(the second model, Fig. 10, had keys but not a single reed)andsays in conclusion that if he

found timeto improve themachine hewould continue

his writing,explaining what he had done,we have no furtherrecord of any such writingfromthe dateof the publication of hisbookin 1791to 1804whenhe died. Onemustadmirethe patien'ce of the man whoworked 22 years on hisspeech machine before completing it to the pointof wantingto describe it in writingand also the perserverance of onewhotwicediscards some two afresh. FIo. 10. Von Kempelen's console for some vowels and consonants. years'workand startsovercompletely
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

164

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY

He statesthat in threeweeks time a person canmake astonishing progress in playingthe machine if he limits himself to the Latin, French, and Italian languages. German is much harder because of the prevalenceof

briefly mentioningsomesignificant further developments of speech synthesis fromhistimeon.Aboutthis

same time, Kratzenstein and alsoAbb Mical of France are said to have built speaking machines which they consonants in German. exhibited in Pariswith pin-cylinder drivesas in music inferior to yon KemVon Kempelenwas not only a skilledmechanician boxes.These were presumably but he had an acute and observantear for speech pelen's in qualityof speech produced. Professor Wheatsounds as well as a lot of common sense. Some of his stone, fromyon Kempelen's description, built a speak7 whichhe demonstrated in the Dublin first-hand observations reveal a true understandingof ing machine of the BritishAssociation for the Advancement the manifoldnature of speech and its interpretation. meeting in August, !835. Thisisshown schematically The similarity of all vowelswhen sustained for a con- of Sciences siderable time is a characteristic the modern worker on in Fig. 12. In 1846a certainProfessor Joseph Faber a speech machine sadvertised speech is likely to observe, perhapswith annoyance; of Viennademonstrated its disappearance in dynamicspeech is cheering. The as "Euphonia"in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, difficultyof startinga vowel soundwithout an accom- London.The deviceis picturedin Fig. 13. A ticket one shillingpermittedthe bearerto hear the panyingexplosive effectis alsowell known.He again costing consisting of ordinary speech, whispered observes the difficultyof getting a substitutefor the performance
vocal cords that sounds at all voice-like. He mentions

speech, conversation, and the singing of airs ending

yon Kempelen's, particularlyfrom the standpoint of havinga variablepitch that permittedsinging.
Helmholtz with a seriesof tuning forks, Koenig ' with a shaped siren,Miller2and StumpF with setsof pipes, Preece andStroh swith geared wheels making a phonographic record, andmanyothers have synthesized
cut off

that. selectinga high pitched voice is an advantage with "God Save the Queen" (Victoria'sreign). This because a child's voice is not criticized. He made use machineis said to have been a big improvementover
of the lack of sameness from voice to voice when he

modified the p-b soundsto obtain his tolerable resemblances to the t-d and k-g sounds.Finally he observedthat peoplewouldinterpretsounds muchmore easilywhen given somecluebeforehand. In conclusion, we shall round out the picture by

"Sh" Whistle

\.rils
Speech Sounds
come out

Lever/Reed /
Lever Bellows

here

Resonator Leather

o,

AuxJlJaryJ Bellows

Whistle

Leather Nostril ,\

........................................ r

............ ... .................... eed

/2'/////'//,,,

-"-'-F- Compressed
Air Cha m be r

Section through Resonator and Reed

Fro. 12. Wheatstone's speaking machine.

London & Westminster Review 28 (1837);TheScientific Papers of Sir Charles Wheatstone (1879),pp.348-367. Proc.BritishAss.
Adv. Sci. Notices (1835), p. 14.

zsC. M. Gabriel,"Machine parlant de M. Faber," J. de Physique 8, 274-5 (1879). F. Techmer, Phonetik(1870). F. Techmer, "Naturwiss. analyse undsynthese derh6rbaren sprache," Int. Zeits. f. allg.Sprachwiss. 1, 69-170 (1884).
Helmholtz,Sensations of Tone(1875), translated by Ellis. R. Koenig,Qudques Experiences d'Acoustique (1882). D.C. Miller, Science of MusicalSounds (1916). C. Stumpf,Die Sprachlaute (1926).

W. H. ?reece andA. Stroh, "Onthesynthetic examination of vowel sounds," Proc.Roy.Soc. London 28,358(1879).
Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

SPEAKING

MACHINE

OF

WOLFGANG

VON

KEMPELEN

165

?,:..:::.::-. '-::-:..::::... 7-: ..... .....;. :':::

..... .:..:::.:.;.::5 ::-:.-'-........???)?:;;.?? ..;.:,m.. .....:.'-::...";J' '->:;?:;;::3;.::..?..:.-". : .'"'7'

........... .m.. TM '

..--.... . .::<.

....

.......

..

':

:::::-'.::' .,:.

.-.... ....

. :. .......... .:.:
. .....

-: ?}-;

.....

..

......

Fro.

13. Faber's

speech organ.

vowels.The art of electronicmusic is closelyrelated. referredto supplies a vibrating reed for vocal cords A recentlybuilt 100-element tonesynthesizer 24 hasbeen that have been removed or cannot be used satisfacprovidedwith variable build-up and decaycontrols so torily. Wright** developed a "Sonovox" whichuses other
that
voice.

it can better

simulate

the tone characteristic

of

sound sources than the vocal cord tone for the basic

various musicalinstruments,including,of course,the

power. In particular, music or othermaterialis obtained in electricalform from a phonographrecord and con-

Pagetmadedevices of plasticene, rubber,etc. for producingindividually almost every consonant and vowel sound as discussed in detail in his book. Wagner 26 built a vowel-copying electrical circuit to control the amount of power in the region of the fundamental frequency and in each of four formant frequency regions. Somepartial synthesis devices makeuseof the human mouth but supply a substituteenergy sourcefor the vocal cords.Thus, the artificial larynx of R. R. Riesz

nCEIVE

24 H. Fletcher, "Demonstration lecture introducing the new tone synthesizer," Am. J. Phys. 14, 215-25 (1946).. Paget, Human Speech (1930). 20K. W. Wagner, "Ein neues elektrischesSprechgeritzur Nachbildung der menschlichenVokale," Abhandl. d. Preuss. Akad d. Wissenschaft.(1936).

Fro. 14. Stewart'selectricalsynthesizer for simplespeech sounds. Courtesy of Nature.

2, G. Wright, Electronics 13, 67 (August,1940).

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06

166

HOMER

DUDLEY

AND

T.

H.

TARNOCZY

ANALYZER
I
SPEECH
DEFINING

$YNTHE$1ZEFII

SOUND STREAMS I

UTH

--

-RADIATOR

IORIGINAL I
I
$1GNAI
, . ,

,iz i.....i I

,,
I

Fro. 16. Schematic of the vocoder, automaticelectrical speech synthesizer. Courtesy ofJournal ofthe A coustical Society ofAmerica.
with the vocoder mentioned later. Professor Firestone 28

,,

built and on November 3, 1940 demonstratedbefore

RANDOM I SOURCE
NOISE I

--'"'""'"'--- RESONANCE CONTROL .[ AMPLIFIEr

lOSt...... ORIvo,cEDI .... j II II II

vooEn

NERGY SWITCH

Essential parle of the Voder.

Fro. 15. Schematic of the yoder,electricalcircuit for producing speech with manual controls.Courtesyof Journal of the Franklin
Institute.

the Acoustical Societyapparatus for projecting sounds from an electricalorgan or other electricalsourceinto the mouth whereupon mouthinggave a modulationto producemulti-voicesingingand similar effects. Stewart 2first set up an all-electricalnetwork as in Fig. 14 for makingsomeof the speech sounds. In 1939 an all-electrical speech mechanism knownasthe Voder 3 (from the key lettersof VOice DEmonstratoR)shown in principle in Fig. 15 was demonstrated by skilled trained operatorsat the New York and San Francisco World's Fairs. Figure 16 showsfunctionallya correspondingdevice known as the vocoder at (from VOice

CODER) havingan electrical speech synthesizer similar to that of the yoderbut making useof controlcurrents

verted to electricalwaveswhich energize a sort of bone conduction receiver to transmit the sound throughcartilageof the larynx into the throat. Silent speaking modulatessuchpower into sound patternsgivingthe effectof soundproducedfrom other than vocal cord tones.The modulatedoutput waves from the mouth at low level are then picked up and amplified to produceunusual voice effects.Similar effectsare producibleelectrically

from electricallyanalyzedspeechfor automatically operating the synthesizerinstead of using manual

controls.

.8 F. A. Firestone,"Artificial larynx for speakingand choral singing by oneperson," J. Acous.Soc.Am. 11, 357, 376 (1940). 'J. Q. Stewart, "An electricalanalogue of the vocal cords," Nature 110, 311 (1922). a0 Dudley, Riesz, and Watkins, "A synthetic speaker," J. Franklin Inst. 227, 739 (1939). alH. Dudley, "RemakingSpeech," J. Acous.Soc.Am. 11, 169 (1939).

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 200.17.141.3 On: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 20:57:06