Thanksgiving Is Ruined

The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

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March 20, 2006
 
the birth of radio

A recent spelunking tour of my "archives" (i.e., "countless stacks of crap") uncovered a December 2002 issue of New York Review of Books, which upon closer examination revealed a review by P.N. Furbank of this book, which in turn finally yielded the following astonishing fact about Erasmus Darwin:

He constucted a speaking-machine, with a wooden mouth, leather lips, and a valve at the back for nostrils; it was able to pronounce the sounds p, b, m, and the vowel a.

He theorized that if a really gigantic version were built, it "might speak so loud as to command an army or instruct a crowd."


Isn't it time for someone to resurrect Darwin's invention?