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Houtgravure - eind 19de eeuw. Collectie Ed Schilders

In December 1845, Joseph Faber exhibited his “Wonderful Talking Machine” at the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia. This machine, as recently described by writer David Lindsay, consisted of a bizarre-looking talking head that spoke in a “weird, ghostly monotone” as Faber manipulated it with foot pedals and a keyboard.

Just prior to this public exhibition, Joseph Henry visited Faber’s workshop to witness a private demonstration. Henry’s friend and fellow scientist, Robert M. Patterson, had tried to drum up financial support for Faber, a beleaguered German immigrant struggling to earn a living and learn how to speak English. Henry, who was often asked to distinguish fraudulent from genuine inventions, agreed to go with Patterson to look at the machine. If an act of ventriloquism was at work, he was sure to detect it.

Instead of a hoax, which he had suspected, Henry found a “wonderful invention” with a variety of potential applications. “I have seen the speaking figure of Mr. Wheatstone of London,” Henry wrote in a letter to a former student, “but it cannot be compared with this which instead of uttering a few words is capable of speaking whole sentences composed of any words what ever.”