The Origin of Speech

Author(s): Charles F. Hockett and Charles D. Hockett

Source: Scientific American, Vol. 203, No. 3 (September 1960), pp. 88-97
Published by: Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24940617
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THREAT POSTURE of male stickleback is example of nonvocal bergen of the University of Oxford, the fish is responding to it"
communication in lower animals. In this picture, made by N. Tin· mirror image by indicating readiness to figllt "intruding" male,

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 The Origin of Speech
Man lS the only animal that can communicate by nleans of abstract
sYlnbols. Yet this ability shares lnany features with conlmunication
In other animals, and has arisen fr01n these lnore prilniti(Je syste71IS

by Charlcs F. Hockett

out 50 years ago the Linguistic od of historical linguistics, the discovery such a prohibition. But in this instance

X Society of Paris established

standing rule barring from its
sessions papers on the origin of language.
a of which was one of the triumphs of the
period. Between two languages the re­
semblances are sometimes so extensive
it had the useful result of channeling the
energies of investigators toward the
gathering of more and better information
This action was a symptom of the times. and orderly that they cannot be attrib­ about languages as they are today. The
Speculation about the origin of language uted to chance or to parallel develop­ subsequent progress in understanding
had been common throughout the 19th ment. The alternative explanation is that the workings of language has been truly
century, but had reached no conclusive the two are divergent descendants of a remarkable. Various related fields have
results. The whole enterprise in conse­ single earlier language. English, Dutch, also made vast strides in the last half­
quence had come to be frowned upon­ German and the Scandinavian languages century: zoologists know more about the
as futile or crackpot-in respectable are related in just this way. The com­ evolutionary process, anthropologists
linguistic and philological circles. Yet parative method makes it possible to ex­ know more about the nature of culture,
amidst the speculations there were two amine such a group of related languages and so on. In the light of these develop­
well-reasoned empirical plans that de­ and to construct, often in surprising de­ ments there need be no apology for re­
serve mention even though their results tail, a portrayal of the common ancestor, opening the issue of the origins of hu­
were negative. in this case the proto-Germanic lan­ man speech.
A century ago there were still many guage. Direct documentary evidence of Although the comparative method of
corners of the world that had not been proto-Germanic does not exist, yet un­ linguistics, as has been shown, throws no
visited by European travelers. It was derstanding of its workings exceeds that light on the origin of language, the in­
.
reasonable for the European scholar to of many languages spoken today. vestigation may be furthered by a com­
suspect that beyond the farthest fron­ There was at first some hope that the pat'ative method modeled on that of the
tiers there might lurk half-men or man­ comparative method might help deter­ zoologist. The frame of reference must
apes who would be "living fossils" mine the origin of language. This hope be such that all languages look alike
attesting to earlier stages of human was rational in a day when it was when viewed through it, but such that
evolution. The speech (or quasi-speech) thought that language might be only a within it human language as a whole can
of these men (or quasi-men) might few thousands or tens of thousands of be compared with the communicative
then similarly attest to earlier stages in years old, and when it was repeatedly systems of other animals, especially the
the evolution of language. The search being demonstrated that languages that other hominoids, man's closest living
was vain. Nowhere in the world has had been thought to be unrelated were relatives, the gibbons and great apes.
there been discovered a language that in fact related. By applying the com­ The useful items for this sort of com­
can validly and meaningfully be called parative method to all the languages of parison cannot be things such as the
"primitive." Edward Sapir wrote in the world, some earliest reconstructable word for "sky"; languages have such
1921: "There is no more striking gen­ horizon would be reached. This might words, but gibbon calls do not involve
eral fact about language than its uni­ not date back so early as the origin of words at all. Nor can they be even the
versality. One may argue as to whether language, but it might bear certain ear­ signal for "danger," which gibbons do
a particular tribe engages in activities marks of primitiveness, and thus it would have. Rather, they must be the basic
that are worthy of the name of religion enable investigators to extrapolate to­ features of design that can be present
or of art, but we know of no people that ward the origin. This hope also proved or absent in any communicative system,
is not possessed of a fully developed vain. The earliest reconstructable stage whether it be a communicative system
language. The lowliest South African for any language family shows all the of humans, of animals or of machines.
Bushman speaks in the forms of a rich complexities and ftexibilities of the lan­ With this sort of comparative method
symbolic system that is in essence per­ guages of today. it may be possible to reconstruct the
fectly comparable to the speech of the communicative habits of the remote an­
cultivated Frenchman." hese points had become clear a half­ cestors of the hominoid line, which may
The other empirical hope in the 19th T century ago, by the time of the Paris be called the protohominoids. The task,
century rested on the comparative meth- ruling. Scholars cannot really approve of then, is to work out the sequence by

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which that ancestral system became lan­ constitutes at least a major portion of stand. This feature of "discreteness" in
guage as the hominids-the man-apes "thinking." the elementary signaling units of a lan­
and ancient men-became man. The sixth design-feature, "specializa­ guage contrasts with the use of sound
tion," refers to the fact that the bodily effects by way of vocal gesture. There is
set of 13 design-features is pre- effort and spreading sound waves of an effectively continuous scale of de­
A sented in the illustration on the op­ speech serve no function except as sig­ grees to which one may raise his voice
posite page. There is solid empirical jus­ nals. A dog, panting with his tongue as in anger, or lower it to signal confi­
tification for the belief that all the lan­ hanging out, is performing a biologically dentiality. Bee-dancing also is continu­
guages of the world share every one of essential activity, since this is how dogs ous rather than discrete. ,

them. At first sight some appear so trivial cool themselves off and maintain the Man is apparently almost unique in
that no one looking just at language proper body temperature. The panting being able to talk about things that are
would bother to note them. They become dog incidentally produces sound, and remote in space or time (or both) from
worthy of mention only when it is real­ thereby may inform other dogs (or Im­ where the talking goes on. This feature­
ized that certain animal systems-and mans) as to where he is and how he "displacement" -seems to be definitely
certain human systems other than lan­ feels. But this transmission of informa­ lacking in the vocal signaling of man's
guage-lack them. tion is strictly a side effect. Nor does the closest relatives, though it does occur in
The first design-feature-the "vocal­ dog's panting exhibit the design-feature bee-dancing.
auditory channel"-is perhaps the most of "semanticity." It is not a signal mean­ One of the most important design­
obvious. There are systems of communi­ ing that the dog is hot; it is part of being features of language is "productivity";
cation that use other channels; for exam­ hot. In language, however, a message that is, the capacity to say things that
ple, gesture, the dancing of bees or the triggers the particular result it does be­ have never been said or heard before
courtship ritual of the stickleback. The cause there are relatively fixed associa­ and yet to be understood by other speak­
vocal-auditory channel has the advan­ tions between elements in messages ers of the language. If a gibbon makes
tage-at least for primates;-that it leaves (e.g., words) and recurrent features or any vocal sound at all, it is one or an­
much of the body free for other activities situations of the world around us. For other of a small finite repertory of fa­
that can be carried on at the same time. example, the English word "salt" means miliar calls. The gibbon call system can
The next two design-features-"rapid salt, not sugar or pepper. The calls of be characterized as closed. Language is
fading" and "broadcast transmission and gibbons also possess semanticity. The open, or "productive," in the sense that
directional reception," stemming from gibbon has a danger call, for example, one can coin new utterances by putting
the physics of sound-are almost un­ and it does not in principle matter that together pieces familiar from old utter­
avoidable consequences of the first. A the meaning of the call is a great deal ances, assembling them by patterns of
linguistic signal can be heard by any broader and more vague than, say, the arrangement also familiar in old utter­
auditory system within earshot, and the cry of "Fire!" ances.
source can normally be localized by bin­ In a semantic communicative system Human genes carry the capacity to
aural direction-finding. The rapid fad­ the ties between meaningful message­ acquire a language, and probably also
ing of such a signal means that it does elements and their meanings can be ar­ a strong drive toward such acquisition,
not linger for reception at the hearer's bitrary or nonarbitrary. In language the but the detailed conventions of any one
convenience. Animal tracks and spoors, ties are arbitrary. The word "salt" is not language are transmitted extragenetical­
on the other hand, persist for a while; so salty nor granular; "dog" is not "canine"; ly by learning and teaching. To what
of course do written records, a product "whale" is a small word for a large ob­ extent such "traditional transmission"
of man's extremely recent cultural evo­ ject; "microorganism" is the reverse. A plays a part in gibbon calls or for other
lution. picture, on the other hand, looks like mammalian systems of vocal Signals is
The significance of "interchangeabil­ what it is a picture of. A bee dances not known, though in some instances the
ity" and "total feedback" for language faster if the source of nectar she is re­ uniformity of the sounds made by a spe­
becomes clear upon comparison with porting is closer, and slower if it is far­ cies, wherever the species is found over
other systems. In general a speaker of a ther away. The design-feature of "arbi­ the world, is so great that genetics must
language can reproduce any linguistic trariness" has the disadvantage of being be responsible.
messag� he can understand, whereas the arbitrary, but the great advantage that The meaningful elements in any lan­
characteristic courtship motipns of the there is no limit to what can be com­ guage-"words" in everyday parlance,
male and female stickleback are differ­ municated about. "morphemes" to the linguist-constitute
ent, and neither can act out those ap­ Human vocal organs can produce a an enormous stock. Yet they are repre­
propriate to the other. For that matter huge variety of sound. But in any one sented by small arrangements of a rela­
in the communication of a human moth­ language only a relatively small set of tively very small stock of distinguishable
er and infant neither is apt to transmit ranges of sound is used, and the differ­ sounds which are in themselves wholly
the characteristic signals or to manifest ences between these ranges are function­ meaningless. This "duality of pattern­
the typical responses of the other. Again, ally absolute. The English words "pin" ing" is illustrated by the English words
the speaker of a language hears, by total and "bin" are different to the ear only at
feedback, everything of linguistic rele­ one point. If a speaker produces a syl­
vance in what he himself says. In con­ lable that deviates from the normal pro­
trast, the male stickleback does not see nunciation of "pin" in the direction of
THIRTEEN DESIGN·FEATURES of ani.
the colors of his own eye and belly that that of "bin," he is not producing still a
mal communication, discussed in detail in
are crucial in stimulating the fe­ third word, but just saying "pin" (@r
the text of this article, are symbolized on
male. Feedback is important, since it perhaps "bin") in a noisy way. The
opposite page. The patterns of the words
makes possible the so-called internali­ hearer compensates if he can, on the "pin," "bin," "teanl" and "nleal" were
zation of Communicative behavior that basis of context, or else fails to under- recorded at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

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 1 VOCAL-AUDITORY CHANNEL 3 RA PID FADING (TRANSITORINESSI

4 INTE RCHANGE A BILI TY k)'

, TO TAL FEEDBACK 6 SPECIALIZATION

7 SEMANTICITY 8 A RBI TRA RINESS 9 D ISCRE TEN�SS

'')///./�
,J
l
--PIN �1'\\�MWN�I,¥/lAAhMlMWI�
/"",5 WHALE
"1

� PASS THE SAL T

'- MICROORGANISMS

10 DISPLACEMENT 12 TRADITIONAL TRANSMISSION

I �1
u.j\!iI,J ..,

,"

SHADES OF JULIUS CAESAR

SHE HAS GREEN HAIR

13 DUAUT. OF ��.�
T . . . . ,., ............ E A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , ..........................M

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 "tack," "cat" and "act." They are totally
DIC ENGLISH DUTCH SOUTH
distinct as to meaning, and yet are com­
GERMAN
posed of just three basic meaningless
DIALECTS
sounds in different permutations. Few
NORWEGIAN NORTH animal communicative systems share this
GERMAN design-feature of language-none among
SWEDISH DIALECTS the other hominoids, and perhaps none
at all.

t should be noted that some of these

I 13 design-features are not independ­
ent. In particular, a system cannot be
either arbitrary or nonarbitrary unless it
is semantic, and it cannot have duality
of patterning unless it is semantic. It
should also be noted that the listing does
not attempt to include all the features
that might be discovered in the commu­
nicative behavior of this or that species,
but only those that are clearly important
for language.
It is probably safe to assume that nine
of the 13 features were already present
in the vocal-auditory communication of
the protohominoids-just the nine that
are securely attested for the gibbons and
humans of today. That is, there were a
dozen or so distinct calls, each the ap­
propriate vocal response (or vocal part
of the whole response) to a recurrent
and biologically important type of situ­
ation: the discovery of food, the detec­
tion of a predator, sexual interest, need
for maternal care, and so on. The prob­
lem of the origin of human speech, then,
is that of trying to determine how such a
system could have developed the four
additional properties of displacement,
productivity and full-blown traditional
transmission. Of course the full story in­
volves a great deal more than communi­
cative behavior alone. The development
must be visualized as occurring in the
context of the evolution of the primate
horde into the primitive society of food­
gatherers and huntel s, an integral part,
but a part, of the total evolution of be­
havior.
PROTO-GERMANIC It is possible to imagine a closed sys­
tem developing some degree of produc­
tivity, even in the absence of the other
three features. Human speech exhibits a
phenomenon that could have this effect,
the phenomenon of "blending." Some­
times a speaker will hesitate between
two words or phrases, both reasonably
appropriate for the situation in which he
is speaking, and actually say something
that is neither wholly one nor wholly the
PROTO- INDO-EUROPEAN other, but a combination of parts of
each. Hesitating between "Don't shout
ORIGIN OF MODERN GERMANIC LANGUAGES, as indicated by this "family tree,"
so loud" and "Don't yell so loud," he
was proto-Germanic, spoken some 2,700 years ago. Comparison of present·day languages
might come out with "Don't shell so
has provided detailed knowledge of proto·Germanic, although no direct documentary evi·
dence for the language exists. It grew, in turn, from the proto·lndo-European of 5000 B.C. loud." Blending is almost always in­
Historical studies cannot, however, trace origins of language hack much further in time. volved in slips of the tongue, but it may

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 D I SPLACEMENT TOOL-MAKING AND CARRYING

P R ODUCTI VITY LARYNX AND SOFT PALATE SEPARATED

DUALITY OF PATT ERNING HUMOR VOWEL COLOR MUSIC

DISCR E TE NESS BIPEDAL LOCOMOTION, NOT UPRIGHT

TRADITI ONAL TRANSMI SSION OCCASIONAl.TOOL USING

HANDS HAND-EYE COORDINATION

SPEC I ALIZATION
BINOCULAR VISION
SEMANTICITY
MOBILE FACIAL MUSCLES
A R BITR ARINESS
OMNIVOROUS?

BROADC AST T R ANSMISSI ON

AND DIRECTI ONAL REC EPTI ON
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR "PLAY""
INTE RCHA NGEABILI T Y
WARM BLOODEDNESS
RAPI D F A DING TOTAL FEEDBACK

VOCAL- AUDI TOR Y CHANNel

-------_ .. _.. __.

LAND EGG

BREATHING WITH THORACIC MUSCLES

REPTILES

LEGS

SLEEPING VERSUS WAKING

EXTERNAL EAR

� �r�
VISION

HEARING ( INTERNAL EAR )

VERTEBRATES

MOTILITY BILATERAL SYMMETRY

FRONT AND REAR ENDS

CHORDATES
r

EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE and some related characteristics evolved beyond the characteristics exhibited by all the groups
are suggested by this classification of chordates. The lowest form below. The 13 design-features of language appear in the colored
of animal in each classification exhibits the features listed at the rectangle. Some but by no means all of the characteristics asso­
right of the class. Brackets indicate that each group possesses or has ciated with communication are presented in the column at right_

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also be the regular mechanism by which are. A child may have a repertory of unitary calls to the repertory except per­
a speaker of a language says something several dozen sentences, each of which, haps by occasional imitation of the calls
that he has not said before. Anything a in adult terms, has an internal structure, and cries of other species. Even this
speaker says must be either an exact and yet for the child each may be an would not render the system productive,
repetition of an utterance he has heard indivisible whole. He may also learn but would merely enlarge it. But blend­
before, or else some blended product of new whole utterances from surrounding ing might occur. Let AB represent the
two or more such familiar utterances. adults. The child takes the crucial step, food call and CD the danger call, each
Thus even such a smooth and normal however, when he first' says something a fairly complex phonetic pattern. Sup­
sentence as "I tried to get there, but the that he has not learned from others. The pose a protohominoid encountered food
car broke down" might be produced as only way in which the child can possibly and caught sight of a predator at the
a blend, say, of "I tried to get there but do this is by blending two of the whole same time. If the two stimuli were bal­
couldn't" and "While 1 was driving down utterances that he already knows. anced just right, he might emit the calls
Main Street the car broke down." ABCD or CDAB in quick sequence, or
Children acquiring the language of n the case of the closed call-system might even produce AD or CB. Any of
their community pass through a stage I of the gibbons or the protohominoids, these would be a blend. AD, for example,
that is closed in just the way gibbon calls there is no source for the addition of new would mean "both food and danger." By

A B c D
WESTERN
SOME GRYLLIDAE STICKLEBACK MEADOWLARK
AND TETTIGONIIDAE BEE DANCING COURTSHIP SONG

AUDITORY,
1 THE VOCAL·AUDITORY CHANNEl NOT VOCAL
YES

BROADCAST TRANSMISSION
2 AND DIRECTIONAL RECEPTION
YES YES

3 RAPID FADING ( TRANSITORINESS ) YES, REPEATED YES

4 INTERCHANGEABILITY
LIMITED ?

YES YES
0 TOTAL FEEDBACK

6 SPECIALIZATION
YES ? YES?

7 SEMANTICITY
IN PART?

8 ARBITRARINESS
? IF SEMANTIC, YES

9 DISCRETENESS
YES? ?

10 DISPLACEMENT YES, ALWAYS ?

11 PRODUCTIVITY YES ?

12 TRADITIONAL TRANSMISSION PROBABLY NOT ?

(TRIVIAL)
13 DUALITY OF PATTERNING
? ?

EIGHT SYSTEMS OF COMMUNICATION possess in varying de· members of the cricket family. Column H concerns only Western
grees the 13 design.features of language. Column A refers to music since the time of Bach. A question mark means that it is

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 virtue of this, AB and CD would acquire tentative blends used by children. Such traces of displacement might develop in
new meanings, respectively "food with­ powers of understanding cannot be a call system even in the absence of pro­
out danger" and "danger without food." ascribed to man's prehuman ancestors. It ductivity, duality and thoroughgoing
And all three of these calls-AB, CD and must be supposed, therefore, that occa­ traditional transmission. Suppose an
AD-would now be composite rather sional blends occurred over many tens early hominid, a man-ape say, caught
than unitary, built out of smaller ele­ of thousands of years (perhaps, indeed, sight of a predator without himself be­
ments with their own individual mean­ they still may occur from time to time ing seen. Suppose that for whatever rea­

, ,
�
ing� : A ,;:ould m ��n "food" ; B, "no an­ among gibbons or the great apes) , with son-perhaps through fear-he sneaked
ger ; C, no food ; and D, danger. rarely any appropriate communicative silently back toward others of his band
But this is only part of the story. The impact on hearers, before the under­ and only a bit later gave forth the dan­
generation of a blend can have no effect standing of blends became speedy ger call. This might give the whole band
unless it is understood. Human beings enough to reinforce their production. a better chance to escape the predator,
are so good at understanding blends that However, once that did happen, the thus bestowing at least slight survival
it is hard to tell a blend from a rote repe­ earlier closed system had become open value on whatever factor was responsi­
tition, except in the case of slips of the and productive. ble for the delay.
tongue and some of the earliest and most It is also possible to see how faint Something akin to communicative dis­
placement is involved in lugging a stick
or a stone around-it is like talking today
about what one should do tomorrow. Of
E F G H course it is not to be supposed that the
first tool-carrying was purposeful, any
more than that the Rrst displaced com­
PARALINGUISTIC INSTRUMENTAL
munication was a discussion of plans.
GIBBON CALLS PHENOMENA LANGUAGE MUSIC Caught in a cul-de-sac by a predator,
however, the early hominid might strike
AUDITORY,
YES YES out in terror with his stick or stone and
NOT VOCAL by chance disable or drive off his enemy.
In other words, the Rrst tool-carrying
YES YES YES had a consequence but not a purpose.
Because the outcome was fortunate, it
tended to reinforce whatever factor,
YES YES YES genetic or traditional, prompted the be­
havior and made the outcome possible.
In the end such events do lead to pur­
LARGElY YES YES ? posive behavior.
Although elements of displacement
might arise in this fashion, on the whole
YES YES YES it seems likely that some degree of pro­
ductivity preceded any great prolifera­
tion of communicative displacement as
YES? YES YES well as any signiRcant capacity for tra­
ditional transmission. A productive sys­
tem requires the young to catch on to
YES? YES NO ( IN GENERAL) the ways in which whole signals are
built out of smaller meaningful elements,
some of which may never occur as whole
IN PART YES
signals in isolation. The young can do
this only in the way that human children
learn their language: by learning some
LARGElY NO YES IN PART
utterances as whole units, in due time
testing various blends based on that
repertory, and Rnally adjusting their pat­
IN PART YES, OFTEN
terns of blending until the bulk of what
they say matches what adults would say
and is therefore understood. Part of this
YES YES
!,earning process is bound to take place
away from the precise situations for
which the responses are baSically appro­
YES YES
priate, and this means the promotion of
displacement. Learning and teaching,
moreover, call on any capacity for tradi­
YES
tional transmission that the band may
have. Insofar as the communicative sys­
doubtful or not known if the system has the particular feature. A blank space indicates tem itself has survival value, all this be­
that feature cannot be determined because another feature is lacking or is indefinite. stows survival value also on the capacity

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for traditional transmission and for dis­ tention and foresight; a male can pro­ difficulty learning and using any such
placement. But these in turn increase the tect his mate and guard her jealously system. What Morse actually did was to
survival value of the communicative sys­ from other males even when he does not incorporate the principle of duality of
tem. A child can be taught how to avoid at the moment hunger for her. patterning. The telegraph operator has
certain dangers before he actually en­ There is excellent reason to believe to learn to discriminate, in the first in­
counters them. that duality of patterning was the last stance, only two lengths of pulse and
property to be developed, because one about three lengths of pause. Each letter
l' hese developments are also neces- can find little if any reason why a com­ is' coded into a different arrangement of
sarily related to the appearance of municative system should have this these elementary meaningless units. Th�
large and convoluted brains, which are property unless it is highly complicated. arrangements are easily kept apart be­
better storage units for the conventions If a vocal-auditory system comes to have cause the few meaningless units are
of a complex communicative system and a larger and larger number of distinct plainly distinguishable.
for other traditionally transmitted skills meaningful elements, those elements in­ The analogy explains why it was ad­
and practices. Hence the adaptative evitably come to be more and more sim­ vantageous for the forerunner of lan­
value of the behavior serves to select ilar to one another in sound. There is a guage, as it was becoming increasingly
genetically for the change in structure. practical limit, for any species or any complex, to acquire duality of pattern­
A lengthened period of childhood help­ machine, to the number of distinct stim­ ing. However it occurred, this was a

lessness is also a longer period of plastic­ uli that can be discriminated, especially major breakthrough; without it language
ity for learning. There is therefore selec­ when the discriminations typically have could not possibly have achieved the
tion for prolonged childhood and, with to be made in noisy conditions. Suppose efficiency and flexibility it has.
it, later maturity and longer life. With that Samuel F. B. Morse, in devising his One of the basic principles of evolu­
more for the young to learn, and with telegraph code, had proposed a signal tionary theory holds that the initial sur­
male as well as female tasks to be taught, .1 second long for "A," .2 second long vival value of any innovation is con­
fathers become more domesticated. The for "B," and so on up to 2.6 seconds for servative in that it makes possible the
increase of displacement promotes re- "Z." Operators would have enormous maintenance of a largely traditional way
of life in the face of changed circum­
stances. There was nothing in the make­
up of the protohominoids that destined
their descendants to become human.
Some of them, indeed, did not. They
made their way to ecological niches
where food was plentiful and predators
sufficiently avoidable, and where the de­
velopment of primitive varieties of lan­
guage and culture would have bestowed
no advantage. They survive still, with
various sorts of specialization, as the
gibbons and the great apes.

an's own remote ancestors, then,

M must have come to live in circum­
stances where a slightly more flexible
system of communication, the incipient
carrying and shaping of tools, and a

slight increase in the capacity for tradi­

tional transmission made jqst the differ­
ence between surviving-largely, be it
noted, by the good old protohominoid
way of life-and dying out. There are
various possibilities. If predators become
more numerous and dangerous, any
nonce use of a tool as a weapon, any
co-operative mode of escape or attack
might restore the balance. If food be­
came scarcer, any technique for crack­
ing harder nuts, for foraging over a
wider territory, for sharing food so gath­
ered or storing it when it was plentiful
might promote survival of the band.
SUBHUMAN PRIMATE CALLS are represented here hy sound spectrograms of the roar Only after a very long period of such
(top) and bark (bottom) of the howler monkey. Frequencies are shown vertically; time,
small adjustments to tiny changes of liv­
horizontally. Roaring, the most prominent howler vocalization, regnlates interactions and
ing conditions could the factors involved
movements of gronps of monkeys, and has both defensive and offensive fnnctions. Barking
-incipient language, incipient tool-car­
has similar meanings hnt occnrs when the monkeys are not quite so excited. Spectrograms
were produced at Bell Telephone Laboratories from recordings made by Charles Southwick rying and toolmaking, incipient culture­
of the University of Southern Ohio during an expedition to Barro Colorado Island in the have started leading the way to a new
Canal Zone. The expedition was directed by C. R. Carpenter of Pennsylvania State University. pattern of life, of the kind called human.

96

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___ Kodak reports on:
seeing the signal among the noise ... a water-based lacquer . • • paste, beautiful paste

A human talent • light for which all cellulose acetate

The June issue of this magazine contained an article full of learned speculation butyrate coatings have been esteemed.
on the neurological mechanism by which lines, straight and curved, are perceived. It neither darkens wood nor is itself

Whatever the mechanism, the nervous system is very good at seeing a line from darkened with the passage of time.

exceedingly faint physical stimuli. We had been thinking about ways this talent All these interesting properties we have
demonstrated to our own satisfaction. The
could help solve the nasty signal-to-noise problem that keeps cropping up on such
illtricacies of marketing stich a produci
occasions as when defense from submarine attack is considered. Today's almost through paint stores, stlpermarkels, five­
instantly available photography makes a fine bridge from an electronic system to a alld-dimes, or similarly formidable retail
human nervous system. For example: channels fill us with dismay. Therefore we
thought we would here ask around what
companies are interested in trying to make
hay wilh this lovely development. if indeed
Ihere are any such companies, Eastman
Chemical Producls inc., Kingsport, Tenll.
(Subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Company)
will tell them all about emulsified butyrate.

Amylose and culture

Spaghetti and macaroni are basic.
1. Instead of an ordinary A-scope trace like � let's modulate intensity and sweep over mav- The idea of making wheat flour up
this... ing film with much overlap... into a paste and drying it for future
use must have come very early. Enter
esthetics. The human spirit must be
nourished along with the human body.
For reasons apparently unrelated to
biological metabolism, the paste must
be dried in certain shapes, and the in­
tegrity of these shapes must be preserved
right to the pearly portal of the alimen­
2. so that even when the significant pulse � photographic summing-up finds it rather easily; tary tract. This principle is ancient: the
stands out from the noise no more than this... ancient Romans ate spaghetti with
cheese; the ancient Japanese ate maca­
roni pressed from a paste of cooked
rice.
When spaghetti or macaroni is
cooked for too long or allowed to
stand cooked, the human spirit is
offended. The morsels of pasta revert
to a sticky paste, millenia of cultural
3. and even when the A-scope shows only � the weak but non-random blip holds position advance undone because amylose has
this... and builds up from all the sweeps to where
gone into solution and then has loosely
the marvelous combination of photography
and the human perceptive mechanism says,
hydrogen-bonded itself into a net of
"There!" slime. But for this unfortunate tend­
ency, the world's food supply would be
Organizations active in military developmenls who wish to know more about this work less dependent on specialized durum
should communicate with Eastman Kodak Company, Apparatus and Optical Division,
wheats. Without them, the spaghetti
Rochester 4, N. Y.
and macaroni would get even stickier.
The problem now appears to be as
Creamed butyrate one, two, or three coats a range of
soluble as the amylose itself.
In this nation of do-it-yourselfers and effects can be produced from a flat
First fruits of the victory can already
of housewives capable of taking the "natural" surface to a rich, semi­
be tasted. Try any of the up-to-date
bit in their own teeth when occasion glossy, "rubbed" surface. The fast
dehydrated potato-flake brands. Com­
demands, do you think there would be film formation permits application of
pare with home-whipped potato.
a market for a cream that can be spread successive coats within minutes and
Whatever the future holds for spaghetti
over bare wood with cheesecloth to eliminates the problem of surface im­ and macaroni, the reason the instant-potato
deposit in seconds a surface chemically perfections from dust in the air. Gentle thing works out so well is that the processors
and physically identical to a coat of rubbing as the film forms fills the ir­ add a very small percentage of pure mono­
glyceride. it complexes the dissolved
highest quality lacquer? regularities in the wood and smooths
amylose so securely that even the familiar
We have made such a cream-a out the top of the lacquer. Though iodine-blue test can scarcely find it.
stable, freeze-and-thaw-resistant water water-based, the cream does not raise These Myverol Distilled Monoglycer­
emulsion of the same kind of cellulose grain. After drying, the film has good ides we prepare by glycerolysis of familial'
vegetable and animal food fats. They are
acetate butyrate on which the best resistance to water. It adheres well to
officially recognized as safe. investigators
grades of conventional lacquers are the wood, seals it well, prevents pene­ who would like samples of them with which
based. tration of subsequently applied con­ to try remedying stickiness ill
The cream eliminates separate fill­ ventional finishes (if they are desired) any starchy foods are invited
to write Distillation Producls
ers, sealers and wash coats, long dry­ but holds them tenaciously.
Industries, Rochester 3,
ing periods, excessive sanding opera­ The product itself is almost water­ N. Y.(Division ofEast­
tions, and spraying equipment. With white, with the color stability to sun- man Kodak CompaIlY).

This is another advertisement where Eastman Kodak Company probes at random for mutual interests
and occasionally a IiHle revenue from those whose work has something to do with science

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