The Kazoo: A Paper Membrane That Buzzes With Your Voice

Frost's objects are "first, to provide, in a compact and convenient form, an instrument or toy which will impart a vibratory or reedy sound to the voice when the voice is sent into such musical instrument or toy; second, to provide a means of protecting the diaphragm". The body A, "preferably wood", has a hole B through its length and a hole C from the outside to B. Over C is fastened "a piece of thin material, E, preferably of paper or membrane, which I term the 'diaphragm'", seated in a wider counterbore D. "The sound is similar to that produced by covering a comb with paper and humming with the lips against it." A sheet-metal tube F with a hole G turns on the body: over the diaphragm it lets it play; turned, it covers and protects it. He contrasts earlier membrane instruments held "in the position of a fife or flute": in his, "the sound comes in a straight line from the mouth through the instrument". "If the diaphragm E is entirely shut off from contact with the outside air, it will not vibrate".

Drill a 12 mm bore through three short lengths of dowel. Drill a side hole into the bore in each: 8, 12 and 18 mm across. Glue wax paper over each side hole, taut on one and slacker on the others. Hum the same note into each and listen for which buzzes most readily at low and at high pitch; compare with the notebook's resonances. Cover the paper with a fingertip and hear it stop, as Frost said it would.

**Warren Herbert Frost** of Worcester, Massachusetts, filed on 28 August 1882; US 270,543 is dated 9 January 1883. He claims the bored body with a side hole covered by a diaphragm, and the protective turning tube. **Honest limits.** The paper's mass and the tensions in the notebook are examples; the membrane formula ignores the air behind it.