The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-05-06
AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC REPORTING.

We take the following account Of an invention
By one Of the Supreme Court Judges Of the
Colony of Victoria, from the Melbourne Lea6er:
"For some time past one Of the Supreme Court
judges has been deyOting much Of bis lei5ure to
periectioZ an instrument called the autophono-
stenOgraph, which is designed for automatic
verbatim reporting by the aid Of electricity IL
Is stated that success has crowned his perseverng
ehJrts, and that the invention will be made pub
hc as soon as the necessary preliminary stems
have been taken TO secure TO the inventor both
the honor and profit Vt his discovery by patenting
1t throughout the known world. When their
HOnOrs, the judges, were called upon a few days
ago to finally decide a. To the nature Of the ac-
eommOdatOn to be provided IN the various courts
OF the new Law Courts now fast approaching COM
pletiOn, the inventor cUn6ded his secret to his
brothers Of the bench. IL has been decided to
adopt il in It's entirety for all the new courts Of
justice. The autophOnOstenograph in outward
appearance somewhat resembles a small har-
monium, though the keys are comparatively few
IA number, there being one only Tor each person
who may have occasion % speak, and the press
ing Of these connects the speakers with the in
struments and causes their various utteranees to
be received by the Instrument-Only. however,
to be sent forth again-In plain type-pIinting on
long strips Ot paper tape. Thus, IN a court Of
justice there would be key each for the judge
or judges, for the wItne-s-bOx, for the jury box
sor the counsel, etc, eech key communicating
with one OF more receiving instruments dis
posed in front Of the bench, witness-box, jury
boz, etc. II the judge Is speaking the per-
son in charge OF the instrument presses down
the Judge key, and whatever the Judge
says Is duly recorded on the judge paper
tape. II any one else interrupts the speaker
what he says can be also recorded by the operator
putting his key down also, each key has it's
own record. and the paper tapes OF different
colOrs so that no mistake can be made as to
whose utteranees are recorded thereon. By one
Of the most ingenious cOntrIyances in the instru
ment, the operator IN charge can print the un-
dersIde Of the respective tapes any remarks he
may wish To make, whilst n caTefully-adJusted
ehrOnographic a nparatus prints along the edge of
each strip the actual time ut which each word is
uttered. by this means the strips afterwards
be arranged 10 parallel lines and transcribed or
even made up into copy with the aid only of
paste and SCISSORS. 10 tue ordinary instruments
the whole Of the apparatus Is contained within
the case. but the instrument is I'D designed that
the recording portion can, NJ necessary, be dis
posed ar a distance, say at the newspaper office
for example. and be electrically connected only
with the receiving portion; this, however, would
necessitate number Of special wires which. un-
der ordinary circumstance would be too ex-
pensiVe. This invention Is combination OF
Ader's modification Of Professor Hughes micro
phone transmitter, Of the well-knOwn pho
nogrdph, whilst the general arrangement is bor-
rowed To n great extent from Professor Hughes
a. type printing" machine. There has, however,
been a most important link supplied in the pOr
ton Of the machine which translates the phono-
graphic indentatiOns into distinct movements,
capable Of actuatiDg the various literal combIna-
tions which represent the different sounds OF our
language but the patent for this colony has
not vet been applied Tor, compelled TO
reserve the explanation of this portion OF the
machine To another time. IL should be men,
toned that the spelling Of the recording portion
Of the machine - phonetic.