News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-09-20
ACROSS THE OCEAN.
An Inventors Apparatus TO Increase
Transmitted sound


There is an inventor in the village Of
Flushing, L. l., the New York San tells
us, who believes he has an apparatus
that will revolutionize the telephone
business and materially increase the use
fulness of the Atlantic cable. His name
is Webster Gillette, and he is from
Michigan. A reporter found him seated
in a little room in which were three Ia
bles loaded with electrical apparatus,
and network of wires stretched be-
tween the walls. The inventor appeared
to be about 40 years old.
On the largest table i'll the room stood
a disk about thirteen inches in diameter.
Projecting from the centre of one face
of the disk was a funnel. shaped object.
Running into the table from the lower
edge of the disk We're number of wires.
On the table, arranged in a row short
distance from the wires, were ten black
cylindrical induction coils. That is what
the reporter noticed. This the inventor
said:
"That funnel-shaped object in the
centre of the disk is the resOnatOr. You
see that it is not like the speaking tube
of an ordinary telephone The larger
part of the funnel is held to the mouth.
The volume Of the voice, instead of being
concentrated in a small space lis in other
telephones, is spread over, and causes
| the whole metallic diaphragm to vibrate.
You will notice on the opposite side of
the disk there are ten deviating points,
which are held in position by ten rubber
arms, that may remind you somewhat
of cutie fish. When you talk through
the speaking tube or resOuatOr, the me-
tallic diaphragm, or, popuiarly speaking,
the tin plate. vibrates. The vibrations
are communicated to the ten deviating
points or needles. The needles penetrate
| through rubber >fssLiCns into small brass
cylinders containing graduated carbon.
The cylinders are Secured in their places
by ten brass arms attached to the rim of
the disk that holds the metallic plate.
Ten wires run through the arms, form
the primaries of the induction coils, and
return to their respective poles. The
ten secondary wires from the induction
coils are carried to a plug switch, so ar
ranged as to place one or as many wires
as may be desiredin circuit. The power
of ten batteries, ten induction coils, and
a corresponding number of deviating
points, acted upon simultaneously by
single vibrating tin plate, may thus be
concentrated upon a single wire. This
is something that has never been done
before.
81 claim that conversation may be car
ried on over an ordinary telegraph wire
with my telephone between points $500
miles apart Twelve words a minute is
considered fair rate of transmission
over the Atlantic cable. By using this
telephone one hundred and twenty words
a minute may be transmitted if a short
hand writer is employed as a receiver.
All the important features OF my inven-
ton are new. By the use of the granu-
lated carbon and the rubber cushions
into which the needles penetrate [ secure
a steady, uninterrupable sound.
Mr. Gillette went into an adjoining
room, where he had another telephone
connecting with the one on the table.
The receiving tube of the new appara-
tus was put in position. After a few
minutes ii began to emit a series Of dis
tinct "Halloes" in bass voice.
After returning to the room Mr.. Gil
lette said that ten batteries, ten devia-
ting points and ten induction coils have
about six times the power of one battery
and a corresponding number of the other
necessary electrical agencies. He thought
that the time was not remote when We
could not only speak across the ocean,
but also see those to whom we might be
speaking. He said that an experiment
with the new telephone probably would
be made in ten days between places in
Maine and Massachusetts, five hundred
miles apart.