Omaha daily bee., 1885-04-15
AN ASTONISHING INVENTION.
Threatens to Supersede Both the
Morse System and the
Telephone.

Telephone.
PHILADELPHIA, April l1.-An inveu-
ton has recently been perfected here
that bids fair to ~revolutionizs all exist
lug systems of electrical communication,
both telegraphlc and telephone. The
secret Of it has been carefully guarded by
the inventors, Mesers. George NJ. Hath
awey and James II. Linville, and by the
small company OF large capitalists who
control it while 1t was being fully COW
cred by patents, both American and for
elgn. Now that all Is secure, 1t is
to be suddenly sprung upon the public by
an exhibition at the Continental hotel,
probably during the present week, as one
of the gigantic scientific surprises of the
century. To state In brief what 1t is, II
is nothing less than making telegraphy
as simple, rapid and easily within com
mand of every body as is the operating of
the callgraph or typewriter. Effecting
what is claimed for 1t, 1t will be tho
means of greatly reducing the cost of tel
egraphy, of enabling the opening of some
40, 000 new telegraph stations in railroad
and express offices throughout the United
States whore there have hitherto
been none, and of taking the
place generally of the tele-
phone. Any person who can pick
out a word on the keys of a type writer
can transmit a message by the Hathaway
system accurately and with rapidity, only
restricted by the speed of the picking,
while, as for receiving messages, the In.
strument does that sutomatjc Ally, whether
there Is anybody experimenting It's ope-
ratiens or not. There was q private ex-
hibltion of the syntem to-day at the COM
results attained at which seemed to fully
sustain all that is claimed for this most
remarkable invention.
The instrument used is both a trans
mitter and a receiver. The two instru-
ments used in this exhibition were
connected by about one hundred n,iles of
wire coiled about the offices, Each ap.
peared In Its front part to be simply an
ordinary typewriter, with the letters,
numerals, ETC., on raised keys. Behind
this rises q small column, with blank
paper wrapped around 1t, iai moved up
line by line as required by a simple de-
vice. inside that column is q small
hammer hat strikes outwardly, so as to,
whenever q key is touched, press the
paperagainst heperiphery of a horizontal
wheel that lies between the keyboard and
the column. On that periphery, In high
relief, are the letters of the alphabet,
numerals and points for. punctuation.
The wheel spins around with lightning
like rapidity as the keys are successfully
touched by an expert. When 1t has to
retrocede in the alphabetical order 1t files
back to a fixed point, as does the wheel
of q gold and stock indicator, but much
more swiftly. All the delicate and intri.
cate electrical attachments necessary sre
below, and when understood, are much
less complicated than they seem,
their apparent complication being caused
by their multiplicity. A separate wire
leads from each key to a single common
wire, and each of those key connected
wires server either for transmission or re-
ception of messages. The sending or re.
ceiving of q particular letter or figure is
governed by the strength Of current re
quired for Just that individual one, and
for no other. 1t seems very strange that
all these various impulses should be
flashed along a wire-even In opposite di.
r%ections at the same time-wltho JOS.
ting each other or getting mixed up, but
they do. Many messages were Gent and
received in to-dsy's test by non-experts
at a speed of from forty to fifty words
per minuts with greater accuracy than is
usually shown by expert Morse "sound"
operators, and that speed, it was affirmed
could be greatly increased. A noticeable
and valuable feature of this 50 stem is
that 1t prints clearly In the sight of the
person transmitting a message just what
is being sent to the receiver, 30 that or.
rors are avoided, or if committed are
readily corrected. The messages sent
over a wire by this instrument,
cannot be read by sound
80 that 1t Is much more
favorable to the privacy often desirable
In business than either the Morse
system or the telephone. Inasmuch as
the Hathaway instrument can be ad-
justed to any system of wire conmunica-
tion and will work to as great distances as
is required in telegraphy, 1t will be of In
estimable to railroad and express COM
pauies, bankers, brokers, merchants and
the general public. There are no formid-
able complication" In their construction,
and expert electricians who have exam
ined it pronounce 1t one of most wonder
full achievements of the age. Should 1t
only do half what Ia claimed for it, and
that 1t shows 1t can do, it would practi
cally revolutionizs telegraphy.
The company controlling this great in
v~ention has been organized upon a CAPT
tai of So, 000, 900, but no stock is for sale,
oil being held as an iuveH Oment. The
officers are: President, Thomas Cochran,
pres.dent,G Guarantee Trust and Safe De-
post company; vics-president, j. ii.
Linville, G. 4 treasurer, Thomas T.
Butcher; secretary, VIM. III. Vile, secre.
tary S. M. r. r. Co. This parent com.
pany will simply dispose of territorial
rights and supply Instruments.