San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-01
The 1ai1Y eight.
WEDNESDAY. MAY, |, 1899.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
A San Antonian at the GRAPHIC.
phonetic Tells What He
Thinks About 1t.

Thinks About 1t.
The above instrument is the Iates
marvel in the way of invention. Its
conformity with the laws of philoso-
ply, minute in detail, is simply won
derful. 1t forcibly reminds one of the
sage remark of the wise man of the
Bible, referring to the anti-deluvian
history of our race, when he hints at
one of the occult causes of the food
by remarking that they, the an
clients, Sought out many inven-
TONS" Step by step man is entering
the domain of the unknown, Prone
thean torch in hand, discovering the
hidden things in nature, and assert
his kinship to his Maker. He is rap
idly responding to the divine COM
mand, '"subdue the earth.n His
wonderful discoveries in science, in
the past half century, is his guaran-
tee that what yet remains of the un-
known can not long defy his genius
and daring. The TELEGRAPH, TELE-
PHONE and GRAPHOPHONE stamp
man of today. the modern Prone
theus, the revealer of hidden truth,
the secrets of the gods. And it is for
tunate that no wrathful Jove can bind
inventive genius to the cruel rocks of
ignorant persecution. Inventive ge-
MUS today coins his triumphs in the
minis of wealth. Morse gave us by
means of electromagnetic with dots
and dashes sign-language, means
by which we could transmit our
thoughts to a great distance in a
moment. Along came Bell with his
telephone, and taught US that we
could speak through solid wire hun
dreds of miles away, over bleak hills
and through shadOwy valleys, as
friend to friend, and our voice he
heard and recognized Just as if talking
face to face. But now comes Edison
with his graphophone, whereby we
can send messages to or leave them
for friends, any distance away, and
his machine will deliver said message
to our friends in our own voices, tones
and accents, with all their own pecul-
lar Municipalities, so that our friends
hear us speak, though ten thousand
miles away, or although dead for one
hundred years. Nor is this all. These
machines will repeat this message a
thousand times if need be, and always
in the same exact way-nothiug add
ed to it, nothing taken from it. The
little boy can speak to one of these
machines and leave his message to
be read by his grand children CEN
tury later, when it will re-
peat again his childish voice.
This machine, so capable of adapta-
ton to service in so many broad
fields, is just beginning a work that
will revolutionize the worlds methods
of business. 1t would be difficult to
predict what twenty years may re-
veal. Even now the banker, or mer-
chant, instead of writing or debating
messages, can sit down to one of these
little machines and say what he
wants his correspondent to know, and
d if the CORES pondent has like ma
chine, he mails little cylinder, COW
cred with wax coating on paste
board, an inch and half in diameter
by six, and capable of holding from
ten to fifteen ordinary business let
ters, costing at present about 3 and 12
cents a cylinder, and then about one
cent postage, to his correspondent
who receives it, puts it in his machine
and listens to the message. If the
writer's correspondent has no ma
chine, the business man makes use of
his by speaking his business letters
10 his machine at his leisure so that
his copyists can take them from
his machine and caligraph them
at their leisure. One can readily see
how such machine will soon enter
our courts. Take down and keep evil
dence not only verbatim ct litera-
tim," but, in the voice, tone and ex-
act words of each witness. Then will
the record from one court to another
be accurate, without variation or
shadow of turning. 1t would be diff
ficult to imagine what effect it will
have on the present methods of court
ship. Will the wooed maiden carry
her machine with her In her lovers
lanes rambles, that she may hold
and hear again those moonlight
promises? and If so, will not those
tell-tale machines appear in court
again in sad breach Of promise cases ?
These are questions for the future
historian of the graphophone to an
swer. All how careful then will our
conversation be, when we know that
it is all likely to be reeled off from
little tell-tale cylinder some day.
Well, doubtless, the reader by this
time wants to know something about
the conditions of this marvellous ma
chine. And I do not know that can
better describe it than by telling how
1 happened to learn about it. Capt.
H. G. Fike, adjuster for lost or dam
aged freight claims on the Missouri