The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1889-06-14
Gorballis 6a7ttte,
THE WRITING TELEGRAPH.

It Is not impossible that within
a few years the telephone will
pass entirely out Of use. There is
a probability of its being succeed
ed shortly by what is called the
writing telegraph, and a company
whose purpose. it is to establish
writing telegraph exchanges, has
been formed in San Francisco
The instrument can be used by
anyone as easily as can be the tel
ephone, and an exhibition of its
value was made in San Francisco
few days ago before an electrical
society of that city. The manag-
er OF the new company, M. L.
Hadley, read an essay describing
the instrument, and also submit
ted practical tests.
The writing telegraph is gener-
ally similar to the telephone, ex-
cept that the handwriting is trans
mitted instead of the sound. The
operator sits at his desk, makes
connection with some other instru-
1nent and writes his message. The
party addressed may or may not
be at his place Of business; the
message is transmitted just the
same. The new instrument has
been in use in New York for some
fifteen months, and is specially
used in transmitting information
of the progress of baseball games,
races and other sporting events to
business houses and newspapers
in the city, interested in these
matters. 1t will be useful, how
ever, for commercial business as
well, and is particularly valuable
tor private wires. The impor-
tant elements of secrecy and in
difference to noise are secured by
the writing telegraph. The store
or Office may be filled with noisy
people, yet the little instrument
proceeds to business without him
drance. Instead of shouting an
order to a business house the mer-
chant sits down and noiselessly
writes it. Two copies of the mes
sage are made. One remains in
the possession of the sender, and
the other the receiver, one being a
check on the other, thus avoiding
the misunderstanding so frequent
ly the result of the use of the tel
ephone. The cost of maintaining
an exchange is less than that of the
telephone, and rates to patrons
are therefore reduced. In writing
the stylus or pen is held in the
writer's hand as in ordinary writ
ing. The characters are transmit
ted to the receiving instrument
and shaped there one by one on
paper pulled uniformly under
meath by clockwork.
s'This transmitter we have here"
said Mr.. Hadley in his address; sis
a new one. The inventor obtain
ed his result from series of steel
tongues arranged in a vertical po-
sition and placed at right angles to
each other. To each tongue Is
connected given resistance of
German silver wire. The. upper
ends of these tongues are tipped
witd platinum in order to prevent
oxidization from strong currents.
The receiver consists of two pairs
OF magnets, each IN circuit with
one of the line wires, and placed
at right angles to each other. The
rod which carries the pen and the
armature has a spiing wire pro-
jecting at its base, and fastened at
a point where the two poles would
meet if extended. The armature
quickly responds to the varying
attraction of the magnets, and its
rod extends above the top of the
case and carries pen. This pen
is fed through a siphon from an
ink we'll, by what is known as cap
Hilary attraction"