, 1889-01-12
WRITING BY TELEGRAPH.
Elisha Gray's Invention for Sending Let
tiers by Wire.

Elisha Gray's Invention for Sending Let
tiers by wire.
Electricity is the good genius of this
century. Those who know most about
it say that what we haze done with it
in the past is but a trife compared
with what we may hope to do with it
in the future. There are people who
expect some day to be able to call a
distant friend by wire, see his image
in a mirror, hear his voice, and, if de-
sired, get his exact signature to a sub
scription paper or a check
These things may all come. AT
present we get along with an inter,
mittent and e~xasperating repetition of
the voice over the wire, having no
means of determining the identity of
our interlocutor, no certainty of get
ting his words accurately and no
record of what he says. Cases are re-
ported where ingenious rascals have
secured considerable sums by cleverly
initiating over the telephone the voice
of wealthy business men; in other
cases orders TO buy or sell goods or
securities have been repudiated by
those who gave them by telephone,
while the simple blunders caused by
faulty telephone transmission would
fill volumes.
Elisha Gray, the well known Illinois
inventor, recently patented adevice to
insure accuracy and accountability
over the electric wire. The sender of
a message "a write it out at his desk,
and an exact reproduction of the writ
ing will be made at the other end of
the circuit There have been previous
attempts at transmitting fac-similes of
writing, but inventions which de-
pended upon a variation in the in
tensity of the current or upon reTolv-
ing cylinders proved unsatisfactory.
Mr.. Gray's device consists of two
current interrupters at the sending end
and a pair of electro motors at the re-
ceiving end. The sender uses either
pen or pencil, near the point of which
are attached two threads running at
right angles TO each other. These
threads are kept at an even tension
automatically, and each one passes to
a current interrupter set into the tele-
graphic circuit. When the pen moves
to the right the current is broken a
great number of times for a small
movement. When it moves to the left
the current is reversed and is similarly
interrupted. The same arrangement
prevails on the movement of the pen
up and down. The writer can write
or sketch as rapidly and as freely as if
he had no t~elegraphic attachment.
At the receiving end there are two
electro mdgnets fitted with rods set at
right angles to each other, SO pivoted
as to give any motion desired to the
pen which they carry at their inter
section. When a series of breaks in
the current is caused by q motion of
the sending pen to the right, the mag
net draws the lateral rod also to the
right. Similarly upward motion is
given by the vertical rod. Left hand
ed or downward strokes of the sending
pen are reproduced by the receiving
pen in the same Conse-
quently every motion made on the
paper at one end of the wire is copied
with faultless exactness at the other
end. When the pen is taken off or a
new line is begun an automatic device
operates with the same result on the
receiving pen.
The ~telautograph, as Mr.. Gray calls
his invention, therefore not only in
sures accuracy, but it so exactly copies
the sender's handwriting as to hold
him accountable for what he has writ
ten, while he retains for his own
guidance the original of the message
transmitted. The experiments made
show that there is no difference in the
handwriting at the two ends of the
wire, except that which is incident to
the use of the stylographic pen at the
receiving end.-New York Herald.