Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-20
PICTURES BY WIRE.
Photos Can Now Be Telegraphed and
Reproduced in Half-TOnes.
HAND-SKETCHES CAN BE SENT.
The Process Permits of Enlargement or
Reduction in Sizes
ONE OF SCIENCES LATEST TRIUMPHs
WRITTEN FOR THE DrsPArcH.1

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.I
The advent Of the telephone, which
enabled us not only to converse through
hundreds of miles of wire, but to recognize
the voices of our friends, and the report of
few years ago that ones autograph could be
faithfully reproduced at the distant end Of
line (now an accomplished fact), paved
the way for the conjecture whether the time
would not come when we should see by
electricity.
On account Of the subtlety of the light
vibrations, compared with which those OF
sound are crude, it seems improbable that
the latter will ever be accomplished. But
there has recently been invented a process
by which photographs can be transmitted
to any distance and reproduced at the fur
ther end in the form of half tones, similar
to the Photographic reproductions SO much
used in illustrated journals
Tho process is known as the Electro
Autograph. The time occupied in trans
mitting an ordinary column-wide illustra-
ton need not exceed eight or ten minutes,
and the stereotyping of the reproductions
should not occupy more than a few minutes
more, so that the reproductions can be placed
upon the newspaper presses along with the
press dispatches descriptive of the subjeos
to be illustrated.
By a system Of gears on both the trans
mitting and receiving instruments it is pos
sible to change the size of the picture al
each end OF the line. That is to say, pict-
ure can be transmitted either larger, the
same size or smaller; and at the receiving
end, if there be several instruments, they
may each reproduce it on different scale.
pnuoh 10 at
tanned if large originals are used, and they
are reproduced on a smaller scale. A single
transmitting instrument is capable of aetu-
ating a large number of receivers at differ
ent points; thus the same picture may be
simultaneously reproduced at o number Of
widely-scattered news eenters.
If it is desired to send hand sketches, q
process has been devised by which a special
artist can make his sketches "on the spot"
by suitable washes, preserving all the half
tones that he may deem necessary to the
correct pictorial representation, and upon
the completion of the sketch it is wrapped
around transmitting cylinder, and, by a
simple adjustment of the tracer, the ma
chine can be left to itself until the whole
picture has been transmitted to its destina-
ton, where it is automatically reproduced,
q complete line engraving
1t is claimed for this process that the
depth of engravings can be increased over
100 per cent above that reached by the
deepest half-tone engraving, thus adapting
the work to uses to which the latter, on ac-
count of their shallowness, are unsuited.
The inventor of this process says it is quite
possible to engrave directly on metal by its
means. He expects to find large application
of his device by reproducing portraits, pho
tographs and conventional designs, both
singly and in multiplicate, on silver and other
metal ware, principally at local points