The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-31

| probability the idea will first be tried on
small scale, such as piping the air from the
nearest seaside resort, but the extension
OF the system to long distances is per-
fectly feasible. Professor Crocker's reputed
| idea is that this control of climates
would have to be done by national, rather
than State or municipal action, and would
probably require cooperation between this
Government and the Canadian and Next
| can Governments. Such pipe line as has
been suggested would have to extend from
| some OF the very cold regions of the far
| north clear into the tropics. We should
thus be able to draw cold air from the
north and warm air from the south. This
would also give means of controlling the
rainfall. A cold blast would be turned on
when rain was needed and hot blast
when it was desirable to keep it away.
This idea may possibly be worked out i'll
course of time, but in the meantime some
electric central stations are proposing to
supplement their regular business in sup
plying to their customers cool air in sum
mer and warm air in winter, and, In all
probability, this less ambitious scheme will
be the first to be put into working shape.
TELEP&oNING BY LIGHT.-Professor Alex
ander Graham Bell believes that telephon-.
ing by means of a beam of light will yet
be commercially practicable. This belief
has grown out of a long course OF expert
ments with selenium. Selenium is mar
velously sensitive to the influence of light
when it is exposed, to which it gives vibra-
tions which can be electrically transmitted.
This remarkable power of transmission in
duced Professor Bell to test ether materials
with view to discovering the same phe-
nomenon. He placed various substances
in test tube, and, after making eonnec-
ton with hearing tube, subjected the
substances to the influence of intermittent
light Sounds of varying intensity were
heard through the tube, according to the
intensity of the light and the color. OBJ
jects that were diffuse, as wooden, cotton,
worsted, etc., gave out the loudest noises
One day, as an experiment. he blackened
some red worsted with lampblack. The
sounds it uttered were heightened to such
pitch that they positively rasped on the
ear. Some SCOT was then put into the tube
and exposed to the rays of an arc lamp.
There was such storm of sounds that
Professor Bell described it as frying
noise. This led him to experiment with
the sounds produced by artificial light;
but he found that such light is neither
steady nor strong enough. Professor Bells
story OF the way in which he became con
WINGED of the possibility. of telephoning
without wires is interesting. Some years
ago he had fixed thin, highly polished
reflector in such position that it directed
the light from a distant schoolhouse roof
through the window of his laboratory in
Washington, and friend who was assist
ing him stood on the schoolhouse roof.
As Professor Bell describes it: GA bit of
selenium was placed in test tube, which
in turn was connected with hearing tube,
and all was in readiness. All of a sudden,
as L was listening, out OF the sunbeam
came these words: Mr.. Bell! Mr.. Bell
If you hear what | am saying come to the
window and wave your arms" Professor
Bell considers the success of these expert
ments as even more wonderful and of
greater significance than was the discovery
OF the telephone.
AN Electrical TYPEsETTING MACHINE
An electrical typesetting machine has
been invented by Father Calendoli, Do
minican friar, on which, it is said. speed
can be obtained four or five times as great
as that possible with the typesetting ma
chimes now generally used. The keyboard
differs radically from that of other in
ventors i'll that the keys corresponding to
all the letters i'll a word of reasonable
length may be simultaneously depressed
and the type will be set in proper order.
The keyboard holds fifteen alphabets of
lower case, at the left hand, three of upper
case at the right hand, and line OF
puntuation marks, ETC., along the top.
There are thirty keys; the vowels "a, e,
i, o." on each are Implicated, and the
vowel GU is duplicated, while each
consonant has key to itself. It is
possible, of course, to arrange the letters
in any way, but on Father Calendoli's
machine they are placed in the order of
their frequency in the French language.
Thus the Il" is placed first as the first left
hand key on the upper row, second as the
third in the center row, and third as the
next to the last in the lowermost line. In
composing word the operator selects the
letter most convenient to the position in
which his fingers happen to be at the mo-
ment. Thus, in settling the word ''roi'
the ''i' would fall to the third finger of the
left hand, while for the word sol" the ''i''
on the lower line would be struck
by the index finger of the same
hand. The arrangement is said to be SO
scientific and judicious that little prac-
tice gives the ability to select the proper
of the keyboard is occupied by YER
teal tubes resembling the pipes of
an organ, and here the type is stored.
At the bottom of each tube is a releasing
bolt actuated by an electro magnet, which
is in turn controlled by its respective keys.
As already stated, the letters forming a
word are struck simultaneously, and the
sequence in which the type is arranged is
determined by the order in which the re-
spective keys are released. The pressure
on the key puts the type in position to be
dropped into place, and the releasing of
the key drops the type in the chute leading
to the galley. The body OF the type is
shorter than usual and has deep groove
in the lower end From the magazine
tubes the types pass along an inclined
chute to the galley, where they are auto
matically threaded on line rods.
Duchess Dues Bad Investment.
M. Paul de Cassagnac has been saying
that it was the Comte de Paris and not the
Duchesse Dues who furnished f120O0O
to the Boulangist committee to enable it
to overthrow the republic and restore the
monarchy. This, writes our Paris CORE
spondent, is not true. The Duchess, after
she struck up friendship with General
Boulanger, thought of using him as another
Monk. She brought him into relations
with her royalist friends talked him round
and then went abroad to confer with the
Comte de Paris on her scheme. She did
- IL