Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-05
To SEE FROM AFNR.
Telescope by which Distant Things
VIII he urouuht Near.

VIII he brought Scar.
That sooner or later an apparatus would
be invented by means o. which objects might
be seen at grea, distance. just as sounds
are heard from afar by means OF the ,ele-
phone has been considered probable for a
long time
!; Is strange coincidence. says the Al
hany Journal. ;ha; announcement is made
simultaneously from sections Of the globe
far remote from each other that the expected
invention has been made, one of the in-
yeutors is a Swedish physician. Concern
ing the details oi his discovery nothing has
been m De public. The other man who
has discovered the secret Of looking through
a wire" Is Or, Frank NJ Close OF Oakland.
Cal He calls his apparatus a "tc.gctr5-
scope'-that Is, an apparatus FOR seeing
afar by means Of electricity.
There are two boxes connected by q line
OF wire One Of these boxes is called the
receiver and the other the ;ransmit;eT In
front OF the receiver a piece o.! tourmalue
OF Iceland spar is placed and opposite TO
this is the eye Of the person testing the
apparatus.
In front Of the openiu. OF the transml',cr
and directed upon some sort Of electrical de-
vice, the nature OF which Dr Close does not
reveal. is placed a lighted candle Immc-
diately the eve perceiyes the fame Of the
candle. although In an adjoining room or
long distance away. the tourmaliuc o. the
receiver is removed though the lighted
candle remains al the transmttsr, no light
Is seen.
The explanation OF this phenomena Dr.
Close makes by reference TO the transmits
si-n OF sound by electricity-that is 20 the
telephone Exactly what happens when YOU
talk into the tTaus-..:cr OF a telephone and
a person al the other end OF the line hears
your voice Is that the sound wave striking
49, 1.
IN the electrically charged wire. or. TO be
little more scientific impress upon the elec-
trio current flowing through the wire a
series OF vibrations which have the effect,
when an apparatus similar TO that OF the
transmitteT IS thrust into the circuit some
distance away, to set up vibrations in a
second disk which exactly reproduce the
sound Of your voice.
Now. a very accurate description Of Just
what happens when you see a given object
is that the different parts o. the object
varicusly absorb the different rays OF light
so as TO give the object its shading OF light
ana color. and in turn there is Sc; UP in the
millions upon millions Of nerve cells OF your
brain series OF sensations. which. when
put together. give you an idea or mental
image Of the things seen. In case YOU see a
given object In a mirr-r the only difference
in the operation is that the waves OF lisi..
nave struck upon and been reflected from
the nonabsorbent glass and thus reach your
eye.
Now. suppcsing that the image OF an OBJ
Ject striking a mirror OF something CORE
spending to mirror should be made - set
up vibrations in an electric wire. just ex-
acily as sound wave striking on the thin
disk OF the telephone trausritter sets up a
series OF vibrations, Il is not hard to under
stand that II there were a suitable apparatus
at the other end OF the wire to reverse the
process and reproduce upon a second mirror
or screen the vibrations excited at the oppo-
site end, you would be able TO see through
a wire Just as you now talk through H. In
other words. It would be possible to transmit
images FOR almost any conceivable distance
Naturally, the apparatus is still in very
crude state, just as nearly all inventions are
at present. But inasmuch as the means OF
me electrical transmission Of light waves
has been discovered, the devel pment and
perfection thereof will be merely a matter
OF time.