The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-06-14
NEWEST TASK OF LIGHT.
Another Great Invention by the Telec-
tr0scOpe's Maker.

troscOpe's Maker.
Herr SIC zepanik Contrives to Do in a Few
Minutes for the jacquard Loom What
ItHas Taken Designers Years TO Ac-
complish.
London, June 4.-Another great inven
ton which Is already perfected into one
of the marvels of the age, is announce d
from Vienna. The inventor is Herr Jan
Szczepanik, whose new wonder, the telec-
troscope, described briefly few wee ks
ton of we'll known scientific discoveries,
is an invention which will revolutionize
an important branch of the textile indus
try. By utilizing photography and cleo
tricity he Is able to accomplish in a quar-
ter of an hour, the work of designers
which heretofore has occupied months or
years, according to the size of the design.
A correspondent of the Chronicle sends
an interesting description of the device,
which is easily comprehensive by every
body. All who have ever seen loom
know that design to be woven must
first be resolved into tiny squares. In the
case of q large gobelin the designer has
at present to fill up millions of such lit
tie squares before it is possible to punch
the stencil plates which are indispensable
in the jacquard loom, and are conse-
quently absolutely necessary for the pro-
ductlon OF figured textile goods. Herr
Szczepanik totally aboIishes the designer,
and more than supplies his place by pho
Biography.
The focusing screen is one and half
metres square. and the bellows draw out
to length of 20 metres, while the i'm
mense lens had to be made expressly by
Zeiss of jena. Next he employs ruled
screens containing the necessary intersec-
lions. These screens or grids are on
glass plates prepared by photography, and
are the largest Photographic negatives
ever made, measuring 1. 10 metres square.
Each such screen contains 1000, 900
squares corresponding with those which
hitherto the designer, with infinite la
Dor, has fillsd in in the course of as much
as two or three years. Herr Szczepanik
does away with this wole tedi Gus process.
Having chosen the pattern, say a land
scape, which the web is to show, he at
taches picture of 1t to an upright board
fastened to the camera stand. 1t may be
remarked it is quite immaterial what the
subject may be. Whether it be a human
figure or face, landscape or mere orna-
ment, whether large or small. one takes
neither more nor less time than the other,
aud causes no more trouble.
The next thing Is to insert suitable
ruled screen Immediately in front of the
sensitive plate. e.. the silver bromide
paper. Two minutes exposure sufices to
produce an image on the sensitized paper
showing the points of intersection needed !;
developing and fixing occupy a quarter
Of an hour, and then the design is fin
tshed. The different colors the web is to
have are represented by different signs or
ngures, squares, etc., which are produced
by means Of corresponding stops in the
| objective.
The second process is punching the
jacquard stencils. Hitherto this has been
slow operation, carried on with the
help of a machine, each square having to
be cut out separately. Now Herr Szoze-
PohAA, W AACdAo VI ulo CCI OOu pTOC6SS,
transfers the design onto a thin sheet Of
| metal, thus obviating the necessity for
making the jacquard stencil on silver
bromide paper. The procedure Is the
same as in zinc etching; the parts of the
design exposed to the light are covered
with gelatine, while In the non.exposed
ones the bar metal appears. The result is
that good and bad electric conductors are
formed, and all those points on this met
al plate which represent holes on the
ruled screen conduct the electric current.
This plate Is then put into machine
specially constructed for the purpose of
punching 1t. Automatically 1t passes
under row of contacts which are con-
nected with electro magnets that set in
motion levers which punch the plate.
But the inventor goes q step furthe r
yet. With similar CONTINUANCE attached
not to tho punching machine, but to the
jacquard loom, he sets In motion not
only the punching levers, but also the
threads In the loom itself: in short, he
weaves direct from the original design
plate as we may name this substitute for
the jacquard stencil) by means of cleo
trieity.
The punching machine Is really super
nuous, inasmuch as the weaving can be
done direct from the original design
plate, and 1t is introduced by the inven-
tor only temporarily for economic rea-
ooHS. no WISHES 70 avoid Gno SuQQ0n no.
ing away with looms of the present style.
Eventually he expects electric looms viii
supplant the present machine. In q few
days Szczepanik's first electric loom will
arrive in Vienna from Germany, where 1t
has been made. 1t Will be publicly ex-
hibtted for the first time at the Paris Elk
hibition, where it will weave silk hand
kerchiefs. In three minutes the purohas-
or of such handkerchief will be photo
graphed BY an apparatus in the loom it.
self, the design plate win be prepared by
the same machine and then It will make
q silk handkerchief with the purchasers
likeness woven into it, so that in not
more than half an hour from the time
when the portrait was taken the buyer
will be able to take away with him as a
memento of the exhibition handker-
chief with his inwoven portrait, and all
for mere bagatelle.
At the Jubilee Exhibition now open in
Vienna for the present only two gobelins
woven by Szczepanik's new loom will be
shown. One of them contains Mari
Twain's portrait For some time the
great humorist has been giving the we'll
known Polish painter, Renryk Rauchin-
ger, almost daily sittings for portrait
for the gobelin. 1t will be the best of