The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-14
PICTURES BY WIRE.
New York Herald Announces the
Perfection of the System.

Perfection of the System.
{ The New York Herald of Saturday con-
tanned two pictures, one Of Gomez and the
other Of the cruiser Montgomery, which.
It says, were transmitted by electrical
wire from Key West to New York. OF the
pictures and apparatus the paper says:
They were sent and received by means
of transmitter and receiver invented ty
Ernest A. Hummel. a manufacturing Jew
eier of st. Paul, MINI. Herald readers
will remember the results of a trial of
this invention two months ago, when pic
lures in connection with the trial for muir
der of Eli Shaw in Camden, N. j., we're
successfully sent by telegraph from that
city and published in the Herald.
IL is more than 1900 miles from Key
West to the Herald library, where the
pictures were received. by far the longest
distance that pictures had ever been sent
in that way.
In an alcove of the Herald library the
receiving machine stood, looking much
like miniature printing press. Beside it
was telegrapher's table. The wire con-
nections had been carefully made by a
veteran operator who sat before it wait
ing for the machine to begin work. A
WV AL Tue IltIdtQ > tAtiuoiNS ~Nt@S il'lN
been provided by the Western Union Tel
egraph Company. 1t ran out of the Her
aid building to the main New York office
of the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany, then through Philadelphia, WASH
ington and Jacksonville, over swamp lands
to Punta Rassa. on.the southwestern coast
of Florida, and then by a hundred and
fifty miles of cable at the bottom of the
Gulf of Mexico to far away Key West.
lfolti IN 4 a he al NJ
nee of the telegraph company, at $3.50
o'clock, came the message: I'VE have
Key West and will connect you at once"
Then the clicking stopped, and in a few
seconds the machinery of the receiver be-
gan TO move. carriage run by minute
motor and having a projecting arm, and
end holding fine steel point, commenced
moving backward and forward Under
the point, and held firm and smooth on a
bed of brass. were two sheets of white
paper, each four and a half inches square,
and between them carbon sheets TO make
copy.
Across the paper travelled the point, maxi
ing broken lines of dots and dashes. Al
each trip across the point was moved by
finely, graduated ratchets very slightly
from the line in which it had moved the
preceding time. -
In Key West the inventor, Mr.. Hummel,
d
and a telegraph operator were sitting be-
side the transmitter. The artist had
drawn a picture on tin He had redrawn
the lines with a fine brush dipped in a
solution of shellac, which is a non-eon-
ductor of electricity. A platinum point on
the projecting arm Of the transmitter was
moving backward and forward across the
picture. regulating the motion of the steel
point which was moving over the paper
m h. -
ment in the Herald library
Wherever the platinum point in the
transfnitter touched a line of the shellac
the circuit was broken, and the steel point
in the receiver was thrown down on the
paper, tracing a line corresponding TO that
taken by the platinum point. When the
latter passed the shellac the circuit closed
again and the steel point lifted.
Slowly the outline of a mans beard APP
peared on the paper. Then the chin, the
nose and the cheek bones were drawn.
| Hardly had the outline of theteyes appear
| ed when those at the receiver recognized
| the face of Gen. Maxine Gomez.
The steel point moved down to the edge
| of the picture few minutes later and
stopped, 1t had been moving, just TWEEN
| ty-three minutes. Immediately the tele-
| graph instrument began TO click. Key
| West was talking.
/ Now you have the latest picture of
| Gen. Maxine Gomez, taken in the field in
January, 1885," the operator said.
| Received in good condition." went back
| the reply of the Herald operator.
| Key West spoke again:
Next picture, American cruiser Mont
gomery entering Havana harbor and sa-
| luting Moro Castle"
| The machine that draws pictures at a
range of two thousand miles began to
| work again, and twenty-three minutes la
ter the sketch of the American cruiser
stood out on the paper
| Then the sketches were redrawn in India
ink by Herald artist and afterward they
went to the engraving room and to the
| presses.