The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-04-01

logged the steps pl Dpln. Eight
times the weaving machine was set
~. and eight times ii failed to do It's
work. The capitalist was threatened
with ruin. but the enterprise was
saved at the last hour by German
architect. Franz Habrich. who joined
the concern and brought more funds.
Once more the machine was made.
the magical web was woven. and
Szezcpanik was free II devote him
self - the idea still nearer To his
hcari-:ilc idea ni the "distancc-
seer. which? was 10 anrihilatc space
and bring distant scenes 10 unfold
themselves before his sight.
How this was done would take too
long. and take too technical language.
80 tell here. Let il suffice to say lha;
by wonderful arrangement OF lenses
and disks the waves OF light are
transformed into electricity At one
end OF the wire. carried over the wire
like a telephone message. and con-
vcrted back into rays OF light al the
other end.
The things we sec with our eyes. as
the verest school boy knows are not
what they appear to be. When we
see St. Paul's Cathedral. we see mil
lion. or many millions. OF rays OF
light given out by a million. or many
millions. OF points on the surface Of
St. Pauls. and the eye. receiving
these millions Of rays ii light, forms
them for the brain into a perfect pic
ture So, standing at one end OF a
wire. Jan Szezepanik sees, not man
or a house at the other end. but the
image OF a man or house formed on
the retina of his eye by the waves Of
light given off by the man OF the
house. picked up by his selenium
disk, conveyed as electricity over the
wire. and received and made visible
on a Photographic plate.
Seven years have passed since-for
the first time, we need not doubt. in
the history Of the world-a man with
only human eyes stood III room and
saw, reflected in the room. an image
OF something two miles away. 1t
was the first experiment with the
telectroscope. and it established the
possibility OF the inventors theory.
A lens having been focused SO that
the image OF church fell upon it.
the plate was exposed. at a given sig,
nal. and in Herr Kieinberg's house.
about two miles distance, Herr
Klcinberg. Jan Szezepanik and Herr
Schmidt, an electrical engineer.
plainly saw the picture-faint and
blurred. but recognizable-of the
church.
Seven years is as moment in the
work OF evolution which is changing
the face of this wonderful world, and
today men are still content in London
if the telephone brings them sound
and not sight. Too often it is deaf
and dumb, as we'll as blind. But Jan
Szezepanik has not been working
alone to realize this great dream. A
German inventor, Maximilian Pless-
ner, is a pioneer in the same field.
and we are told that last year that
the French government was negotia-
ating for the rights of the "specEo-
graph" another kind of telephone in
vented in Paris.
1t makes all the difference in the
world, however, that Mr. Edison now
promises that we shall see by wire.
He speaks our language and thinks
our thoughts, and he belongs, wizard
as he is, in our own real world.
1t may yet be that we shall sit by
our 6resides and see our kin across
the sea, that we shall be Switched
on" from our drawing rooms to be
present at some great battled field,
and that the streets of all the worlds
capitals will be familiar to those who
never leave the streets of our own
London. Some maker of dictionaries
in that day will cross out "space"
and distance" and invisible" as
words without a meaning, and the