Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1905-01-17
oFFlo4As-RAPER OF COUNTY
MARVELLOUS MACHINE
ENsrRUMENT THAT TRANSMITS
1 10000 WORDS AN HOUR.
wsl,erams Turned Out from Machine
In Writing-Photography Aids
: Process Of Recording
Letters.

( LoAdon.-The average person can
write about 80 to 35 words q minute.
"A good typist can turn out about dou-
bic that amount
There was exhibited at a hotel here
the othsr day a Telegraph instrument
that can transmit messages and write
them out in the most legible of hand
writing at the rate of more than 40,000
words an hour.
This Is the latest. and, 1t would seem,
the greatest marvel Of electric teleg-
saphy.
The fastest Geographic instrument at
present, In operation is the Wheatstone
automatic, which transmits kilograms
from city TO city at the rate of 200 to
ESQ words a. minute. But messages
when sent by this system still have to
be translated from the Morse tele-
graphic language into ordinary Ian
guage, and this can be done only at
ordinary writing speed. The new Pol
lak-Virag telegraph instrument trans
mits messages at nearly four times the
speed, and delivers them direct from the
instrument written in the plainest OF
ordinary copy book handwriting.
How 1t is done is technical marvel
that takes an, electrical expert to grasp
completely, but roughly simplifed the
system issa commonplace.
First, the message to be transmitted
Is converted into Geographic dots and
Aashes on a perforator that looks like
m ordinary typewriter. This perforator
punches IN a slip Of paper a complicated
series OF holes that correspond in cleo
krical impulses to the form Of letters.
BY passing this slip over series OF
cylinders, electric waves find their way
Through the prepared holes, quick as q
lightning flash, and are transmitted in
simultaneously to the other end of the
wire, however far it Is, and come out
In the same sequence in which thsy en-
tsred. The manner in which the letters
IRE recorded is the marvel.
Photography Is called in. The cleo
eric waves are conveyed to little mir
sor, and they make the mirror move in
4wo horizontal and vertical.
Electric light is focused on the mirror,
and then directed from it to slip Of
osnsitized paper.
The mirror moves only about the hum
arsdth part Of a millimeter, and the ex-
Dosure OF the sensitized paper Is only
about the thousandth part Of second
but tho lightning flash is quicker, and
khouSh the eye cannot follow the writ
ing, yet It appears plain as pikssta6,
and without the possibility Of an error,
1t the rate OF almost IL words q sec
nod.
3shs two motons-vertical and hori-
(eontal-withf the motion Of the paper
Asing drawn before the finger Of light,
supply ell the motions OF handwriting.
1f produced slowly they would. Of course.
Do angular, but the speed makes them
practically curved. Developing and FIX
Rng the photographed message takes ten
seconds, 10 that the written message II
1ecsaved ten; seconds later than Its trans
mission.
The system IL 20 fast that It is really
nAsad OF the age. Very few towns, let
None individuals. want to telegraph
10000 words an hour. Indeed, Austria
Hungary. the home Of the inventors.
While enthusiastically indorsing the
Dnvention, could not make use Of it, be-
bause no two telegraph offices in the en-.
bire have enough work to keep it go
eoing. They would have to save up tele.
grams for week to keep the instru.
6ent going ten minutes.
It ought to prove of immense value In
transmitting speeches from out-ot-the.
nay places. where few wires exist.
"a b. TO- =