The Port Gibson reveille., 1905-03-16

other day before a gathering that in
cluded Count Mensdorff. the Aus.ro
Hungarian Ambassador.
The fastest telegraphic apparatus a
present in use is the Wheatstone
which transmits messages at 200 tC
250 words a minute. But by the
Wheatstone system kilograms are
transmitted In Morse telegraphiC
characters. and have to be transcrib
ed into plain writing by a stan oi
telegraphists at the receiving station
This latest instrument (the invention
OF two Hungarians, Mr. Anton Pollak
and Mr.. Jozsef Virag, and called the
Pollak-Virag Rapid Telegraph), not
only vastly increases the speed OF
transmission, but reproduces the mes,
sages at the receiving station written
In ordinary handwriting.
1t seems sufficiently marvellous that
an instrument should be devised that
can mechanically inscribe script at
some 500 words a minute when the
average fast penman cannot write
much more than 30 to 35 words min
ute. The system is, Of course, ex
tremely technical, but can perhaps be
roughly described as follows:
The message to be transmitted over
the wire is first prepared on a perfor-
ating apparatus. This apparatus Ia
very much like and ordinary type
writer, and is operated at about the
same speed. It converts the message
into perforations on strip Of paper,
resolving 1t into two sets Of compOn-
ents, the vertical and the horizontal,
this being necessary for the reason
that the electrical currents can only
transmit single componenTs. The
holes are varied to correspond with
the varied form of letters. These com
ponents can, of course, be sent over
a telegraph wire at an incredible
speed. The difficulty is in reproduc-
ing them in Ineligible form at the
other end. To accomplish this two
telephones are used at the receiving
station, the system requiring the use
of a telephone circuit Of practically
two wires.
The varying currents generate vi
brations in the respective telephone
receivers, and the motions-vertical
and horizontal respectively-are com
municated to a single mirror in sEcn
a manner that one set Of cOmponents
causes vertical movements Of the mir
ror, and the other set horizontal move
ments. A ray Of light Is directed cn
to te mirror from an incandescent
electric lamp, and is reflected from
the mirror through lenses, on to a
slip Of sensitized Photographic paper.
The two motions Of the mirror are
sufficient to form all the characters Of
handwriting, but, Of course, If made
slowly the characters would be angu-
lar. But the mirror moves only TO
the extent OF about one-hundredth part
of a millimeter, while the exposure OF
the paper is no more than the thou
sandth part OF a second, so that the
enormous rapidity of the currents and
the movements makes the characters
practically round. So fast does the
mirror move that, when the working
parts were exposed, observers could
barely discern more than a fash OF
light, but the sensitized paper showed
the momentary flash resolved into a
line of the plainest handwriting.
The great saving over present sys-
TENS lies in the speed of transmission
and in the TACT that no staff Of train
ed telegraphists is required at the
receiving end to transcribe the mes
sages. They come out on a slip some
four inches wide In plain handwrit-
ing. The mechanism by which the
pen Of light is made to move from
line to line is extremely simple, cleo
trically, and yet far too complex to de-
scribe in small space. Indeed, the
simplicity of the invention is its most
marvellous feature.
It's extreme quickness woud seem to
be the greatest hindrance to its gen.
eral use--a strange paradox in this
rapid age. The Hungarian authorities
reported enthusiastically on the mer-
its of the system, but complained that |
there were no two Offices in the coun-
try which had between them a suffi-
cient traffic to furnish enough work,
even during a short time, to justify
an installation. The proprietors hope |
that in this country, which uses tele-
graphy on such vast scale, and
where newspapers send 50 per cent of
the telegraph messages Of the whole
kingdom, use may be found for their
Standard.