Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1906-07-18
PHONE THAT TALKS
IS THE LATEST OUT
THE NEWEST OFFICE EQUIP
MENT THE INVENTION OF THE
DANISH EDISON" v. PoULsEN.

Wireless telegraphy has prepared
us for almost any kind of inventive
wizardry But the , Danish Edison, 4"
Valdemar Poulsen, has come forward
to prove that there are things quite
as mysterious as aerograms. For a
demonstration of this fact, one has
only to talk into the receiver of the
Poulsen "telegraphone," have his
words invisibly registered upon the
wire or disc that takes the place of
the wax records of a photograph, and
then hear his remarks repeated with
distinctness that is startling.
So far as the untutOred observer
can see, there is nothing about the
mechanism of the telegraphone to ac-
count for its performances. In a
monograph it is easy to follow the
convolutiOns Of the steel pin scratch
ing its way about over the wax cylin-
er, or tracing a devious path in the
grooves of a hard rubber record
There is nothing so obvious about the
Poulsen machine.
In this the voice is recorded in the
form of electromagnetic impressions
upon a thin steel disc or wire, one
hundredth Of an inch in diameter
There is not a scratch. indentation or
mark Of any kind to indicate that the
wire or disc has recorded anything.
But start the reproducing mechanism
going. pick up the ear piece. and the
apparently blank record gives forth
whatever has been talked into It.
There is no scratching sound, the
words coming from the machine as
clearly as from the human throat. The
faintest whisper, or even heavy breath
ing is recorded and reproduced in the
same way. The record is automatical-
ly erased by a stronger magnet as
new record is put on. or the record
can be permanently retained for fu-
ture reference.
When its invention was first an
nounced the telegraphone attracted
much attention from electrical experts
and the physicists. Sir William
Preece said tust it marked an era in
the investigation of the molecular
character of all magnetic and electric
operations. Lord Kelvin, Telsa, Mar
conf, Prof Silvanus Thompson and
others bore testimony to the extraor-
binary perfection of the recording
and speaking telephone" Technical
papers described its wonders, and then
for a period but little was heard of it.
But all the time the inventor. aided
by American experts, has been trans
forming his experimental model into
a thoroughly practical piece of Office
equipment, for which the demand has
already outrun the supply An Amer.
lean company has been formed to con-
troll the invention, which promises to
make as many fortunes as were made
by the Mergenthaler typesetting ma
chine
The principle of operation is the
same in the wire and disc machines,
the main difference being that with
a mile or two Of fine steel strands.
compactly wound on a spool, the ca
pacity is greatly increased. A single
spool Of wire allows for half an hours
continuous dictation.
For correspondence purposes the
beauty of the telegraphone is that the
typewriter operator can transcribe at
any distance from the recording in
strument. that is. any distance covered
by the scope of the telephone. There
is no carrying about OF records or
cylinders All the typist need do is to
take up his end of the connecting
wire. press a button. and proceed to
put into type the words that come
through the receiver from the ma.
chine. which may just as well be
hundred miles as ten feet away. Or
the machine and operator may be in
an isolated room. and the dictation
carried on over n wire from another
Office. One push button starts the
machine. another stops it. and third
reversas it,
Wall street brokers were the first
to see the possibilities of the tele.
graphone rs a piece of Office machin.
cry. BY connecting it with the tele-
phone, word for word record Of
everything that comes or goes over
the wire is made. II there is a dis.
pute over an order to buy or sell
stocks. the telegraphone record OF the
customers voice shows what his in
Isuuctions were. The advertising de
uartmput Of a daily newspaper, where
"a great many orders are received by
phone. and where misunderstanding
are frequent. uses tclegraphOne to
make "a magnetic transcript Of every
thing that passes over the wire. In
this way the one weakness Of the
telephone as a means Of communica.
tion-that 81 keeps no record-has