Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-04-29

catch train for Indianapolis, where
be intends to take q months vacation.
I've been feeling bad all day." he
said, because didn't think Of taking
this thing down to Washington tc
catch President Wilson's speech to
congress. The president would never
have known that dictagraph was
desk could have been placed anywhere
within ten feet, say, of the platform
and would have caught all the verbal
intonations and characteristics. The
speech could have been recorded on a
roll located anywhere In Washington
to which I could have led direct
WIRE" -.
Mr.. Turner talked little bit, and
then escorted the Times reporter to
another room, In which q phonograph
shouted out the conversation that had
Just occurred.
"To test this thing" said Mr.. Turner
In your newspaper office and you are
the telephone" ~ r
The reporter, standing five feet from
the dictagraph, spoke in low voice d.
rectly into the palm Of his hand, few
inches away from his mouth, to pre-
vent the sound travelling In any partic-
ular direction. A series of bulletins,
giving the result of political meeting,
was dictated, and Mr.. Turner burst In
at intervals with applause and a bit of
whistling. The phonograph In room
100 feet away, repeated accurately the
whole series OF bulletins, the applause,
and the whistles.
There's a chance here" said Mr..
Turner" for newspapers to eliminate
10 fnx, tor
halls and their Offices. Suppose the
Times should run direct wire to Car
negie Hall. It could manufacture In
the office over this wire Photographic
rolls of the speeches just as they were
made. Typesetters, working from these
rolls, could pass the matter almost d.
rectly from the speaker to the printing
presses" ~"
In detective work, Mr.. Turner said
that the absence Of the self-recording
feature had proved an almost insur-
mountable difficulty. 1t had been neces-
sary to make the instruments 30 that
two detectives instead Of one could lis
ten to what was being repeated by the
dictagraph. In some court cases the
dictagraph's evidence had been thrown
out, because a single detectives tran
scription Of the record was thought to
be hardly reliable enough for convic-
ton.
but now the Judge can listen to the
photograph in the court room," said
Mr.. Turner, "and he can tell each
mans natural voice. The dictagraph
will identify each man who has spoken
in a room where 1t has been at work. /"
To test this Mr.. Turner asked four
reporters to converse among them
selves at some distance from dlcta-
graph. The reporters did so, their
conversation at times falling to whis-
per. In the photographic reproduction
the voices of each could be distinguish
ed, but the whispered conversations
became indistinct. II carried from the
dictagraph.
These whispers, however, Mr.. Turner
said, would be clearly heard by per-
son listening to the dictagraph but
would not make an impression on the
disk, as the pressure on the needle
would be too slight. In detective work,
however, the dictagraph would be
equipped both with listening and re-
cording instruments, so that the lis
ter,er could write out In shorthand the
fainter portions Of the conversation.
More sensitive plates may yet be de-
yised, capable Of catching and record
ing these whispers.-New York Times.