Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-03-07
MAY SEND MOVING
PICTURES BY WIRE
This, 1t Is Claimed, viii Soon Be
POssibie-Can Watch Ball Game
by Telegraph.

To sit in a theatre in Chicago or
Boston and watch a worlds series
baseball game on q screen just as it is
being played at that very moment on
the grounds at New York, or sit in
New York on the noon Of March 4
and watch the Inauguration while II
is actually in progress-that is the
moving picture show Of the future.
Just now the talking moving pic
lures are proving as far an advance
in marvel over the still pictures as the
still pictures were in advance over
the stereopticon, but the goal beyond
the talking pictures Is the television
pictures, or pictures from distance,
1t is coming. How many years. is a
question, but 1t will not be many in
augurations. Already 1t can be done
with a tiny picture, the size Of a
thumb nail and If proper emphasis
is given to the difficulties Of enor-
nous expense and crude results, 1t
would be safe to say that the inaugu-
ration of President Wilson could be
seen in this way in New York
Hundreds of scientists all over the
world are working on the problem Of
television, though perhaps none Of
them has thought much about the use
Hundreds Of patents have been taken
out on details, and working models
for tiny pictures are being built by
scores.
To only a slight degree is the
problem related to the idea Of send
ing photographs by telegraph wires
though in some particulars the two
ideas overlap, and the successful Korn
apparatus for sending photographs,
which has created so much interest in
the last year, offers suggestions for
help in the much harder and more
promising field of distance moving
pictures.
Simple principles that can be easi-
~ understood are used in the tele-
vision work; 1t is only the complica-
tton Of the apparatus which is diff
cult or obscure.
Look at any reproduction Of pho
tograph in a newspaper--a half
tone"-and you will see that It Is
made up Of a quantity of tiny dots,
some faint and some comparatively
thick and black, To reduce a photo
graph, the engraver cuts the origin
al picture all up into these little dots,
by means of special apparatus for re-
photographlng the picture, In tele-
vision, the camera which takes the
picture of President Wilson as he
takes the oath would cut the picture
up into the same light and dark dots.
Now II message could be sent back
to New York telling the comparative
blackness of each Of these dots, and
each dot could be reproduced on
screen there with its proper shade Of
black, there would be on the screen a
crude half-tone picture of the scene.
That's what televlsion does now
The simplest way to send the mes
sages Of the dots is to use silenium,
the metal which allows more or less
electricity TO pass through It, accord
ing to whether little or much light Is
thrown on It. Where each dot falls,
In the receiving camera, is bit Of
sllenium, connected by wires to New
York, and as the dot is dark or light,
80 the amount Of current sent to New
York from that dark is controlled.
Then at New York this current con-
trolls tiny light, which, by means Of
n tiny mirror, throws onto screen
the right shade Of light to represent
that particular dot. Every dot has the
same kind Of apparatus. But the dots
are 30 small that millions Of wires
would be needed to send the picture.
Aussuming, however, that such an APP
paratus could be built on a large scale
for II has been on small scale, all
that would be necessary TO have the
distance moving picture would be to
keep tho current flowing, and the tiny
dots would,vary just as the picture in
the receiving camera varied and II