The Washington times., 1925-08-18
WIRE To HOLD
VOICE 1000
YEARS
New York Youth, Inventor,
Says Device Is Better Than
Photograph
By HUBERT p. MALKUS
international News Service

f
NEW YORK, Aug. ia small
spool of steel wire will preserve for
future generations the epochal
events of history.
That is the way Harold Westman,
wenty-three-year-old student and
| inventor, of Mamaroneck, N. Y,
views device he has perfected to
reproduce voice and every other
sound by means of vibrating wire.
IF this idea had been worked out
| sooner" he said, I'VE could now
hear the Sermon on the Mount,
Patrick Henry's speech for liberty
or death, Lincoln's address at Get
| tysburg-every ballot in the 1924
Democratic national convention.
With those opportunities gone.
however, every important event of
the future can be preserved, West
man declares.
Better Than Photograph
The steel wire method reproduces.
sound more clearly than the phone.
| graph, he claims, and can be pre-
served indefinitely, whereas phono-
graph records are comparatively
short lived.
IF great speech is made it can
be recorded on spool of this wire
and be reproduced perfectly thou
sand years from now the young
inventor said.
Westman was shown the claim of
Doctor Curt Stille, German In.
ventor, that he had perfected a
similar device. The StiIle announce.
ment was carried in an exclusive
international News Service dis
patch of August 8.
Il perfected my invention several
months ago and gave 1t a final
trial July 3" aWestman said. .'Tdalle
Patterson, well known New York
singer, viii verify this.
Reproduce Singers Voice
IN the final test asked her to
sing number of arias that
are most difficult to reproduce l,y
4 any method. She sang for forty
/ minutes and then listened to the
results--the reproduction OF her own
voice.
''She paid me and my invention
I the compliment Of saying the re-
production was perfect
Il made no public announcement
of the test, because / don't claim
much credit for it, the inventor
continued Doctor Stille was ap-
parentIy behind me by three or four
weeks. but both of US were twenty
five years behind Poulsen, the Syed-
ish inventor
! Poulsen, according to Westman,
/ perfected the ELECTROMAGNETIC
method OF voice reproduction a
vices using his principle were used
in dictaphone work in Europe. The
sounds were clear but faint.
/ AfAad Nv Radio
1.-THE trouble was" he said, that
the ampIifier or loud speaker had
/ not been developed then as 1t has
/ the one thing Doctor Stille and l
/ have that Poulsen didn't.
Westman said he wanted TO give
full credit to Poulsen and some
credit to himself for being ahead OF
Doctor Stille with the application Of
/ the amplifier to the old process.
To substantiate this claim he ex-
| hibited a number of photographs
made by the international News
reel Company, of New York, during
the test with Madame Patterson.
These photographs, taken July g.,
show the device in operation.
The principle Of the wire
method" of sound reproduction as
explained by the young inventor is
this:
Sound Waves Magnified.
The wire is unreeled from the
spool as the sound enters the micro
phone. The sound waves, magni-
fled by the microphone, cause the
wire to vibrate. While vibrating
the wire is magnetized, the degree
of magnetization depending upon
the length Of the vibration.
/ When the magnetized wire runs
through the reproducing end of the
apparatus. bits of steel attract the
vibrate exactly as in the first
process. This vibration reproduces
the sound waves that first entered
the microphone, and they are in.
creased to audibility in the loud
speaker.
The advantages Of this process
are several, according to Westman.
Whereas the radio must always
have it's speaker, singer. or band
present, the wire method" requires
this presence but once. The same
performance can be produced In.
numarable times afterward-for the
lifetime of the wire, which Is almost
forever.
A monograph record aecdyS III
time and 1t runs only ten minutes
or so. A small spool of wire, not
too large to hold in the hand. holds
in its several miles of length a
performance of. an hour or so. a
spool of wire of not unwieldy size
could run for hours, and a series
could be linked up as are the reels
of a motion picture.
Plan Talking Pictures
Where Doctor Stille apparently
visualized his invention only as a
dictaphone. Westman sees his de-
. vice rivalling the radio for enter
tainment, solving the long-sought
; talking motion pictures" and rev
olutionizing educational methods.
IT am now working out method
of experimentation that will enable
! play to be photographed and
spoken at the same time" he said.
at will not be hard to hook up the
film reel and the spool OF wire to
operate in perfect timing.
Schools, the young inventor pre-
diets, will soon be teaching elocu.
ton, drama and similar subjects