Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-04
TRADE BOARD SEES
SCIENCES MARVELS
1000 Members and Guests
EnthraIIed by Exhibitions
at Meeting.

modern Aladdin rubbed his lamp
and for more than two hours last night
1000 members and guests of the Board
Of Trade sat amazed as they witnessed
at first hand demonstrations of many
OF the scientific miracles" that are
coming to play part in everyday
affairs.
Sergius P. Grace, assistant vice presi-
dent of the Bell Telephone Laboratories
OF New York, guest speaker of the
December meeting of the board, which
packed a capacity crowd into the large
ball room of the Willard Hotel, in a
sense took his audience back stage" in
a modern research laboratory to show
them the wonders that man has pro-
duced.
While some of the demonstrations
have been witnessed in piecemeal fash
ion or described before here, it was the
flrst time so great an array of the
marvels of modern communication have
been given public showing in Wash
ington.
MarveIs Are Commonplace.
The Washingtonian, sometimes called
blaSe because of the many unusual
events that are part of the life of the
National Capital, sat well nigh en-
thralled as a carbon flame gave voice to
music, when the sound of the beating
of a human heart resounded through
the auditorium when a mysterious ma
chine caught up sentence of simple
speech, rebroadcast it as an unrecog-
nizable scramble of sound and later re-
peated 1t in its natural form, and when
a telephone number, diaied on an ordi-
nary dial phone in the room, was al
most instantly transformed into a hui
man-like voice by mechanical instru-
ment i'll New York and relayed back to
the Willard ball room and broadcast
there through amplif1ers.
Referring to the many scientific de-
VelopmentS that have been accomplished
during the past few years, Mr.. Grace
predicted that modern scientists would
continue to explore the unknown laws
OF nature and produce more and more
discoveries that would work to the
benefit of the race, but never would be
able to fathom the fundamental mys-
teries of time, space, matter, force or
life itself.
Trifies With Mysteries.
AS the scientist took his place on the
speakers platform among an array of
simplifying machines, mysterious look
ing apparatus, vacuum tubes and the
like, the public address amplifiers ordi-
narily used in such meetings were re-
moved from the stage. Yet when he
reaches of the room without effort. No
microphone was visible, yet his voice
was relayed from giant loud speaker
horns hung from the ceiling Of the
auditorium
AS he lightly tapped the pocket of
his coat a reSounding humping noise
fell upon the ears of his audience. To
explain this mystery, Mr.. Grace took
from his pocket a small instrument,
which he explained as a miniature
tranSmitter. about the size of a silver
quarter. This, he said, picked up the
low tones from vibrations of his chest
and the higher tones from the sound
waves of his voice, the speech being
relayed to the large amplif1ers hung in
the hall.
Mr.. Grace demonstrated how modern
scientists, by making proper combina-
tons of materials, properly magnetized,
could defy the law of gravity" He
held up small bar of metal, super
imposed it over small wooden box and
when it released the metal piece, it
hung suspended in air, bouncing
slightly up and down when he touched
1t with finger.
This phenomenon, he explained, was
caused by magnetic repulsion forces in
the metal piece and in second, similar
metal bar incased in the wooden box.
This plays a part now in all dial
telephones in magnetized portions of
the sets operated by telephone users.
Another new mechanical device, the
automaton that transcribes the me-
chanical impulses set up by the custom
airy use of dial telephone into human
like speech, during the next year will
be employed in the office of the Chesa-
peake e. Potomac Telephone Co. here,
Mr.. Grace announced.
Authorization Does Job.
To demonstrate this device, Mr. Grace
picked up a telephone, connected with
a translation apparatus in New York,
dialed number and in moment the
machine in Gotham was speaking" the
numerals into a long distance telephone
connected with ampliflers in the ball
room here.
This apparatus, he explained. was de-
signed primarily for tandem" tele-
phone Offices, where dial connections
may be completed over rather long cir
-