Evening star., 1934-12-30
W|REPH0T0 GEN|US|
SEES IDEA GROW
Original Device Inventor in
Capital on Visit-Star
Service Begins Tuesday.

Noah Steiner Amstutz, who built
the few crude pieces of paraphernalia
from which have sprung the modern
wirephoto machines that will soon
send pictures around the world, Is q
visitor in the Capital
The Star will begin publication of
wirephotos next Tuesday, using As
sociated Press pictures transmitted on
Nation wide hook-up extending from
New York to San Francisco and from
Miami to the northern border
AmstutZ, now a research engineer
and patent attorney of Valparaiso,
Ind, was a farm boy in Ohio when a
chance remark that some one some
where was sending pictures over wires
inspired him with the idea Of trans
mitting photographs by telegraph.
Referred to Old Experiment.
The remark probably referred to
the early attempts Of F. C. Bakewell
OF England. to transmit handmade
sketches over telegraph wire in 1850,
IA years before Amstutz was born.
THE first sketch transmitted by
Bakewell was that of criminal -
Amstutz said. The day after the
transmission he received letters that
five OF the criminals had been caught
and that the sixth would soon be in
the hands Of the police"
1t was not until 1888, SO years after
Bakewell's doubtful success with line
drawings that AmstutZ succeeded in
sending the first photograph by tele-
graph.
The next year he improved the
autograph" which two years later was
patented after picture had been
sent over a 25-mile wire in eight
minutes.
This machine was described as "a
marriage Of the photograph and tele-
phone" The process was founded on
the use of undulatory or varying cur
rents of electricity, somewhat on the
principal Of the telephone-the trans
mitting instrument being actuated in
directly by the varying degrees of
light, instead of by sound waves, as
with the telephone transmitter.
This variation was suggested by
stumbling fall on a garden hose. AM
stutZ noticed that the pressure on
the water changed when the weight OF
the stumbler was removed.
1T Is that same principle that Is
being applied in the newly perfected
machines" Amstutz said The thing
we lacked most In those days was pre-
cision. We didn't have anything to
compare with the tolls and equipment
~ ~ hi
parison, was crude. This present SIM
plification follows my early idea
French Hailed Success.
When Amstutz's success in 1891
became known. he gained world wide
recognition. In Paris. La Grande
Revue commented: This develop
ment Is, indeed, a genuine attain
ment. and 1t is with legitimate pride
that the designer can claim the honor
Of being the first TO solve, in a prac-
tical manner, the interesting prob
lem"
Amstutz did not confine his activi-
ties to picture transmission by wire,
however. for he studied photo-engrav-
ing as well, and was the inventor of
the first automatic half-tone engrav-
ing machine He called it the "akro-
graph and it, too, is in the Smith
sonian. Later he wrote The Hand
book of Engraving" still an authority
on the subject.
After considerable success as an en-
gineer. he spent four years abroad
In London he appeared at the Royal
Institution, and later became a fel-
low Of the Royal Society Of Art.
Amstutz is in Washington as the
guest of his two daughters during the
holidays, Mrs. Hugh Roberts, presi-
dent Of the Washington College. of
Music, 1910 Connecticut avenue. and
Mrs. Owen c. Holleran of the Cava-
lier Hotel.