Evening star., 1934-12-23
,10,000.MiIe System Will
Speed Photos Here and
to 81 Other Cities.
NEW SERVICE SENDS
VIEWS IN 30 MINUTES
Innovation, to Be Operated by
Associated Press, Considered
Amazing Development.

On New Year day Washington is to
witness the opening of a new chapter
in newspaper history when The Eve
ming Star inaugurates a wirephoto
service. bringing to it over 10000
mile leased wire system, the events of
the day in pictures with the same
speed as news.
The ramification Of the innovation
hardly can be overemphasized. 1t
confidently has been predicted that
the effect on newspapers will be COM
parable to those brought about by the
invention and perfection of the tele-
graph, the linotype and the photo
engraving process, which have trans
formed them from the laboriously
printed, pictureless and almost news
less journals of century ago to the
metropolitan dailies of today.
Something happens-an earthquake
In California, foot ball game in
Chicagoa hurricane in Cuba, prize
fight in New York. Within few min
utes, If there have been photographers
present, The Star will be able to pre-
sent its readers graphic photographs
of the event reproduced with almost
perfect accuracy of detail, along with
the word accounts.
Operation Is Perfect.
The innovation, based upon scien-
tific developments of the last few
years, is far beyond the experimental
stage. 1t has been tested thoroughly
by the Associated Press, which will
maintain and operate the service for
the 38 American newspapers cooper
ating in its use. The equipment for
Washington is operating perfectly.
The wirephoto is one of the most
astounding developments in the his
tory of American science-a miracle
which would have been considered
q fantastic dream 20 years ago. When
the first Wired pictures began to ap-
pear in American newspapers they
we're printed largely as curiosities of
science which-in some distant fu-
ture-might have some utility. They
were crude and distorted-but never
theless they were reproductions of
actual pictures actually transmitted
by electricity.
A vast amount of experimental
work has been devoted since to the
process by some of the foremost
scientists of the country, with the
result that the distortions of repro
duction have been eliminated and
the process speeded up to the point
where a picture can be transmitted
almost as rapidly as reading matter.
Equipment Highly Intricate.
The perfection Of the mechanical
equipment and the setting up of the
system represent marvel of en-
gineering genius. Costly and highly
intricate equipment, adjusted to
measurements too fine for the human
eye to see, must be disciplined to
follow up and down the continent
the unpredictable path of the days
news.
The wirephoto service will begin,
in each Of the "a equipment rooms
over the country, with the pressing
Of button which will start the
power plant. The other equipment
in the room consists of a sending
machine, receiving machine,
sending bay" or switchboard, and a
receiving bay" The operator, having
tuned his machines perfectly in five
minutes, will stand by the loud
speaker of the talking circuit. Then
the control station in the New York
Office of the Associated Press will open
the circuit and there will begin the
daily canvass of pictorial news. Each
of the "a stations reports that it Is
ready and what pictures it has for
sending.
Perhaps it is Inauguration day in
Washington. The schedule is ar
ranged for instantaneous transmission
Of pictures of the new President taking
the oath, the scenes of the parade
and similar views. New Yorss may
have some pictures of celebrities JUS. jus.
arrived from Europe, st. Louis a view
Of an airplane crash, Detroit nic-
lures of serious fire. These will be
sent in the order of their importance.
Shading Adjusted First.
It is decided which station shall
send its picture first. Before actual
sending begins it transmits for a few
seconds, on to the line and into each
receiving station, an amount of power
corresponding to the lghtest and
darkest parts of the picture. Each
point adjusts its power to the re-
ceiving equipment at the proper value
for those two limits, knowing that
the receiving machine, when adjusted
to receive the two extremes of light
and dark in the print, will handle nor
mally all the intervening shades.
A few seconds later smaller but
ton is pressed on the sending machine,
starting at the same instant every
receiving machine along the line. A
cylinder on the receiving machine at
every station, II inches long and IL
inches in circumference, has been
loaded with a negative upon which
can be received picture of any
dimensions up to half the size of a
newspaper page. This is fastened
around the cylinder and inclosed in
q light-proof container. The negative
is then exposed to light from a lamp
focused through an aperture one
hundredth of an inch wide, which
opens according to the strength of
the current caused by the picture on