PICTUREGRAM SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 222, 19 September 1929, Page 10

PICTUREGRAM SERVICE.

BETWEEN SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE.

LATEST SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 13. By far the most important scientific advance in the Postal Department of Australia for this century is the inauguration this week of the "photogram," "picturegrammc," "photographtelegram," or whatever term is eventually decided upon, between. Melbourne and Sydney. By its use photographic subjects can be transmitted between the two capitals in the space of less than 15 minutes, and extensive use is certain to be made of the innovation,, not only by newspapers, but ' by businesses of every

description, . > On the opening day 24 photographs were transmitted over the line from Sydney to Melbourne, and 21 from Melbourne to Sydney in the first experiment. They were flashed through with perfect reproduction, and while the average time taken was a little under half an hour, it was pointed out by experts that this time would'- be halved when the ; operators were fully trained una expert in the manipulation of the various processes. Authorities themselves are highly pleased, with the success of the scheme, which was inaugurated frith the dispatch of pictures by the Department itself at either end. These consisted of racing pictures, views, advertisements, fingerprints, as well as documents, which lend themselves to the process in the same way as ordinary photographs. The system at present operates only between Sydney and Melbourne, and the .question whether it will be extended to embrace other capital cities is dependent on the return from the first experiment. It is a perfectly simple process from tjie point of view of the sender and receiver. It consists simply in the lodging at the_G.P.O. counter in the same way as one lodges an ordinary telegram, whatever is desired to transmit by picturegram—photographs, legal documents, even shorthand notes —and the Department does the rest.

The section for the transmission and reception of picturegrams is open all day and up to 10 p.m. at night, and while the cost of transmission is at present much dearer than by the old slow process of dispatching matter by post, in matters of urgency the extra cost must be admitted to be justified. Cheapest cost of sending a photograph at present is 30/, and the cost varies

according to the size Tuid the quality of the subject. Actual time of transmission for the best grade of pictures is fifteen minutes, but cheaper or "B" grade pictures will occupy only nine minutes. The process is so exact, in fact, that it is possible to take a subject, reduce it for transmission at the cheapest cost in its grade, and at-the other end enlarge i again to its original size, without losing anything in clarity. Scientific explanation of the manner in which the process works is intricate. But, for the benefit of the layman, the Departmental experts describe it thus: If a picture in a newspaper is looked it through a powerful microscope, or even with the naked eye in many instances, it will be seen to consist of a large number of dots of varying size an ddensity. In the transmission of a picture a

ray of light, broken up into a number of points, is focussed on to the subject, which is clamped to a rotating drum, the number of points falling upon the picture being about 1500 a second. The picture revolves on the drum, and also traverses lengthwise in front of the beam.of light, so that it is traccd with a continuous spiral of points of light" ■ The number of points of light which can be recorded to form the picture may be anything up to 16,100 a square inch, depnding on the fineness of the grain and the quality of the picture which it is desired to transmit. -By intricate processes the light negative is transmitted to the other end, where it is printed in the form of the subject submited at the sending station. The system was installed at a cost of £10,000. The process is illustrated on the picture page.