WEITING BY TELEGRAPH.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11124, 17 January 1899, Page 2

WEITING BY TELEGRAPH.

It 'is more than two years since it was announced that it was possible to transmit writing by a telegraphic wire. The discoverer was Mr E. A. Cowper, a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, but the instrument he made was little more than a toy, and it required four wires to work it. Professor Elisha Gray, a well-known American electrician, set himself to perfect and simplify the instrument, and it is now announced that he has made great progress, if he has not altogether overcome the initial difficulties. He can transmit handwriting any distance with the use of two * wires instead of four, and anticipates soon being able to work with one, when the telaughtograph, as it is called, may be expected to become as common as the telephone is now. That is the end the Professor has set himself to accomplish. The telephone has its drawbacks in business matters. It is not quite secret, as at least one side of a conversation can be heard by anyone near the machine. Then it leaves no permanent record. A wag may order goods in the name of somebody else, or a genuine order may be misinterpreted and misunderstandings arise. Professor Gray believes that before this year is out he will be able at small cost to connect all existing telephones with a writing attachment. The party to be communicated with would bfi rung Up in the ordinary course, but instead of the message being spoken it would be written on a pad, and would be reproduced at the other end. It would not be printed, but would be ' an exact facsimile, so there would be no disputing an order, and the records could be filed just as letters are now. This will add greatly to the utility of the telephone as an adjunct to business, and even a timid swain, unable to find tongue in the presence of his inamorata, could make his declaration through the wires, and the beloved one could produce his written promise when the breach of promise action came on. Altogether the new invention opens up to the funny man of the future possibilities which are denied to the humorist to-day.