NEW PHASE OF TELEGRAPHIC SCIENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 56, 26 June 1876, Page 2

NEW PHASE OF TELEGRAPHIC SCIENCE.

A number of gentlemen interested in scientific matters recently assembbd at the office of the Dominion Telegraph Company, to witness some very wonderful experiments on an apparatus which has been invented by Mr. A. Graham Bell, son of Professor A. M. Bell, of Tutelan Heights. This gentleman claims to be able to transmit musical sounds over a telegraph wire. A person singing or speaking, for example, at one end of the wire, every note or word will be distinctly heard at the other end — not only the words could be heard, but the tones of the voice also would be readily recognised by any one who had heard them before. Another very important improvement which Mr. Bell claims to be able to put into use, may be described as follows :—A man wishing to send a message to Hamilton, for instance, writes it on°shellac paper. It is received by a boy, who puts it into a machine made for the purpose. The message is received in Hamilton by another boy, who brings it forth from another machine, copied on a piece of shellac paper in telegraphic impressions, or writing like copperplate. Pictures drawn in shellac can also be sent and received in the same way. If this system can be put into use, and worked effectually, it will do away with telegraph operators altogether. But the most important feature which Mr. Bell claims is, that lie can transmit thirty or more messages over a single telegraph wire at oiie and the same time. The way he proposes to do this is as follows : —On a wire running from say Brantford to Toronto, Mr. Bell would place thirty or more instruments at Brantford office. All these instruments will be tuned to different pitches. A corresponding number of instruments to be placed in Toronto office, each of the instruments tuned in unison with the corresponding instruments in Brantford. An operator can then transmit a sound on any of these instruments and none but that at the other end of the line which is in unison will correspond. Therefore, thirty or more operators can work together on the same wire, without in any way affecting the others. This seems very'wonderful, but Mr. Bell claims to be able to put it into practical use, and if he succeeds, it will certainly be the greatest mechanical discovery made since the invention of the telegraph itself. Mr. Bell's explanation and practical experiments are very satisfactory, and every person present seemed convinced that he had got hold of a good thing, and one which only required time to bring it into general use. Strange to say, two other gentlemen, one an electrician named Gray, of Chicago, and the other a scientist in Copenhagen, have hit upon the same ideas: but it appears Mr. Bell was ahead of them both, and got his discoveries entered in the Patent Office at Washington ere they appeared upon the scene. ETc is backed by Boston and New York capitalists. The way in which Mr. Bell first got his idea was in blowing on a single cord inside a piano. He noticed that all the other cords which were in unison were affected thereby. A gentleman- present when Dr. Bell was explaining said that when the whole tiling was put in working shape, a concert given in San Francisco could be easily heard in New York.