DICTOGRAPH AND DIVORCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12772, 25 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

DICTOGRAPH AND DIVORCE.

THE SILENT LISTENER IN THE BOUDOIJI.

NEW YORK j March 30. A new use has been found for the dictograph, an electrical device for recording conversations, by means of which the brothers McNamara , were sent . to a penitentiary, and several United States legislators have been convicted of bribery. ' ' : Between' Mr Earl' Fellabobi, ! a millionaire Steel manufacturer,- and his wife Marguerite cross suits for divorce are pending at Pittsburg. Mrs Fellaborn has made ail application to obtain "the custody of her daughter peridihg the trial. But, Mr . Fellaborn 's counsel asserts that- at the divorce trial they will ekhibit dictograph records reproducing conversations between Mrs . Fellaborn and' a New York broker staving iri' her house which will establish that she is. ah unfit person-to have the custody of her daughter. A. tiny, sensitive plate, the counsel said, concealed behind the dressing tabic of Mrs Fellaborn 's boudoir, transmitted her conversations to a shorthand wrjter hidden m the summerhouse m the 'grounds. For five days during her husband's abserice', all that she and her friend the broker said was taken down and is now being prepared for submission to the court.

Decision on the application has been postponed ; 'until'' the records are produced.

. The dictograph works on the principle of the telephone. The receiving box is less than a foot long. ; 'and six inches deep. It is not necessary to speak into the instrument, which Will take a voice speaking within 15 feet and convey the sound over wires to a distance of 1000 miles. This is done by means of a focusing screen' which collects tho sound waves from over n large area and is made on exactly the same principle as the modern ear-trum-pets for deaf people.