SPEECH ON A STRING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16987, 10 March 1923, Page 5 (Supplement)

SPEECH ON A STRING.

LETTER-WRITING MADE UNNECESSARY. An invention which may cause letterwriting to become a practice of the past is the Parlograph (says a London paper). It is an improved and simplified form of the dictaphone, a machine into which business men dictate their letters. In the case of the latter, the words are taken down on a record, from which the typist can work at- any time she chooses. The Pnrlograph carries this invention a step farther. It consists of a small horn or mouthpiece attached to an ordinary mica gramophone sound-box. The sound-box in turn is linked up with a small chiselpointed sapphire which strikes on a steel roller. The vital part of the Parlograpli is a piece of celluloid thread little thicker than ordinary cotton, and the invention is completed by a graino- ! phone motor. A business man who wishes to dictate a letter sets the machine in motion. This action pulls the celluloid thread the roller immediately under the sapphire chisel. As he speaks into the mouthpiece the. vibrations caused in i the sound-box are repeated in the sapphire. which makes a series of grooves on the moving thread. They are so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, but they are sufficient to make a perfect record of whatever is said. To hear the voice again, it is only necessary for the motor to be reversed. The marks on the thread are indestructible and the Parlograph is fool proof. Instead of writing letters, a business man can dictate to the Parlograph and send the thread in nr ovdir - X ' -j