AN ELECTRICAL REPORTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1408, 18 December 1884, Page 2

AN ELECTRICAL REPORTER.

One of the chief hindrances to the development of the telephone to its fullest measure of usefulness has hitherto been the absence of any means of obtaining a written record of the messages as they were being transmitted or received. The removal of this difficulty is the object of a patent recently applied for by Mr W. E. Irish, an electrical engineer at Sunderland, and entitled “ A. system or method and means of automatically recording articulated speech and other sonnds transmitted—telegraphically, telepbqnioally, or o herwise —by ihe aid of electricity. ” With a view to obtain further information respecting an invention which bids fair, if successful to work something like a revolution in telephony, a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette waited on Mr Irish, and was very readily accorded an explanation of his patent. ‘ I have been working at this thing,” said Mr Irish, “ for several years ; in fact, ever since the telephone was introduced into England. Sever d methods of accomplishing the object sought have suggested themselves to my mind, but the present invention, which seems to me the simplest and best, is the only one for which I have sought a patent, The instrument will be about 8 inches high by 6 inches broad, and will stand on a base 1 foot 8 inches. It is complete in itself, and can be attached to any existing telephone. In appearance it Is not unlike a Morse recorder, except that all the mechanism is encased and under cover. It |

is furnished with a call bell, and a lever by which it is set in motion or stopped. The modus opcrqndi is briefly this : —A person begips to speak into the i telephone, the lever automatically starts the mechanism, and a glass pen, freely suspended, is caused to move in poison with the sounds emitted, and to describe them upon a reel or on sheets of paper, something after the planner qf Sir Win. Thomson’s syphon recorder, by which submarine cable messages are recorded ; but instead of its making dots and dashes a distinct sign is given for every sound. Ihe pea is fed from an ink reservoir at the top of the instrument, and when the supply of ink runs short it can be replan, ished at any time from the outside without disturbing the internal mechanism. At the receiving end a similar action will take place, and the person who is listening will hear the message, and will see it being recT-- at th « 8ai » 0 tirao 5, 80 you will have a duplicate «coru, ' v ' r hich will be valuable in oases of dispute. “ With the telephone, under present conditions, disputes are of frecjuaut occur-

rence, are they noi?” “ Yes; many firms will not execute orders received by tele* phone until they have been repeated, and so confirmed ” “ The use of the instrument will really cause the introduction of a new alphabet, and it may be difficult to acquire a know* ledge of the signs. The sound-signs are not unlike those of Pitman’s phonography, but more clearly defined. The instrn* ment, when proparly adjusted/ giVeiS'yott the true exact sign for every sound, and there will really be very little difficulty in learning these signs. A man with fala*ear to the telephone, hearing each word of a message as it is spoken by the sender, and at the same time keeping his eye-on the recorder, and noting the signs eotreaf ponding to the sounds, cm hardly fail, even in spite of himself, to pick up a knowledge of the system in a very short time.” “ But then,” continued Mr Irish, “ the usefulness of this invention is not entirely dependent upon its connection with the telephone. It can be used without a win and so business men can dictate their cor*, respondence to an instrument which records what they say on paper that eaa afterwards be forwarded as a letter or by wire to any distant place, while at the same time preserving an indisputable copy for reference. Literary men also will be saved the drudgery of the pen, for they will have their thoughts recorded aA rapidly as they can convey them'to the instrument.” “You [forgot to take into i account the necessity for transcribing : these communications.” “ Doubtless that ,is so at present, but these sound-signs

would be easily read, and might in tints be the means of estabUshing a universal system of phonography.” “ Then your instrument would practically answer the same purpose as a type-writer, if re* quired?” “ Exactly ; but with this important difference—that necessitate manual labor, while my instrument does no*, but will work quite auto* matically. You have nothing to do bat speak into Its mouthpiece—the instrument does all the rest. As regards ths instruments met with in the newspaper offices and clubs of London, which prints the news on a tape as it is received, they are very ingenious and useful, bat' they require a mechanical agency to complete their work ; whereas my instrument Is purely electrical, and does not conflict with-them at all.” Mr Irish tells an interesting story of-his experience, which shows that he nearly had the good fortune to stumble upon the discovery of the telephone. ‘.‘Someyean ago,” he says, “ before the telephonehOd been heard of, I was engaged in endeavoring to work a Siemens Polarised Recorder . from an earth battery. I had to make . my adjustments very fine in order to get i any satisfactory results, and was in all office by myself, my two assistants: betas at work in the open at the other end of the cable, two and a half miles away. . Suddenly, to my astonishment, .! heard someone say, * I shall be d—— glad when , he dries up ’ (meaning that, as it wan not very pleasant work they would be ,glad when I had finished). I immediately sent for the two men to come in, and one of them, upon being pressed, admitted having made the remark. He was agreeably surprised when, instead of reporting, I remunerated him; I endeavored to follow up my discovery, but could never get any successful trials, and about a couple of years afterwards the news of the' discovery of the telephone came from America.