AUTOMATIC SECRETARY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18410, 17 June 1925, Page 14

AUTOMATIC SECRETARY.

A MODERN DEVICE FOR THE BUSINESS WORLD. Arecently invontod machine performs in a way that is positively uncanny a variety of tasks ordinarily accomplished only by human hands and brains. It Tvill take dictation like a stenographer. It will servo as a secretary of a meeting or office conference-. It will answer the telephone in the absence of the subscriber, report his absence to the caller, and tako a message that it will repent to the subscriber on his return. It will record perfectly a telephone conversation from both ends, no matter how far separated (writes T. Stevens in "Popular Science Monthly'*.). It can be used as a dictograph in criminal or other investigations. It can be hooked \ip to a radio receiver so that it will record automatically stock market quotations or similar broadcast messages at the proper time. It can be put to any or all of these uses, or to any others that the ingenuity or necessity ■ of,tho user may warrant without change of mechanism.

Jn appearance this amazing apparatus resembles somewhat an old-time phonograph, employing cylindrical re« cords, or the ordinary dictating machine to be found in many offices. Like both of these devices, the new. machine records conversations on a was cylindrical record. Unlike them, however,, the recording is accomplished not mechanically, but electrically, the sound vibrations of the voice being transformed into electrical currents in a sort of miniature radio transmitter,, containing a vacuum tube and a complicated series of inductances. These messages then axo imprinted on the record, and are reproduced for the hearer by the usual phonographic process. Through the electrical system of recording an excellent'quality of reproduction is. attained,- the listener hearing the true inflection and tones of the speaking voice. Also it permits the use. of a supersensitive microphone, which enables- the user to gi-re dictation in •an ordinary conversational tone from 20 feet orjnore away, and also causes the machina, when it is used for that purpose, to record every w.ord of a conversation in which- several'-persons are taking part, nq matter in/what parts of a room they are-situated. By means l of auxiliary apparatus r» magazine of records may be, installed in the machine, so that when the end of one is reached, tho next automatically • starts recording, thus permitting dictation to be given or conversation of any sort to be recorded indefinitely. Each record may be shaved about -S0 : times before' it- becomes too thin to be used further.' The device may be operated for anv of its many uses by either electric lighting current- or by a storage battery or dry cells, like the radio set. ■ * '■

When the device is employed as a telephone operator, a-, message- suitable for transmission to Atelenhone* callers during the absence of'the subscriber is imprinted on a small auxiliary record at the left of wax cylinder. When a caller obtains' the subscriber's number, in the" .'absence of the latter ; this little record is set in /motion by the current operating the telephone bell, and the en Iter-hears something to the following effect:—"This is the office of Smith and Co. There is no one hero nt present, but you may leave a- message, or you may call.again at 2.30 if you prefer." Immediately after tho delivery of this message,: the machine is ready to record any message the caller .may desire to give. -Used as a recorder of a. telephone conversation, the machirio starts working automatically the instant the call is put through, and imprints on the record \ every word by either, party. Brokers and others to whom repudiation of a> telephone order thy. a customer; mie;ht mean a large ancial loss,.'would find permanent-re-cords of their conversation of especial value. '.•'-. ■ V-'-..