THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.— SEEING PEOPLE AT A DISTANCE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3561, 7 December 1882, Page 4

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.— SEEING PEOPLE AT A DISTANCE.

During the course of a lecture at Phillips-to-wn on Tuesday evening, the Rev. H. J. 0. Gilbert (saya the Press) said that since the day when Galileo adapted the telescope to scientific purposes very marvellous bad been the advancement in that direction. They had probably heard of the man who, on first looking through a telescope at a distant church, exclaimed, ' Wonderful! I can even hear the organ playing!' That was, of course, imagination on the man's part. But eince then it had been discovered how, by the use of a simple instrument and an electric current, to convey vibrations o£ sound from place to place. The telephone enabled us to speak with a friend at a distance. Would they be astonished if he were to tell them that it •was now proved to be possible to convey in a similar manner vibrations of light —to not only speak with your distant friend, but actually to see him. The electroscope —the name of the instrument which enabled us to do this—was the very latest scientific discovery, and to Dr. Guidrah, of Victoria, belonged the proud distinction. The trial of this wonderful instrument took place at Melbourne on the 31st October last in the presence of some forty scientific and public men, and was a great success. Sitting in a dark room, they saw projected on a large disc of white burnished metal, the racecourse at Flemington, with its myriad hosts of living active beings. ■ Each minute detail stood out with perfect fidelity to the original, and as they sat looking at the wonderful picture through binocular glasses, it was difficult to imagine that they were not. actually upon the course itself and moving among those whose actions they could so completely scan.