WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

.MARVELLOUS BRITISH INVENTIONS. (Spocial to ' ‘ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. . Wo avo apt to credit Americans with marvellous invohtions and some arc inclined to think that they jmve a monopoly of the inventive genius, but of course this is absurd. It must however, lie admitted, that some marvellous inventions have emanated from the United States, the latest being an accounting machine, which carries on most of the work in the Savings Bank of New York. Jfc is said’ to b? both accurate and economical, and lias enabled the clerical stalls to ho reduced by til) per cent in spite of the increased volume (if business. There are some recent British inventions which are extremely marvellous. Take for instance the phetotone which is a British triumph in the film world linking sight, and sound. In this Britain has given Hollywood something to think nhont. By thi® new machine all films from the studio can bo supplemented with the host possible music with exactly timed “effects” and “noises off” and where desirable with voices and dialogue. The coming of tlie phototono means Unit beforo long every village picture, theatre will 1» giving its patrons exactly the same musical accompaniment, ns the most exclusive and costly cine-

The cost of installing; a phototono in England is about £3OO. It workwith all types and kinds of films and can reproduce perfectly every seen" The oy» can catch and every sound that can bo r,-corded—the beauty “1 voices and music, the noise of traffic or gun fi.ro and all the endless sounds of sea and sky. Faulty svncbrenlslp*' is declared to lie imposshle and tlie volume can be exactly adjusted to suit cinema halls of all sizes. Another remhrkahle British invention which lias just been placed on the market at a price of £25 is television. Some months ago when the Cnnaid liner Berengaria. was about 1500 miles out at sea, the chief wireless operator* on board saw his fiancee talking with other people in a room in Lolndon. He had not known lie was going to see her then, but he recognised her beyond a doubt as soon as her face appeared. This incident was cabled to tlie Dominion at the time and some details appeared in the papers. • It was just, an incident in a demonstration of what a Televisor could accomplish' in carrying sight across thousands of miles of space and through any intervening obstacles, enabling distant events to bo witnessed at tlie moment of their occurrence ns easily as a distant sound is beard by means of wireless telephony. For fifty years scientists and investigators in many parts of the world had been pursuing the idea of television. It, was left to a British inventor, John Logie Baird to turn the dream into reality, to bring television into the category of practical commercial propositions. The crown of complete success was placed upon his life’s work in January, 1926, when in his little attic laboratory in Soho lie gave tlie first demonstration of a Baird Televisor before some forty members of the Royal Institution who . witnessed living and moving images transmitted from one room to another. Two more years were sent in perfecting and developing liis invention. Allied with the discoveries in tile realm of television are several other achievements of at least an equally amazing character. One of these is octovision or the power of seeing in total darkness.

At the summer meeting of the British Association last year, Mr Baird demonstrated that with tlio aid of invisible rays it is possible to see a person seated in a room from which all, light has been excluded. These rays 6 will penetrate fog and tlie use to which oetovisio'.i can be put both in pea.ee and in war will he readily appreciated. i!r Baird also discovered phonovision, by means of which television signals can b? recorded on gramophono records in such a way that they can lie stored and reproduced at will. Thus from one and tlie same’ gramophone record it is possible not only to reproduce the voice of the singer or speaker but his living moving image cast upon a screen attached to the instrument.

Aceording to the London “Daily Mail” a Britisli engineer, A. 11. Reffoil, assisted by'a journalist has invented.a “Roto” figure or a lifelike wax man, capable of bowing, shakinghands and talking. It, will open Hie Engineering Exhibition in London shortly, in which it will give an address emphasised by movements of the body and limbs. Tlio whole is eontrolled by internal wires which also operate a loud speaker in the throat. The inventors hope to make further improvements in the lip movements to make it still more lifdliko before it is shown in public.