SEEING BY WIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 8 January 1912, Page 2

SEEING BY WIRE.

The problem of seeing by wire is gradually being solved, although the diliiculties to be overcome before any general results will be obtained are still very great. One of tne newest systems is that of Professor Hosing, of the Technological Institute of St. Petersburg. It depends on the' “seeing power,” or sensitiveness to light, of what is termed a photo-electric element. Some recent work by J)rs. Elster and Gcitel has resulted in the discovery of a much more sensitive element of this kind, and tints further improvement may be looked for. Professor Rosing has made a very real advance, because he has succeeded in constructing a receiving apparatus which is compact, and which requires no complicated mechanism. The whole. svstem is very ingenious, and so simple that the development of it to actual .general use appears quite possible. ; . A fine pencil of .light traces very rapidly ‘a - picture on' a screen and reconstructs any image facing the transmitting appartus. Suppose, for example, that a man stood before the transmitter just as he might before a telephone instrument to speak. Two sets of compound mirrors move in such a way as to project his image—a small portion at a time—upon the sensitive photo-electric element. The person watching the receiver sees a dark screen, which is lighted up by a small fluorescent spot when a current comes from the element over the telegraph wires. This spot of light is caused by the invisible rays of. a specially constructed vacuum tube, which . strike the screen and cause it to glow, the strength .of the glow being regulated by the amount ,of light falling each instant on the sensitive element in the transmitter. ~ < The movements of the mirrors are also made to vary a series of electric currents which make the spot of light follow exactly the same course as the rays of light proceeding from the person standing in front of the transmitter. The result is that, as the mirrors reflect the . image of the person on the element, the other person, sees his image reconstructed on the screen. The whole thing .takes place in an instant,, and after one complete cycle it takes place again and again so that a continuous image is seen on the receiving screen. This wonderful apparatus is as yet only in the experimental stage, so that only small and simple objects can be seen over the wire,;, but in the opinion of a well-known expert there is every reason to look forward to developments which may lead ultimately to our seeing people with whom we are conversing over the telephone.