TALKING WIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 557, 9 January 1929, Page 11

TALKING WIRE

RECORDING THE SPOKEN WORD LATEST MIRACLE OF SCIENCE Science’s latest miracle—talking wire—was demonstrated recently in London, to a company of about 60 people in a small hall at the back of Oxford Street. It suggests possibilities that are Wellsian in tbeir conception (writes the “Daily Chronicle”). It means that in future the spoken word, from the platform or through the telephone, will be recorded in such a permanent form that It can be kept for reference. No public speaker will be able to plead that he has been misreported; no irate telephone user will be able to deny the conclusive evidence of the wire. Similarly its use as a dictating machine, and as a rapid transmitter of news, should bring about a revolutionary change in business. It will record music - ' ma and if, in speaking your correspondence for the benefit of a stenographer, you make an error, all that is necessary is to press a button, bring back the wire, and say what should have been said. Tour second words wipe out the first. As an idea t - ~ +r_lking wire is years old. But its application by Dr. Curt Stille is entirely new, and the demonstration we were given was the first of its kind in the world. It was arranged by Mr. Louis Blattner, the well-known film producer, who has bought Dr. Stille’s rights for all countries with the exception of Germany. Interested listeners were Sir John Snell, the chairman of the Electricity Commissioners, Colonel Wilfred Ashley, the Minister of Transport, and Mrs. Ashley, Mr. Selfridge, and several well-known scientists. There was a diverting little test programme. Mr. Thorpe Bates sang in front of an ordinary microphone. One of Mr. Darewski’s bandsmen whistled admirably. Then we had a Bernard Shaw version of Macbeth, the whole concluding with a jazz selection, “Let Your Smile be .Your Umbrella,” by the band. A few -moments afterwards the curtain was pulled aside, and from a barrel-like loud-speaker came Mr. Thorpe Bates, the wristler. Macbeth and the jazz tune. All the sounds came clearly, though the whistling was flat. » The whole result was surprising, for the acoustic facilities of the hall were poor, and the microphone not what it should have been. The microphone converts the acoustic vibrations into electric vibrations, which are conducted into the coils of small electro-magnets. Past the cores of these electromagnets the magical thin steel wire is conducted at a constant speed, and the electric or acoustic vibrations converted into magnetic vibrations by the small electro magnets are In this way magnetically fixed on the steel wire. On listening-in, either with headphones or by loud speaker, the reverse process takes place. It is said tfiat the ten minutes of music on film strips costs about £lB for raw material (negative and positive), while 12 minutes of music on wire costs 7s!

“Talking wire” greatly impressed all who listened, and its future is bound to be sensational.