THE DICTOGRAPH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 271, 13 May 1912, Page 2

THE DICTOGRAPH.

RECORDS SECRET CONVERSATIONS. The scientific eavesdropper, unknown six months ago, lias come into sensational prominence as the means of undoing dynamiters, legislative bribe-takers, ,and crooks of high and low degree from 'Frisco to New York. It has tapped the secrets of prison cells, revealed conspiracies in hotel rooms and offices, proclaimed in loud ones the whispered words of cunning malefactors. Under sofa and chair, behind de.sk and beside window, this tiny eavesdropper and ultra-modern ear of Dionysius has played its part and struck terror into scores of criminal bosoms. The latest use reported of this infernal machine was in the office of President Ryan, of the Ironworkers' Union at Indianapolis, where it had been attached to a desk since last October. It is said a dictograph was concealed in the office of the McXamaras' legal defenders at Los Angeles. It was employed in MeManigal's cell, in the Columbus, Ohio, bribery ( case, the Lorimer case, and at Gary, Ind. It is working now on a number of matters that will soon provide the public with sensations. W. J. Bums was regarded as a wizard, a super-Sherlock Holmes, before his employment of the dictograph became known. His acumen as a detective is not lessened by the fact that he was the first to see the immense possibilities of the machine in detective work, and that he has used it right along, even after his "subjects" became aware of its existence. Burns is so much attached to the dictograph that he always carries one around with him in his pocket. •Mr. Turner is the inventor of the acousticon, the interior telephone, and the dictograph. The acousticon has been used 'for some years in churches to enable the deaf to hear. All these devices are nearly related. They might be called mere superlative telephones. They magnify sound and transmit it over a wire. The so-called microphone is a sound magnifier for laboratory work; it makes the scraping of a fly's leg audible to human ears. To use the ordinary telephone one must be close to the I mouthpiece; with the Turner telephones j it is sufficient to speak within a dozen feet or more of the transmitting disk. J