The Phonogram, Vol. 1:1 (1891-01)

20 THE PHONOGRAM. As a Letter-Writer. R. EDISON believes that the most important use of the pho- nograph in the future will be for epistolary purposes—phono- grams being sent by mail in- stead of letters.. Each of these little mailing cylinders can be peeled, thin as it is, half-a.dozen times by the usual attachment of the phonograph for that purpose. It costs only three cents to begin with, and you can hardly get note paper for less than half a cent a sheet. The cost of the necessary mailing cases will not exceed that of-envelopes in practice. Mr. Edison thinks that eventually newspapers will be set up by a combination of the pho- nograph and the type-setting machine. Ed- itors will read off into phonographs all the copy brought in, editing the copy as they go along by changing it to suit themselves in the reading, and by mentioning the punc- tuation marks, the paragraphs and the cap- ital letters. The compositor will put the cylinder with his “take” on another pho- nograph, and, listening td the dictation from .the machine, will translate it directly into type by the keys of the piano-like mechan- ical type-setter. ^ In Missionary Se Service. • The phonograph in China is a missionary. One mandarin of the rank of the blue but- ton bought one and went to work using it. It was an eye-opener. He was amazed at its mysterious delicacy and power. If Americans could produce such a marvelous creation, their language and literature were worth study. So he, sixty-one years of age, went to work learning the English alphabet. He also bought three more phonographs at $150 each, and forwarded them to the im- perial court in care of his brother, a high officer, who has access to the son of'heaven and is not slow in bringing before his ai£ gust majesty the possible rival of the long revered ancestral tablet. It is one thing to bow to a bit of wood with the name or words of a deceased father on its painted surface. It is quite another thing to hear again the real voice and tones of the long dead utter- ing its loving benediction or thundering out its authoritative menace. — Electricity for Naval Uses. Great interest is taken in naval circles on the possibilities of the application of electricity to naval uses. The Government has taken the matter up, and proposes to institute a series of lectures by recognized experts extending over four months, for the benefit of naval officers, on the theory and use of electricity. Particular attention will be paid to the various systems of electric lighting* » ♦ t Quadruplex Telegraph. Mr. Edison devised his wonderful quad- ruplex in 1S74, again doubling the capacity of a single wire, and enabling the simultane- ous transmission of two messages each way. The principle involved is that of working over the line with two currents that differ- from each other in strength or nature, so that they will only affect instruments adapted to respond to just such currents and no oth- ers. By combining instruments that respond only to variations in the strength of current with instruments that respond only to change in the direction of current, and by grouping a pair of such at each end of the line, the quadruplex is the result: so that there will be two sending and two receiving operators at each end, or eight in all, kept busy upon a single wire. It has been estimated that the use of the quadruplex has saved in this country alone not less than $15,000,000 for wires that otherwise would have been neces- sary for the transaction of business.