The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

'9 plorers under the leadership of Edison and Teslor, it has remained for me, a pioneer, to make the discovery that in its economic import cannot fail to impress the world with its importance." My first idea of the phonetograph was conceived at the World's Fair in 1893, where I heard an electrical piano play mechanically the most difficult of music, with all the accuracy and expression of the most accomplished artist. The possibilities of a similar attachment on a typewriter flashed upon me, then came the conception of a machine substantially a combination of phonograph and typewriter, the latter operated by the former. With this embryonic idea I set at work and after five years of untiring labor the phonetograph has to-day been completed. The operation of the phonetograph in substance involves all the principles of the phonograph, the electrical piano and the typewriter. The receiver communicates direct with a sensitized disc, to which is attached a steel stylus. This stylus records the sound on wax, as in the phonograph, but in a series of minute perforations in paper. The paper thus perforated moves rapidly over the keyboard of a typewriter and operates the machine as the perforated sheet operates the electrical piano. The typewriter has a keyboard of 47 characters, and is the result of three years of constant study. The writing is produced phonetically, but in so simple a form that it can be learned in less than an hour's study. The possibilities of the machine are beyond prediction. I believe that within a year after the general adoption of the phonetograph the thousands of stenographers and shorthand writers and teachers will be forced into other occupations. Their art will be unknown in a dozen years, and the name of Isaac Putnam will be but a memory. The business man will dictate to the phonetograph and within a second his voice has ceased the letter will be delivered to him for signature, transcribed with mechanical precision. The necessity for the copying press, now almost universally used in business offices will be forever gone. The perforated sheet on which was recorded his original letter may be filed, and if occasion arises may again be run over the keyboard and reproduced. Its adoption in courtrooms will, I believe, be immediate and universal. The phonetic record as produced by the phonetograph will be handed direct to the compositor, doing away entirely with the tedious process now in vogue. The preacher will dictate his sermons or the speaker his address, and may be delivered direct from the phonetograph production without transcription. The tedious process as now practiced will cease, and the labor of thousands will be annually saved. The machine will not for at least a year be manufactured for exhibition purposes, though influence will at once be brought to bear for their installation into hotels and other public places, perhaps in post-offices. Then the letter writer may be dictated and delivered for a nominal price. "It is my purpose," said the inventor, "to begin the manufacture of the standard phonetograph at once in Worcester. Ten thousand of the machines will be put on the market at once. The President's Phonograph The Presidential Phonograph is the latest addition to the White House. It is the class "M" exhibition machine and was purchased recently by direction of Mr. McKinley. The machine is used with the large brass horn and the reproductions of comic songs, bands, orchestras, etc., can be distinctly heard through the rooms at intervals during the day and evening. The President as a matter of relaxation from the cares of office spends many a quiet candlelight hour with the mystic machine. Mr. McKinley is a great lover of good comic songs and this class of records prevails in the collection. A concert is held almost nightly, and when the Chief Executive tires of the old tunes and jokes, new ones are procured. Usually, when the concert is on in one of the upper private rooms, a crowd of White House attaches tiptoe up the stairs and congregate about the door to listen to the automatic voices and hear the President's hearty laughter. The brilliantly lighted exhibition room at the corner of Twenty-seventh Street and Broadway is one of the most conspicuous advertising points in the world. In speaking of this place, rather than use the long name, the catchy name "Columbia Parlor" has been, by common consent, accepted by most New Yorker's. Xeoal Botices The Discoverer of Process for Making Dry Photographic Films Wins his Legal Fight. The Rev. Hannibal Goodwin of No. 116 Montclair Avenue, Newark, N. J. , formerly rector of the House of Prayer, has just secured a patent on the kodak film. The history of the patent is in many aspects without a parallel. For many years, and at great expense, the former pastor has fought for the patent against one of the largest photographic outfitting concerns in the country, aucl his victory means a big fortune. It is doubtful if in the history of American patents any one was fought for and won against such great odds. Every subterfuge of law that brains could devise or money develop was resorted to, and no one except the inventor and his counsel supposed that he had any chance of winning the tight. The Rev. Mr. Goodwin is of an inventive turn of mind. He has devised for photographic processes many improvements that are used wherever pictures are taken with the camera, but on none except the film lias he endeavored to obtain a patent. Prior to the time when he inventsd the film he had often preached and written on the religious education of the young. One day while at work in his rectory he was visited by Jabez Hayes, who gave him $150 to invest in a stereopticon apparatus with which to make more interesting the lectures to youngpersons. "I made the plates for this stereoplicon myself," says the inventor, "At first they were glass. I came to see how unwieldy they were and cudgeled my brains for a substitute that could be handled more easily. For forty years the photographic world has been in eager quest of just such a substitute. Why shouldn't I find it, I said to myself, just as well as anybody? "In my college course I had obtained some knowledge of chemistry, and this was supplemented by reading. Almost in the dark I began experiments, when — Eureka ! by good luck rather than brains, I hit on the very thing. In the early part of 1887 I applied for a patent and sent samples of the film to the Patent Office in Washington. Because the invention was in every respect new, and its underlying principle abstruse, there was much delay in the official investigation into it. ' 'In the meantime the Eastman Dry Plate Company of Rochester, through its chemist, H. M. Reiehenbaek, filed an application for a patent covering my idea. The Patent Office declared an interference, and in the matter of priority decided in my favor. I thought the matter was settled and received the congratulations of my friends. "But this victory was only the beginning of the hardest kind of a fight. Tue company set ii self determinedly to prevent the issuance of a patent to me. A vigorous onslaught against the patentability of the invenlioneutailed long and expensive litigation. No influence or, effort of a company backed by millions of dollars was spared. Distinguished lawyers were engaged and the most learned expert testimony produced. "To discover that at some time or place some similar invention had been made, the photographic literature of the world was ransacked. All prior patents of all nations were searched. My only ground of hope was to hold out until the shifting devices of the law were exhausted. "By a singular train of misfortunes my legal helpers failed me, one after another. Among them was Richard Wayne Parker of this city, who had to give up the case upon his election to Congress. My friends advised me to give it up. But I was sure my ground was tenable, and I was bound to hold it. Now I am in undisputed possession." A Controversy Over Gramophone Stock A bill in equity was filed by the Berliner Gramophone Company against William C. Jones, to recover sums of money which, it is alleged, the defendant illegally received from the complainant company. The bill recites that on September 1, 1895, the defendant entered into an agreement with the United States Gramophone Company, owner of the Gramophone inventions of Emile Berliner, by which the latter company assigned to the defendant the exclusive right to manufacture, sell, lease and deal with the invention iu the United States, and also authorized the defendant to form a company within ninety days for this purpose, this new company to take the place of the defendant and to assume, carry out and be responsible for his obligations. The complainant compnny avers that the company was duly formed and the necessary agreements made between the company and William C. Jones, the defendant, who subscribed for 9,994 shares of the 10,000 shares of capital stock issued, the remaining shares beingrdivided among five promoters of the new company and the inventor, Emile Berliner. On September 19, 1898, the complainant learned from the offices of the United States Gramophone Company that on the same day that the principal and collateral agreements were made between the Berliner Gramophone Company and the defendant the latter entered into another agreement, also dated September 2, 1895, with the United States Gramophone Company and Emile Berliner, wherein it was further declared, in connection with the Gramophone invention, the defendant, "the said William C. Jones, serve as broker, promoter or investor, as the case may be." and in the same agreement it was agreed that, the defendant should receive "as commission and in compensation for services" one-third of all money paid to the United States Gramophone Company and Emile Berliner as royalties during the first year of the continuance of the principal agreement, and 5 per cent of all money paid to them, their heirs or assignees during the further continuance of the two agreements. It is further averred in the bill that under this agreement the United States Gramophone Company has paid large sums of money to the defendant, this amount aggregating, the complainants believe, about $8,000 ; that they had no knowledge of the existence of the agreement last mentioned until the date it was reported to them by the United States Gramophone Company, and they are advised that the defendant, the promoter of the complainant company, and standing in a confidential relation with the company, could not lawfully receive the secret commission or compensation mentioned, and the receiving of these sums of money was a fraud upon the rights of the complainants, and that the defendant is charged with a trust to account and pay overall sums received by him to (he complainants. The Court is asked to order the defendant to make a discovery and pay over to the complaint company all sums of money received by him from the United States Gramophone Company under the secret agreement mentioned, with interest. An "Exhibitor" Arrested £3 One day last month the police of the Eld ridge Street station arraigned iu the Essex Market Police Court three men whom they accused of having desecrated the Sabbath by operating such devices as Phonographs, lung testers and electric batteries in the street. One of the prisoners was running a Phonograph, the other a lung tester, and the third an electric battery. "You have no right to desecrate the Sabbath by putting up in the street a Phonograph whereby you draw a crowd," said Magistrate Brannto Jacob Koppleman, whose Phonograph had offended the police. "Chudge, your honor," replied Koppleman, "I vas not desegrading der Sabbath. Der music in der Phonograph vas playing a churdge tune ven der cop arrested me." "That is not so," said the detective. "There were six tailors holding the tubes to their ears when I came along, and I held one of the tubes myself before I made the arrest. The instrument was playing the couchee couchee dance and the six tailors were keeping time with their feet." ' 'I'll tine you $5." said the magistrate to Koppleman. The others were fined $2 each. West Publishing Company Defendant in a Novel Suit Suit was recently brought in the Municipal Court by Walter C. Cunningham against the West Publishing Company to collect $50 for a machine to shave Graphophone cylinders, which plaintiff claims the publishing company ordered from him under contract but refused to accept upon delivery. The publishing company has begun a counter actiou against Cunningham for $50, claiming that, while a contract was entered into with Cunningham, he failed to deliver the machine, as a result of which the company had to employ stenographers to do the work which would have been accomplished by the company by the graphophones. thereby causing an expenditure by the company of $50. The suit is the first of its kind. — St. Paul Globe. An injunction has been granted in the United States Circuit Court to Thomas A. Edison, forbidding J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith from using certain inventions being covered by letters patent 589,168, issued August 31, 1897 ; also from using certain inventions in apparatus for exhibiting photographs of moving objects, covered by letters patent 493,126, issued March 14, 1893.