p. 237 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, September 24, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 15

Telegraph Fac-Similes.

Mr. Field has brought out to this country a number of very interesting specimens of the system of telegraphing now in operation between Paris and Lyons, and Paris and Bordeaux, by which exact copies of the message are produced at either extremity of the lines, solely by mechanical means. The message is written on prepared paper, covered with a lead-colored surface, which is a non conductor of the electric fluid. The writing, or drawing, in the ink furnished for the purpose, changes the points touched by it to the opposite electrical character. The pendulum is swinging at each end of the circuit in unison. Its upper end is divided into points—say, like a fine-toothed comb. The message being passed over these at one end, sends a current to correspond with the writing or lines, and produces an exact copy of the original upon the prepared paper held to the vibrating pendulum in the distant city. Thus a fac-simile of writing and signature is furnished without any skill of the operator. A drawing of the likeness of a thief or absconding clerk is reproduced with minute faithfulness. Patterns of machinery, patterns for bonnets, hieroglyphics, messages in Chinese, or in an unknown tongue, are copied with as little trouble as the simplest letters of a familiar alphabet. Some notices of this have been given in foreign journals, but no mere verbal description can convey a full idea of the wonderful process. The Hibernian who insisted, some years ago, that the telegraph operator should forward his photograph over the wires to his sweetheart, was only a little ahead of his age, since this can now be done without the slightest trouble, provided the likeness be taken on the proper material.—Journal of Commerce.