Sending Portraits by Telegraph.
“The Paris correspondent of the London Standard writes: ‘It has often been said that the science of telegraphy is as yet only in its infancy. What it will do when it reaches the age of maturity it would be difficult to say certainly, but some idea may be formed from an extraordinary telegraphic discovery just made in Paris. It appears that some inventor has found out the means of sending portraits by telegraph. The modus operandi has not yet been disclosed, but experiments have been made, and—if we are to believe the papers—with complete success. The trial was made by the police authorities of Paris and Lyons. The portrait of a Lyons official was forwarded from Paris by the new telegraphic apparatus, and at once recognized. In return the Lyons police telegraphed to Paris the portrait, accompanied with the usual description, of a clerk who had just absconded with his master’s money; and the Paris police, thanks to the telegraphic portrait, were enabled to arrest the thief on his alighting from the train at the Lyons railway station. These facts are published on the best authority, and, incredible as they may seem, are no doubt authentic.’” At a recent exhibition of the working of the telephone in Chicago, music played in Milwaukee, 85 miles distant, was reproduced in clear and sweet tones.