Article September 27, 1900 Issue

Typewriting by Wire

New York Herald

Typewriting by wire is the newest marvel of electrical Science. To the ordinary person the statement that one may sit at a typewriter keyboard in New York and write a message in San Francisco as easily as though the receiving paper were in the machine before one, while sufficiently wonderful, is less starting than it would have been before the other marvelous achievements of electricity became common property. To the man who is versed in electrical science, however, who knows its limitations as well as its wonders, the news of the invention comes as a surprising piece of intelligence. Thousands of dollars and the energies of scores of inventors have been bent to the task of bringing about exactly this result. Within the past decade half-a-dozen machines have been built in the attempt to teach a practical method of long distance writing. None of these have been entirely successful, and electricians, though not denying the possibility of a successful result, will be inclined to accept any new solution of the problem only after the most severe practical tests.

These tests the inventors of the new device claim they can satisfactorily meet. For some time they have been working an experimental line demonstrating the method of operating the machine. Recently it was tried over a circuit of 265 miles of wire belonging to the Central Union Telephone Company in Illinois, and the results of the test were satisfactory in every way, according to those who witnessed it. Within a few days the invention will be exhibited to electricians and telegraph men in this city, and will be put to practical long distance tests here. It is intended, later on, to try it upon the Atlantic cables, as the inventors are confident that it may be made to work across the ocean.

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