Electrical Marvels

Half-tone Picture Transmitted by Wire from Chicago to New York.

NEW YORK, April 13. — Two bodies of scientific men gathered last night — one in Columbia College, this city, and the other in the rooms of the Quadrangle in Chicago, to witness the test of an electrical Instrument which was to transmit the half-tone picture by wire of President Seth Low to the Chicagoans and that of President Harris to the New Yorkers. The experiment was a success at the New York end, and 8,000 people gathered in the hall and watched the features of the President of the Chicago University evolve out of a maze of pin points in tin foil till it became a facsimile of the one on the transmitter, 1,000 miles away.

Chicagoans Disappointed

The Chicago audience however, according to word received by telegraph, was disappointed. The instrument at that end did not work because of heavy Induction in the wires.

R. H. Palmer operated the electrical machine transmitting the picture. The instrument contains tin foil perforated with countless pin holes each containing a separate wire. The paper upon which the picture is produced is wrapped around a cylinder upon which the sensitive tin foil stylus makes the ink dots corresponding in light and shade to the half-tone picture being transmitted.

Nikola Tesla later in the evening performed some interesting experiments with his electrical oscillator using a 30,000 volt current and securing startling results. He secured marvelous color effects with geissler tubes and illustrated his system of wireless telegraphy by means of inducted currents. M. R. Richardson experimented with eight deaf mutes using an electrical instrument. A deaf mute was made to pronounce simple words that were spoken to him through the instrument.