20 PHOTO-TELEGRAPHY 



electric current rendered a transcript of the picture 

 in a form suited for immediately using or convert- 

 ing into a printing surface, what a revolution it 

 would effect in the methods of giving news to the 

 public, ... of whose craving for illustrations 

 editors and publishers are fully conscious. ' Quite 

 so,' says the practical editor, l but will such a thing 

 ever be possible ? I doubt it/ 



" Well, just to call to mind what electricity has 

 already given us besides telegraphy. By means of 

 this wonderfully potent power we transmit sound, 

 light, heat, and motive energy. Its latest and 

 perhaps most marvellous development is the utilisa- 

 tion of the so-called * X-rays ' to enable us to probe 

 the mysteries of our anatomy and search for things 

 hidden from mortal eye. Surely it is but a little 

 step to annihilate the limitations of human vision 

 and provide us with a means of seeing things from 

 afar. Undoubtedly this will be the next wonder 

 that electricity has in store for us." 



Then, after describing Bain's chemical tele- 

 graph, in which at the transmitting station a metal 

 brush passed over large metal type letters and 

 closed a circuit which chemically reproduced the 

 letters at the receiving end, he says : 



" I mention the foregoing chemical process, 

 because I think it will suggest to photographic 

 experimentalists a likely method of transmitting 

 pictorial records. For the letters of Bain's instru- 



