166 Nature's /HMracleS. 



possible without elaborate drawings and speci- 

 fications. It is unnecessary to state that it 

 differs in a fundamental way from other fac- 

 simile systems of telegraphy. Suffice it to say 

 that as one writes his message in one city 

 another pen in another city follows the trans- 

 mi t ting-pen with perfect synchronism; it is 

 as though a man were writing with a pen with 

 two points widely separated, both moving at 

 the same time and both making exactly the 

 same motions. By this system a man may 

 transact business with the same accuracy as 

 by the United States mail, and with the same 

 celerity as by the electric telegraph. 



A broker may buy or sell with his own sig- 

 nature attached to the order, and do it as 

 quickly as he could by any other method 

 of telegraphing, and with absolute accuracy, 

 secrecy and perfect identification. 



In 1893, when this apparatus was first pub- 

 licly exhibited, it operated by means of four 

 wires between stations, and while the work it 

 did was faultless, the use of four wires made 

 it too expensive and too cumbersome for com- 

 mercial purposes ; so during all the years since 

 then the endeavor has been to reduce the num- 

 ber of wires to two, when it would stand on 

 an equality with the telephone in this respect. 

 It is only lately that this improvement has 

 been satisfactorily accomplished, and, for rea- 

 sons above stated, no serious attempt has been 



