Facsimile telegraphy

Several years ago the Western Union undertook the development of a facsimile recording system which would be fast and cheap enough to overcome the objections against existing systems and form the basis of a system suitable for the general public. The first development was a dry coated paper capable of being marked by the passage of an electric current through it. Facsimile is employed by the W.U. as an alternative method of handling regular telegraph business and as a means for the reproduction at a distance of material which cannot be handled in any other manner. The paper describes in detail, by the aid of circuit diagrams and photographs, the apparatus which has been developed.