Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1901 — THE OMNIGRAPH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE OMNIGRAPH.

An Instrument Which Simplifies Instruction ttt Telegraphy. An instrument which is designed to pimplify Instruction in telegraphy, and !to impart In a comparatively short time a complete knowledge of the Morue alphabet, Ims recently been Introduced by a company In New York jelty* • Patents have been applied for. The Omnlgraph, as the instrument Is called, consists of a baseboard on ; which are secured an ordinary key and sounder, between . which a disk is mounted, formed on its periphery with teeth. A spring contact adjacent to the wheel engages the peripheral teeth of the disk. Although irregular, the arrangement of the teeth is arbitrary. For If the disk be rotated by means of a small crank-shaft geared with the disk-shaft, the spring contact is forced outwardly by the teeth, but drops back by its own elasticity, and thus makes and breaks the circuit. The experij enced telegraph operator detecting these makes and breaks at the sounder, recognizes them as the dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet. A close inspecj tion of the disk would reveal to him that the teeth are so arranged as to spell the sentence. “John quickly extemporized five tow bags.” If the disk be rotated forwardly, this sentence,

thus oddly worded to include every letter in the alphabet, is ticked off at the sounder; if rotated in the opposite direction, the sentence will be telegraphed backward. The disk is completely under the control of the students. It can be rotated as slowly as desired; or it can be so rapidly turned that its curious sentence will be received at the sounder With a speed that would open the eyes of a good operator. Moreover, the message on the desk is transmitted with a distinctness and faultlessuess which the most perfect operator can never hope to attain. At first blush it might seem that the student simply learns one sentence forward and backward, and that the instrument is a good teacher only within very narrow limits. But this disk can be partially rotated forward and backward any number of times, in any place, so that the letter to be transmitted cannot possibly be anticipated. Thus the student learns how to receive a cipher message, the meaning of which he canuot know. When sufficient proficiency has been obtained in receiving messages from the sounder, the student can learn to transmit messages in the regular method by means of the key which forms part of the apparatus.

THR OMNIGRAPH