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#1T Musical Notes Substituted
for Dots and Dashes in
the Patented Invention of the
Reverend Joseph Murgas, a
Pennsylvania Priest
ii jT"\ 0, RE, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do"
. § Jr Real music is soon to be
heard over the telegraph wires —•
or, rather, over the "wireless" wires* It will
mean something more than a sentiment, too
Wor instance, a curious little tune will spell
ruin to a cotton broker; another will carry a
message of love to a waiting sweetheart from
a fervent swain.
lDots and dashes will,have run their race if
the system of telegraphy invented by a Cath
olic priest and patented at Washington on the
Oth of May is only a fraction as successful as
experts in telegraphy expect it to be.
THE REV. FATHER JOSEPH MURGAS Is the pro
. duct of a number of the most famous universities
In Europe, a member of the Societe de Electro-
technique of Vienna, set 'ipon the top of a hill In
Wilkesbarre, catering openly to tbe religious wants of his
devoted parishioners and secretly to the scientific wanta
of a world ever demanding Improvements.
For his parishioners he has erected a church, parish
house and cemetery; for the world he has built a new sys
tem of telegraphy which promises to work wonders.
Facts about great inventors, colored by time, modified
by distance, never seem bo remarkable as at first hand.
That is why the work done by Father Murgas is remark
able.
Glance at his history. He was born In Hungary thirty
nine years ago, the son of a farmer. He was early des
tined for religious orders and scientific pursuits, and in
the study of theology and electricity he did so well that
very early in life he earned a name for himself In the
priesthood and among the soientlflo men of Europe.
Educated at Budapest, Tresburg and Vienna, he completed
his education at the famous university in Munich, taking
honors. Every minute of the time that he could get dur
ing years he devoted to eleotriolty and to the «x
--periments of which he became so fond.
Eight years ago he was sent to this country in orders
and assigned to Wilkesbarre, Pa., where a number of
Slavonic Catholics were without a pastor. It speaks
Vividly for the enterprise of the Rev. Father Murgas that
In a short time he had erected a commodious church, a
parish house and a little later provTdod a oemetery, and
that his congregation now numbers eleven hundred or
more and that he has collected $7000 toward the erection
THE TR O U BLE S O F A GI R L WHOSE LOVE IS DIVIDED BETWEEN TWO
THE subject of constancy "appears to have an ever
abiding interest for all those who are still young
enough to catch the love fever.
AH women and most men seem to feel bound
to declare themselves mirrors of constancy, and pour
vials of wrath on any poor erring mortal who Is dis
covered In transferring his or her affections. Flirt, Jilt,
heartless—such are the epithets hurled at the luckless
head, many the evils predicted for the unfortunate sinner.
But Is this just? True, In the springtime of life and
love, the average boy or girl believes in an eternal con
stancy, but how seldom this beautiful and poetlo Idea
exists after their "calf-love." The very first entanglement
Of either serves to dispel It for ever.
How many of either sex over twenty-five could truth
fully say that he or she has not had an ample and varied
experience in the elasticity of the affections?
"How happy could I be with either, were t'other dear
Charmer away" Is a sentiment which finds an echo to the
heart of a great many men.
FATHE7K. MURGAS AND HIS MUSICAL TELEGRAPH MACHINE
THE system of telegraphy invented by the Rev.
Father Joseph Murgas, of Wilkesbarre, dif-
fers from the Marconi system principally
in the code. It is what Father Murgas terms the
shorthand of telegraphy. In it musical notes are
substituted for the dots and dashes so familiar in
the old code invented by Morse, and never until now
improved upon.
of a new church, the present one being tdo small for the
growth of hia flock.
In a little room on the second floor of hia residence
Father Murgas has made a workshop, which is to-day
crowded with apparatus, with cells, induction coils, bat
teries, jars and tubes and wires and a hundred and one
other things he has used in his long series of experiments.
Overhead, in the attio, Is the larger appAatus, a net
work of wires, great copper balls, big batteries and all
the Impedimenta of a man who has constructed much and
taken the best of what he has made to weld together a
remarkable creation.
A FIVE YEARS' STRUGGLE TO
n ATTAIN HIS PRESENT SUCCESS
IN THAT little workroom he spent many hours of dis
appointment and fewer hours of the joy that comes
from suocess. At first the work was hard enough to dis
courage a leas able or a less energetic man. He had little
money. With his salary and pay for the scientific articles
he writes his Income does not exceed $2000 a year. Out of
that he has given nearly half to his inventions.
Father Murgas started to work on the wireless teleg
raphy system five years ago, and although hampered
from the outset by the lack of many things he struggled
along, making what he could not afford to buy and saving
money for what he could not make.
The average man is essentially cosmopolitan In his
love. And though his heart never quite forgets any of the
past—though it can still hear the delicate harmonies, the
minor chords, with here and there a tragic note, of the
scroll wherein his life's music has been written—he yet will
rejoice in the warmth and light of a new love.
And why not? The most priceless gift Is love, but It
is only valuable because it is free.
How often one sees what appeared a changeless, al-
most perfect love bestowed in equal measure upon two
men, not because affection for the first had died, or even
waned, but because the poor, wavering heart was so weak.
Th« old proverb, "It's love which makes the world go
round/* la true enough in Its way; but It Is quite pos
sible to have too much of even so good a thing as love,
.and the gfrl who Is trying to lead on two at the same
time wiH soon find that she has a very hard task before
h«r.
Women are Argus-eyed toward the man they love; no
THE ST. PAUL GLOBE SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 1901
In a word, instead of the cumbersome dot and
dash and interval of the Morse code, the Rev. Father
Murgas has invented a method by which varying
tones will express letters of the alphabet. These
tones, clear, musical, pure and absolutely accurate,
are received through an ordinary telephone receiver,
and as each tone may be given in a fraction of a
With these drags the work was slow at first. Indeed,
not until two years ago could he proceed with any degree
of rapidity. Even now many things needed for the perfeor
tion of the invention are lacking, though In the main all
are there. At present he carefully explains only what he
had patented.
From a desk heaped high with papers and plans he
drew the diagram of the apparatus for sending and re
ceiving messages, all the chief parts being, patented under
the date of May 10, 1904.
He is a smooth-faced, wide-headed man, with keen
eyes.
"I cannot talk much English, except electrical Eng
lish," he explained, and he started into a clear exposition.
"It is apparent, is it not," he asked, "that the present
system of transmitting messages by the Morse alphabet is
formed of dots and dashes and intervals? More time is
required in sending a dash than a dot—so • . — —," he
illustrated with his pencil. "Now It is not so that if th©
same dots and dashes and intervals were all translated
into sounds which do not require bo much time the
economy would be considerable?"
The interviewer nodded.
"Do, do, fa, fa," he hummed, eager to illustrate his
point.
"You must understand that the 'do' there represents
the dot and the 'fa' represents the dash. The invention
By Harrtet Lemaitre
trifle escapes their notice. And although a great many
people believe that a little jealousy Is a good spur to love,
still, there Is a very great .chance that the girl who tries
to play this dangerous game will end by losing the one
she really liked the most, and sometimes she even loses
two chances by trying to play the lover to both.
It has to be a very strong love indeed to conquer pride,
and any man naturally rebels against sharing his would
be sweetheart equally with another of his sex.
With a man matters have to be cut and dried with
the affairs of the heart. His heart is not so small that he
can only find room In it for one object of bis love. He
needs sympathy and companionship as well as love, and
If he cannot get all from the girl ne seems to like he will
extend his love to someone else.
His heart Is large enough and warm enough for more
than one; and as there are many things which appeal to
.second and every one indicates a tetter, messages
which now take ten minutes may be sent and re
ceived in one minute. The difference in speed, how
ever, has not been thoroughly tested. Father Murgas
modestly says that his code is probably from five to
ten times as fast as the Morse code.
A company to exploit the invention is already
formed. .
Is just that. It expresses the dots and dashes by different
tones sent rapidly and accurately. The Instrument is
regulated so that there oannot be more than a shade of
difference between the tones.
"Now," he exclaimed, having thrust the point home,
"so far I have used only the two tones to represent the
dot and th© dash, but it is a most simple matter to elab
orate any kind of alphabet from them, one tone being used
to represent each letter of the alphabet. A series of tones
will thus represent ordinary words. Indeed, it will be easy
to Institute a code by which just one sound could repre
sent an entire phrase.
"In other words, my system is the shorthand of teleg
raphy," he cried, "the idea expressing exactly what he
wished to convey.
NO CONFUSION OF TONES IF INSTRU
MENTS ARE PROPERLY ADJUSTED
it A SI SAID, I have as yet used but the two tonea to
•**■ express the dot and dash, and I will Illustrate how
they are sent. I make the tones by impulses transmitted
into interrupters. These interrupters take the current di
rect from the key, and the force of electricity going into
them creates vibration. The intensity of this vibration
creates a musical note, a sound wave.
"This wave, increased in strength by a battery, is con
veyed along a wire, and after passing through two copper
his affections, and as each of these things points the road
to his heart, the girl who studies him will not be slighted.
Love being only a state of the mind, there seems no
reason why that state should not exist for two at the
same time.
A woman may be equally attracted towards two men,
but when one makes his love openly known to her, grati
fied vanity at his avowal of admiration and love, and
wounded pride at the reticence of the other, easily per
.suades her that the one who has spoken Is the one she
realty loves the mores
Few girls care much for sny i overs. The man who is
too diffident to take advantage of any encouragement of
fered him Is seldom appreciated—generally he is regarded
with secret contempt; while the masterful man has a
sort of fascination for women, and he who steps boldly
in and storms the fortress rather than waits to ask per
mission to do so wins the day and the heart he seeks.
The girl who finds herself totally unable to determine
balls and onto a highly insulated aerial wire It reaches
the top of a fifty-foot pole, and from there Is projected
Into the air a sound wave.
"The waves follow each other with great rapidity, but
the tones never become confused when the Instruments
are properly adjusted.
"At the receiving station the sound wave travels from
the top of a pole down a. wire to the reoelver, where It
is caught by a sound wave detector and communicated to
a diaphragm.The vibration of this diaphragm produoea tb*
same musical note transmitted from the sender and a
battery magnifies it, and it is produced for the- ear of th«
operator by an ordinary telephone receiver."
Father MUrgas followed this exposition with a tech
nical description of each portion of the instruments and
explained how they were operated, illustrating by dia
grams and by the instruments themselves.
He is all eagerness and enthusiasm and he is happy,
not over the revolution his invention may cause In teleg
raphy or the fortune it will probably make for him,
but because he is now able to demonstrate that the prin
ciples he conceived are correct.
REMARKABLE SYSTEM WHICH
11 PRESENTS IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES
pATHER MURGAS has arranged with the company
which is to put his invention upon the market for in*
payment of a considerable sum as an earnest. He was
asked what he purposed doing with the money.
"Oh," he said, "I do not know. There are two things
I shall do with it. I shall aid in establishing a sisters'
school for teaching the children of the parish, and then I
shall use the rest in getting more apparatus in aid Of
further experiments."
He smiled when asked if he had any more Invention*
In view. "Yes, there are several," he admitted, "but they
are chiefly developments of my musical wireless telegraph
system. It is practical aft it Is, but It is capable of being
made much more so. I shall work for the company which
takes my patents. I shall make them better."
He shrugged his shoulders, as if it were a question of
little Importance, when asked the distance his message
may be sent. "Across the ocean," he said, and, thought
fully, "It will need a much elevated sending station and
■more power, that is all. It can go as far as Marconi*s and
farther. The number of sound waves is indefinite; there Is
no saying where it will slop; It is growing bigger all the
time. Where do sound waves stop? There is no end to
them."
As Father Murgas says, the system he has Invented
presents great possibilities. Expert electricians who hay«
seen It and who have witnessed tests declare it to tw re
markable.
to which of the two men she really gives the first plao*
In her heart should try a temporary separation from both.
This will easily settle the question.
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," we hear oa
one side, but there is a little whispering voice on th«
other saying, "Out of sight, out oJ mind." Nothing but
a trial can decide.
If it be a genuine love, capable of the wear and tear
of a lifetime, absence will but make the heart grow
fonder. If, on the other hand, it be merely a pfitlnjf
fancy, it will then surely be indeed a case of "Out of
sight, out of mind.""
Bertie's deathless dm-otlon may be transplanted to an
other and more congenial soil, and, after a short space,
Ethel will find another, better, and probably far more
suitable, helpmeet, and both will be satisfied, and look
back without any bitterness to their sweet, short dream
of love, feeling that each has mad* a better and wiaac
choice.
31