Abstract :
The story of Phonewriting begins in the 1880´s when the first practical machine, slightly smaller than a grand piano, was built. It transmitted handwriting, after a fashion, over wire between the inventor´s home and his laboratory 500 yards away. Research and development produced through the decades progressive improvements in efficiency and size — down now to a 12 — by 12 — by 5½-inch compact unit to be placed on a desk. The chief technical problem of the immediate past was to develop a system that would assure satisfactory transmission of handwritten messages over all of the many types of telephone circuits.
