"By reference to authentic documents of this character, it will be impossible to falsify any record by having some one else make such a spoken record. A will, or any other important document, will, in the future, be made by this machine and will do away with many court cases and much business squabble, and much shirking of responsibility.
"Furthermore, by my method it is possible with the same machine to make as many as twenty-five copies at one time, while the original is being made. This is done by a chemical process in the machine itself, the copies being simply thin chemical papers which are being developed at the same time as the voice-writing is being made.
"Reading these pages is not as difficult as you might think. It would be necessary, however, to know the phonolphabet. The phonolphabet is not very much different from the alphabet that you now know. Every syllable and every consonant used by you makes a certain impression in my machine, and while it may vary, as explained before, still it remains roughly the same, exactly as handwriting by different persons may vary, but still you can read because the characteristics are the same. The same is true of my machine. By studying the characters of the phonolphabet, it is possible, within a few weeks, to learn how to read a phonetic letter, with the same ease that you read a handwritten or typewritten letter.
"I expect that in the schools of the future children will be taught the phonolphabet so that every one will be able to read phonetic records.
"Another feature of my invention is that if you do not wish to read the letter you can listen to it." Saying so, Ralph inserted the letter into an odd-shaped cabinet, which had a slot at the top. Two grippers slowly began to draw the paper into the inside of the machine. Ralph turned two knobs and pushed a button, and within a few seconds his own voice was heard with unmistakable clarity repeating what he had said fifteen minutes before.
"This machine, likewise, is very simple," said Ralph. "The ink tracing on the paper record is opaque, while the paper itself is more or less transparent under a strong light. A light-sensitive cell on the other side slowly moves from left to right, taking off the entire phonetic record, as it were. This light-sensitive cell moves in the same ratio and with the same speed that I originally dictated, and the words are reproduced exactly as I spoke them, by means of a loud-speaking telephone coupled to an amplifier.
"Thus it is now possible to have a double record; an audible and a written one, and with the two it is practically impossible to falsify records.
"As you know, there have been some big embezzlement scandals recently and it was not always possible to convict those suspected due to the clever methods which these swindlers used.
"One great advantage of the new system is that it is done entirely by machine and does away with the human element. I do not require my real secretary when I dictate. I sit alone in my study or office and simply talk."