Science: Memophone

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In Paris last week telephone users were urged to "Save your time, your money, your memory and your nerves." How? By renting a clever little gadget for automatic telephone dialing. The device, called the "Mémophone," is a mechanism which works independently of the ordinary telephone dial. On top of a small box is an indicator table, with room for 30 names. To call a number, you move the indicator opposite the name you want, press a lever, and the works inside the box then do the dialing.

Time required for the Mémophone to dial a number is 71/2 seconds, as against an average of 15 seconds for hand dialing. To circumvent snoopers, names can be entered on the table in code letters or figures. Another advantage is that, by locating the police and fire calls at the top and bottom of the indicator's range, these numbers can be called in total darkness.

Rental charge for one Mémophone is $10.60 a year, plus an installation charge of 21¢ for each entry on the table. The French bureau of pharmaceutical manufacturers has leased 24 instruments, two big automobile companies eight and six instruments respectively. The Mémophone cuts down toll charges by eliminating wrong numbers due to slips of memory or the finger. The practical Frenchmen who are boosting the Mémophone have assembled statistics showing that 15% to 17% of all hand-dialed calls are wrong numbers.

Another communication gadget, announced last week in the U. S.: a recording device which transcribes verbal memoranda, conferences, speeches on lightweight plastic discs resembling cellophane. These records can be folded and mailed in ordinary envelopes; two records lasting ten minutes each will go anywhere in the U. S. for 3¢. The transcribing machines are also equipped to reproduce. Makers: General Communication Products of Los Angeles.