Sault Sainte Marie (Michigan) Evening News, February 7, 1906, page 2:
NEW EXPERIMENT
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INVENTOR CALLS HIS INSTRUMENT THE TELEVENT.
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STAY AT HOME AND LISTEN TO A SERMON.
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TEST WAS MADE AT GRAND RAPIDS SUNDAY NIGHT.
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Heard Every Word of Service in Westminster Presbyterian Church in City of Detroit--Will Revolutionize Service.
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General Manager James F. Land of the Michigan State Telephone company has invented an instrument he calls the televent, which promises to revolutionize all present forms of communication between communities. The invention will make it possible for people in one city to listen to a church service, opera or other form of amusement hundreds of miles away. In a test made this week between Grand Rapids and Detroit a party of Grand Rapids people listened to a church service and concert from a distance of 150 miles. The experiment is said to have been most satisfactory.
Speaking of the invention, Manager Martin of the Soo exchange said today that he believes that within a year the televent will be installed here.
"It will prove valuable for receiving hockey returns," he said. "In fact, it will prove a winner for almost any kind of service desired and I think we will have the new service here just as soon as the demand will warrant it. The company expects to cover the entire state with the invention."
Regarding the experiment recently made the Grand Rapids Herald said yesterday morning:
Long distance preaching was enjoyed by Dudley E. Waters and a party of friends at his home yesterday morning.
By means of an instrument called the televent, the invention of James F. Land, general manager of the Michigan Telephone company, Mr. Waters and his friends were able to hear every word of the services at the Westminster Presbyterian church of Detroit.
Dr. Clark is pastor of the church and his discourse was heard as plainly here as if the listeners had been in a front pew of the church. Not only the speaking but the singing and the music, too, were heard plainly.
Later in the day Mr. Waters and his friends heard an orchestral concert at Detroit and in the evening there was a lecture for them to hear, though it was delivered 150 miles from the room where they sat.
Service May Become General.
The occasion was a test of a new service the Michigan Telephone company proposes to introduce throughout the state according to plans now under way. As the matter has been given a most thorough and practical test it is more than likely that the service is a thing of the not distant future.
For a month or six weeks the company has had a number of stations in Detroit and has been testing the service within the limits of the city.
It has transmitters stationed in several churches, in one or two lecture halls and in the Avenue theater and the Detroit opera house. Lectures, sermons and plays given at these places have been listened to by many members of the company in various parts of the city.
The experiment of Sunday was shown that it is just as possible to extend this service to the borders of the state as to the limits of a city.
More than that it has practically shown that Grand Rapids may be put in as close touch with entertainments in New York city as its business men now have with the metropolis every day in affairs of business.
This means that grand opera could be brought to Grand Rapids. It means that metropolitan success could be heard in this city simultaneously with their appearance in New York or Detroit.
Plans for the extension of the service have not yet been fully completed but it is proposed to form a company and put the wonderful televent to practical commercial use.
Plans Seem Like a Dream.
"The matter of cost has not yet been definitely settled," said Mr. Land to the Herald over the telephone from Detroit, "but we believe that the service could be given for $2 a month if it was widespread enough.
"We plan on having a regular daily program from 7 o'clock in the morning to midnight. Every hour of the day there would be some special matter on hand. A children's hour has been planned when the children could listen to stories of interest to them, told by experts, while there would be of course special hours for the results of the ball games in summer and for the announcement of special sporting events of all kinds.
"The plan is capable of almost indefinite enlargement but we hope soon to have it in shape to be able to give the public convincing proofs of what we can do in this matter."
Mr. Land is the inventor of the televent. The transmitter is a small object, not unlike a desk telephone, though much more delicately made. The one in the Westminster church on which yesterday's test was made was stationed 10 feet from the speaker.
The receiver looks like the head telephone used by telephone girls. It has a metal strap to hold it on the head. More delicate and lighter instruments are planned for the service.