Scrapbook 3: Telstar Relays 'Brain' Data In Another 1st

Telstar Relays ‘Brain’ Data In Another 1st

NEWTON, Mass. (UPI) — Telstar added another first to its achievements when it demonstrated that communications satellites can relay information around the world from one earthbound computer to another

A Honeywell Research Center computer here sent and received a series of messages via the satellite which is whirling through space at 16,000 miles an hour.

Walter W. Finke, president of Honeywell Electronics Data Processing, said “The test was a forerunner of the high-speed, intercontinental computer network that in years to come will handle the data processing needs of the bulk of world commerce.”

J. Ernest Smith, Honeywell’s vice-president in charge of the electronics data processing division, explained its practical applications

Within 3 Minutes

It would, he said, be valuable to large corporations with branches abroad. Each week, for example, the foreign branch could send to its home office its employes’ work schedules. The checks could be sent back over the computer within three minutes.

Police departments around the world could store in one computer all the fingerprints, records and descriptions of all known criminals and this information could be exchanged quickly.

Other technological data and information could be relayed among scientists, doctors, lawyers and engineers, thus greatly reducing the risk of error, he said.