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January 23, 2006

Historical Perspective: Pimento native K. Monroe Turner invented dictograph at beginning of 20th century

By Mike McCormick

When K. Monroe Turner returned to Terre Haute in January 1908 to visit with family and friends, he seemed to walk a little bit differently.

Turner lost some hair and gained several pounds after his father — the Rev. James M. Turner — died July 25, 1904. However, those subtle changes did not seem to affect his gait.

Perhaps it was just the way friends envisioned him. Though he was down to earth, Turner had become famous. Since he last visited his widowed mother Louisa and sister Ida May Hedges, Turner had become the toast of the scientific community and feted by kings and queens.

The founder and president of General Acoustics Co. with headquarters at 1255 Broadway in New York City, Turner had invented a device called the “dictograph.”

“It is quite simple in design and construction,” Turner explained to a curious newspaper reporter before rushing out for a dinner engagement at the Terre Haute House.

“There is one ‘Master Station’ and any number of ‘substations.’ The sound of a voice enters the master station, which contains an extremely sensitive disk called ‘the metrophone.’ It concentrates the sound waves and transmits them to the substations at the other end of the line.

“The speaker at the master station does not have to speak into anything, or hold anything, and can speak in an ordinary tone of voice within any distance, from three to 15 feet,” Turner elaborated.

“The sound-concentrating receiving instrument is as sensitive as the human ear,” he proudly added. “The master station is connected with the substations by wiring.”

In 1908, businesses could lease the dictograph for a minimum sum of $5.50 per month, which included a master station and up to five substations. Additional master stations cost a minimum of $3 a month. The modern dictograph is popularly referred to as the “Dictophone,” though that is a brand name.

In late 1907, Turner was a guest of King Edward and Queen Alexandria at Buckingham Palace and Kaiser Wilhelm in Berlin. He also demonstrated his invention to cabinet ministers in France and Belgium.

The U.S. government ordered so many dictographs that Turner’s company could not meet the demand. Prior to traveling by rail to Terre Haute, he had met with Chicago capitalists to discuss building a new manufacturing facility in Cook County, Ill.

After the Rev. Turner’s death, Louisa Turner moved to Walden Flats. Sister Ida May and her husband, James M. Hedges, lived at 220 S. Fifth St. Hedges was owner of the Union Transfer Co.

The demand for Turner’s dictograph skyrocketed. However, the peak of its fame may not have reached fruition until detective William J. Burns began using it in his detective work.

In 1910, Turner developed a “detective dictograph,” consisting of a small master station weighing approximately eight ounces that looked like “a small pocket Kodak.” The original device was renamed “the commercial dictograph.”

The detective dictograph helped Burns solve “unsolvable cases” by placing this “mechanical ear” in jail cells and private rooms.

The investigation of the October 1910 dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times building was not the first time Burns successfully used Turner’s dictograph. He also used it to secure indictments against corrupt legislators during the “Great Ohio Graft Scandal of 1911.” Restaurants and bars in Columbus concocted a “dictograph cocktail” in its honor.

State courts initially approved the use of the surreptitious device, revolutionizing criminal investigations. Literary Digest featured the machine in “Scientific Eavesdropping,” an article in its June 15, 1912, issue. During an interview Turner cited examples of how the “unseen ear” could be placed in clandestine locations such as lamps, clocks and chandeliers.

Popular Electricity magazine lauded the dictograph and Turner’s two previous inventions: the acousticon and the interior telephone.

Kelly Monroe Turner was not always a scientist. Born during September 1859 near Pimento in Linton Township, he moved with his family to Terre Haute in 1881. Listed as a travel agent in the 1882 Terre Haute city directory, he resided with his parents at 317 N. Fifth St. He had three younger sisters: Ida May, Lilly and Cora.

By 1883, Monroe’s parents relocated to 510-512 Ohio St. In 1887, he was managing Murray Hay & Grain at 624 Wabash Ave., while residing upstairs in Koopman Block on the southwest corner of Sixth and Cherry streets.

Though it is unclear when Turner moved permanently from Vigo County, it is probable that he was working in a New York “electricity laboratory” by 1896. He returned often. His mother eventually moved to 809 1/2 S. Sixth St. and died there at age 87 on March 3, 1926.

Turner became “quite wealthy” from the sale of rights to his dictophone and undisclosed “inventions which proved to be of great value to the U.S. and its allies during World War I.” Reportedly a good friend of Thomas Edison, Monroe married late in life and resided in Hollywood, where his services were utilized by the motion picture industry.

Turner died in Hollywood on Nov. 7, 1927, at age 68, and was buried with his parents at Highland Lawn Cemetery. Even after her husband’s death, widow Alice Turner often returned to Terre Haute to visit with the Hedges family.

Also buried with them are sister Ida May and her husband John M. Hedges, youngest sister Cora Carter of Chicago and nephew Harry Hedges. Alice Turner’s cremains were placed at Highland Lawn following her death in Glendale, Calif., at age 80, on Jan. 11, 1947.

Mike McCormick is the Vigo County Historian and author of the new book, “Terre Haute: Queen City of the Wabash,” available at local bookstores and gift shops.

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