Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-02-06

HOW Edison Sent Dispatches From
Moving Railroad Train.
HIS EXPLANATION OF THE WAY THE ELECTRIC
WAVES ARE SHOT THROUGH THE AIR-PoSSI
BILITIES OF THE NEW DIsCoyETY.

The Edison system Of telegraphing to and
from moving trains was applied on Monday to
a train on the Staten Island railroad, and for
an hour message after message leaped through
the air from the roof of a car moving at the rate
OF twenty-five miles an hour to the regular tele-
graph wires over a hundred feet away. The
answers leaped from the wires down to the roof
and were licked out on an instrument in the
presence OF company of railroad men and cleo
tricians. Messages were sent home, stock quota
lions were received and orders to arrest imagin-
airy fleeing criminals. The guests of the Railway
Telegraph and Telephone company occupied
the second passenger car of an ordinary train,
and in the middle of the car was little table
two feet square, to which was attached q small
battery OF only hve cups. An operator sat at
the table with tiny telephone receiver at
muffs on. From each receiver a wire led to the
battery wire; Ordinary telegraph wires ran up
from the table to the tin roof of the car, to
which they were connected
Before the train started from Clifton. a num-
Der OF messages were put in sealed envelopes
addressed to passengers in the experimenting
car. These were given, still sealed, to an ope-
rator in the regular telegraph Office at Clifton.
Then the train moved out. When it was half
a mile away the operator at the table began to
write the sealed messages which he received by
telegraph from Clifton. The car went rafting
and roaring along, and the operator kept writ
ing out message after message.
Mr.. Edison leaned down and seized the opera
tors key, which he worked vigorously as he
telegraphed message to his pretty little
daughter Marion at the Hotel Normandie d. On
the way back over thirty messages were sent or
received. The train moved at the rate of over
twenty-five miles an hour.
MIR. EDISON EXPLAINS HIS SYSTEM.
81 found" said Mr.. Edison, "that current of
electricity could pass through the air between
two conductors, but if the communication
lasted longer than 25O,OOOth of a second the
air became polarized or otherwise changed by
electricity
municaton In other words, the air offered
practically no resistance to an electric current
get a wave SO short and sharp thatit would pass
through the air between the given points in
Now in this moving car there s is little battery y
When the operator at that table sends mes
sage the waves go at the rate Of about 900 TO a
rent go about 13 to second. These waves are
sent into the air from the tin roof of the car
with such sIddenness and sharpness, by means
letter, consisting OF dot or a dash, passes to
the wires strung on the regular telegraph
$50, Oooth part of a second. There is a pause
of about q thousandth of a second to let the air
regain It's ordinary condition. Then another let
ter is pumped through the air to the wires. Then
another pause and anotheretter, and so on. If you
tryto push a candle through pine board you will
break the candle. If you shoot the candle out
of a gun it will make a hole in the board. These
letters are darted through the air SO quickly
that the air molecules don't have time to think
work in all weathers. The electrical sympathy
or induction between the roof of the Car and the
wires is SO great that messages will leap through
the air to or from the regular wires far as $50
feet. We don't use any new wires, but work
on the regular telegraph system. Our signals
come to the ear of the operator in musical notes.
such as q prolonged 'Oo-O-O-O-O' for dash and
q short 90 for dot. We work Just as quickly
and as easily as the ordinary system"
ITS USE AT SEA.
Mr.. Edison said that by this principle he dis
covered that ships can telegraph to each other
through the air at a distance of twenty-five
miles. A small balloon coated with gold foil
could carry u thin wire into the air 8, 100 feet
from each ship. The wire charges the balloon
with electricity. AT a height OF 300 feet the
air Is SO light that the electric current will pass
by induction from one Of these balloons to
to another twenty-five miles away. The mo-
ment Il ship is within electrical communica-
ton of another the telegraph instrument on
board begins to sing. So does the Instrument
on the other ship. The operators on the ships
then talk to each other. 81 have already ex-
perlmented across great fields with this system
and have met with great success" Mr.. Edison
said that telegraphing from trains did not dis
turb the ordinary Morse messages passing over
the same wires. In fact the wires used yester-
day were the Baltimore and Ohio QuadrupleX
wires, and the operators at all the stations said
that their messages We're not intertered with.