The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-02-03
CAUGHT ON THE FLY.
EDISON AND OTHERS AGAIN HAR-
NEsSl THE LIGHTNING,
And Send 1t with Messages to Flying
Trains-Another Safeguard Against Ac-
cidents on the RaiI-A Perfectly Sue
cessful Test of the New Invention.

NEW YORK, Feb. "a party Of some
fifty gentlemen including capitalists, cleo
tricians and journalists, started at 2 p. m.
Monday from Clifton, Staten Island, for
Tottenville, fifteen miles away, for the pur-
pose of witnessing the practical working of
Edisons latest and most wonderful inven-
tlon viz, the sending and receiving 81 tele-
graphic messages by railway trains while
in motion This Is called telegraphing by
induction, or telegraphing by induced
currents through the atmosphere During
the run OF the tram between the points men,
toned a large number of messages were sent
and received. Messages written by the gen
tlemen of the party, addressed to themselves,
were left at Clifton, and were received by
the same gentleman on the train while going
at full speed. The apparatus used consists
of an ordinary Morse key, a phonetic re-
ceiver an electro magnet and a battery
| No special or extra wire is used running be-
| tween or near the rails, but the messages
| Jump through the air between the tin roof
OF the cars and the ordinary wires strung
| along by the side of the railway, distance
Of from twenty-five to 400 feet The far
thest distance traversed without
wire, was some forty or fifty feet The me-
talic roofs of the cars were connected to-
gether by wires which communicated with
Morse teiegraphic instrument placed in
one of the cars. An operator sat in front
of the instrument, and though the noise of
| the train rendered the ticks indis-
tinct, he read them easily by means of a
telephone and wrote out the messages as
they were delivered To non-expert
newspaper man it seemed eerie and mysteri
Gus to send message up to the roof of the
car on a short wire, and have it jump thence
| and to the distant wire, selecting the right
wire, as it did Monday from twenty -four
different ones Mr.. Edison was on board
the subject of many congratulations He
said that another train, coming behind,
equipped with similar apparatus, could pick
the same message of the wire. On the re,
turn trip from Tottenville he sent the fol,
| lowing message to a leading daily.
I'VE are now sending and receiving mes
sages on moving train on Staten Island
THOMAS A EDISON"
Just before the train reached Clifton a
message was received by Henry Seligman
| from his brother, jesse Seligman, the Wall
street banker, giving the latest quotations of
Pacific Mail and Lake Shore Another gen
| Uleiildu received Cne IOilOWlnR message: II
l were fugitive from justice, this invention
would interfere with my engagements "
Gen. John Cochrane, who was one of the
party, sent message from the moving train
to his city residence as follows: God made
man upright, but he hath sought out many
| inventions
The experiment was a complete success,
messages being constantly received and sent
by all on board without hitch or interrup-
ton Gen Cochrane said: "To capture
fugitives, to prevent accidents, and to en-
able all travellers to communicate with their
friends, this system will be Indispensable u
Mr.. Edison said that all trains on every
road could henceforth be in constant com
munication with each other, and collisions
would be known no more 1t is understood
that experiments viii be made by Edison
between vessels next summer, testing the
adaptability of the system to marine travel
Mr.. Edison thinks he can telegraph three
miles. by employing merely the water and air