News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-02-25
TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES.
Messages Seat TO and fron Moving
Trsiu-lhr. Edison's Explanation.

Among the cars of the regular traiI
that started from Clifton, Staten Island
was one which bore the aign, "Ths
Railway Telegraph and Telephone Com
pany." Inside the car, at a small table,
a telegraph operator sat sending and re-
ceiving messages to and from the out
side world while the train was in rapid
motion. The operator differed from
others in having telephone sounding
plates over his ears, held in place by q
rubber band passing over his head. II
front of the operator, on the table, wal
an ordinary Morse key, by means o.
which he sent the messages to an oPer
ator at Clifton, who received then
through telephone sounding plates fas
tened to his ears.
This system of transmitting and re
ceiving messages from trains in motion
was first conceived in 1881 by w. Wiley
Smith, manager of the Western branch
of the Bell Telephone Company. 1t i:
called telegraphy by induction
| On several occasions while Mr.. Smith
was sending messages through the tele
| phone, he noticed that he could heal
messages sent by other wires IN close
proximity to the one over which his
message was coming. This set Mr.
Smith to thinking, and the result was
method of sending messages to and
from trains in motion by an extra wire,
the patent for which was taken out by
Mr.. Gillilaud, friend OF Mr.. Smith
and of Thomas A Edison. The inven.
ton was shown to Mr.. Edison, and he
| said
''What is the use of the extra wire
I have already succeeded in sending cur
rents of electricity without q wire
through the air distance of fifty feet. u
Mr.. Edison and Mr.. Smith then ex-
perimented, and finally perfected the
system which was shown, by which
messages can be sent and received on a
| train in motion through a distance OF
| 400 to 500 feet from the ordinary tele-
! graph wires, without the aid of any ex-
ira wire, and without interfering in
any way with the ordinary messages
passing over the wires at the time. Mr..
Edison, who was on the train recently,
explained the method:
1.-The keynote of the whole situation
is that the air for short distance does
not make any perceptible resistance to
the transmission of an electric current.
The current that we use for the trans
mission of these messages creates a con-
tinuous musical note, which may be in
terruptcd by means of an ordinary
Morse key"
Mr.. Edison explained that in the Cliff
ton Office there was condenser made OF
layers of tin foil separated by air, but
that at the car a condenser was formed
by the thirty Baltimore and Ohio wires
stretched along the track, by the tin
roofs of the cars, which were all connect.
ed by copper wires, and by the air be-
tween the wires and tin roofs. Under
the table of the operator in the car was
a local battery. The current used may
be conceived as passing first from the
battery in the Clifton station and leap
ing through the condenser to the tele-
graph wires, then passing along those
wires without interrupting ordinary
messages until it gets opposite the car,
when it jumps across to the tin roofs,
and passes down through wire to an
electromagnetic on the operators table.
Thence it returns through the axles and
wheels of the car, and through the
ground to the Clifton station. The
Morse current, without the aid of the
electromagnetic, cannot pass through
the condenser so as to make contin-
uous musical note. 1t passes through,
but its waves are so much slower that
no distinct sounds are formed.
Many messages were sent to and from
the moving car. This invention, it is
asserted, will be especially useful to
train dcspatchers, who may by its use
communicate with train at any point
on the road
Mr.. Henry Seligman, who was on the
train, received this message from his
office in New York: "Pacific Mail, So;
Lake Shore, SO. DAVID Many mes
sages were sent and received by invited
guests on the train.-Neao York San.