The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-25
TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES.
n Young Italian discover and Uses
what Tesla Had F~oreseen.
Letter in PhIIadelphia Press.

what Tesla Had Foreseen.
Letter in Philadelphia Press.
When Preece, Great Britain's most IA
nous practical electrician, was TOLD that
Iesla and other American scientists had al
most opened the door which has SO long
bafhed those who have sought the way to
the transmission of electrical communica-
tlon without the aid of wires. he Is reported
to have said that there must be haste if
America is TO have that honor. He had in
mind the labors of a young Anglo Italian.
Manconi by name. who. as Ii seemed 10
Preece, was on the threshold OF the great
discovery.
Preece himself had done a marvellous
thing for the British postofffce service, for
which he is the chief electrician. His
achlevement was a sudden one. due to an
emergency. The cable between the shore
or Scotland and the Island of Null had
broken Gown. and there was need or instant
communication.
The electrician, without waiting for re-
pairs. made use of such instruments as he
mad ana succeeded in sending through the
ether. an Ineligible communication with
the electric current to the Geographic office
in Null, nearly five miles away.
That experience satisfied Preece that the
idea was to he "A dream only a little longer,
and. although the Instruments which he
used were only practicable for some great
ana sudden emergency. yet, as these agents
could send a message-bearing current over
the sea for a distance of five miles. he was
convinced that some one would find the way
to cheap and convenient utilization of the
grand circuit that nature has already es-
tablished.
Reports brought by scientists who arrived
from Great Britain on Saturday seem TO
confirm the prediction which Preecc made
not long ago, and the reports have the au-
thority OF Freezes great name. He says
the thing has been done. He has seen it
done.
He witnessed the sending of a message
from a postofiice station In London recently
intelligibly recorded as though IL had been
sent by n Morse instrument through a tel
egraph wire.
Yet there was no wire. The transmitting
instrument simply sent the message free
handed and untrammeled through natures
circuits. and II was captured and read in
the main postoffice, nearly two miles away.
So, too. by the same instrument a mes
sage has been sent through space. even
through a mountain. to a receiving instru-
ment five miles away. and when Preece
saw that done he declared that the greatest
OF the achievements of electricity had been
performed, and that before long the world
would recognize and acknowledge the ge-
niu of the young man who had made these
things possible.
Detailed reports of these achievements
with some brief statement from Manconi
Will probably reach this country in a few
days, and scientific and perhaps CONNER
elal interests may be as greatly excited
here as 1t is reported is the case in Lon
dor.
Manconi. who. according to these reports.
has anticipated Tesla's performance by
proving the truth of TesIa's predictions,
is himself of about the age of the telephone.
When Bell was showing his strange instru-
AlltIlA dl III II HllduelDIld CtflIclllldl tAI1Dl-
ton. in 1876. Manconi was just born.
He is of English birth, but Italian par
entage. and he, like that other Italian who
gave his name 10 one of the qualities of
electricity, Volta, was absorbed in scientific
study even i'm his school days.
Manconi got his first hints of the natural
circuit for electric communication from an
American. Joseph Henry. who discovered
induced electricity. but had not sufficient
opportunity. to investigate its cause or the
science of its operation. That Preece re-
ports Manconi to have done. and in doing
II received the first suggestion of the ca
for the transmission of electricity bearing
an intelligent message.
He had the secret as he believed and it
remained for him TO invent the apparatus
which would make that secret serviceable
for mems use. This. ii is now claimed. he
has done.
At all events there is Freezes authority
for asserting that Manconis apparatus has
delivered an intelligent message by natures
circuit at the general pOstofhce in London.
sent from a transmitting instrument nearly
TWO miles away. and has also discharged
a message through a mountain whose oppo-
site sides are nearly five miles apart.
There seems, however. 10 be some limita-
tions. The latest word from London is that
Manconfs apparatus cannot be relied up
on to transmit a message for a greater
distance than twenty miles, although he
asserts that large apparatus may be made
capable of service for a much greater dis
lance than that.
Moreover. there is at present no expla-
nation of the apparatus itself. although it
Is Sdld tnat TINS Is withheld until the pro-
lection of the patent office may be secured.
as IT is expected Will speedily be the case.
There is then no sufficient opportunity 10
test the commercial value of the invention
and discovery. The impression. however.
is that if an apparatus not much larger
than a good-siZed handbag may deliver a
message intelligently for even so short q
distance as twenty miles. il has of itself
commercial possibilities and will in all prob
ability be developed until its capacity is for
Tar greater distances than that.
AT the electrical exposition held in this
city last fall the most striking impression
we are on the eve of the solution of this
problem of the use of natures circuits for
the of intelligence.
But the conviction was that Tesla was
likely TO be honored by this discovery. He
had already intimated that he believed that
there was no scientific or mechanical law
which would make such use of natures
circuit impossible. and there was a fasci-
mating and strangely romantic suggestion
in his idea that the time might come when
the ether. whether in the atmosphere or in
the iensest bodies, might be made the
slave of apparatus and bear innumerable
messages, just as Ii carries light and sound,
each going everywhere, and yet each re-
corded only by the apparatus for which
il was intended.
Manconi seems to have made this posi-
bic. At all events the authority which
attaches to any utterance of Preece ~justifies
some report OF this achievement, which is
the newest and most earnestly discussed
fact that the British admiralty. war and
postofhce departments are giving the inven-
ton and discovery careful consideration of
itself suggest its expected Importance.