The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-07

| blind eyes and uncertain fingers, too weak
| to scratch the surface of the secret, and
100 dazed to do anything but grope for it,
| AS yet wireless telegraphy is in its infancy
| 1t Is an infancy that will grow, however
| and one day in the coming century the in
| FAINT may become giant that will bowl
| the world down the ringing grooves of
change, bound and swathed with q power
| that will roll the blessed old ball TO the
| foot of Gods throne-bloodless, stainless,
! warless and with record as white as the
| wings of the SinleSS angels who will then
| inhabit it.
| AT least, the scientists think so. and why
| should /. a mere layman in scientific mat
| ters, contradict them? Telegraphing as it
| is at present is more or less of an annoy
ance compared with MISUNDERSTANDING
proved to facilitate the transmission
! of general news, the sooner the problem is
| solved the better.
| A WONDERFUL INVENTION.
The latest scientist TO take a header into
the sea of wireless telegraphy is a young
man named Mr. Marconi. who has recently
| evolved a system of telegraphy without
wires, which depends not on electro-mag-
netic but on electrostatic effects. That is
to say, the new system is based on Hertz
| IAN waves which have a vibration of not
less than 100000 900 a second. Think of it,
| These Hertzian waves are to electricity
| what the y rays are to visual perception
| but unlike the Y ray. they do not die
4
| end of an electric stream and shake 1T into
| waves so enthusiastically small and keen
| that it would take the ear of fairy to hear
| the magnetic surf beating on the shores of
| cloudland.
These vibrations are projected through
| space in straight lines but, like light. they
| are capable of reflection and refraction and
| of focusing, and right upon this fact the
| scientists have based their dreams of wire
| less biography. With the fact that the
| HertZian waves exhibit all the phenomena
of light before them, the scientists have
gone to work to construct instruments that
| viii handle these waves, as photographs
| handle the rays of the sun. They may sue
coed 1t is to be hoped they will; In the
| Mr.. Tesla will strive Tor the grand result
that will enable them to drum upon the
electric streams eaII as farmer drums 1poIf'a
| In speaking of Mr.. MarcOpis invention I'm
London recently Mr.. Preece, the telegraph
| ic expert of the London postoffice, adj
mitted that telegraphing without wires was
| thing. Probably Mr. Peerce meant
that inadvertent telegraphing by means of
Induction was no new thing. Here in the
| United States, in 1878. there were but two
| wires running from Kansas City to Denver.
| Many a time have sat in the Denver Of
! ice with the first wire idle, yet the instru-
| ments were responding to the message be-
ing sent on the second wire. And at no
| point in all that treeless waste of arid land
| between the two cities were the two wires
nearer TO each other than three or four
| feet - -,
and magnetic atmospheres that first gave
scientific men the idea of telegraphing with
out wires. Mr. Preece. whom / have quoted
above, says that in 1884 operators in the tel
ephone exchange in London were able from
sounds heard to read messages that We're In
telegraph wires. The postoffice wires were
underground and the telephone wires above
hat this faet pr the
messages to Bradford being read by the
telephone company. Yet. all the same, it
was mere case of induction.
The invention of young Marconi seems to
have dealt with the problem from an en-
tirely different standpoint. 1t does not
deal with the inducing of a current from
neighborinS wire. In fact induction has
nothing to do with it. 1t is an electro
static wave question. and the only thing
that now remains to be done is TO ascer-
tain the distance to which these telegraph
signals can be transmitted. The great diff
ference between the Marcon and the in
ductive methods Of wireless telegraphy is
! that tho former does away entirely with
tho wires at each end. Vibrations are set
up by one apparatus and received by the
other.
TESLAs EXPERIMENTS
On our side of the water. wrestling with
this very problem we have Nicola Tesla
and Thomas Edison. Tesla is more or less
of a dreamer Give him an idea and he will
expand it to the stars if he sees possibilities
in it. He is an inventive electrical poet
who takes hold of an idea and with phi-
losophy as a fulcrum. tries TO unlock the
universe. Nevertheless. he has worked ont
some astonishing problems. and is even
he hopes to circle the globe with telegraph
ic sound without the aid of wires
| fully ten years ago Tesla declared that
| 1t would be possible to use economically
| the electricity in the earths atmosphere
for communication between widely diver
gent points. The problem in his mind wos
the conservation of electrical energy at the
| least possible cost. Long and YEARLY did
Tesla puzzle his brain over this problem
| a cd hn ind1
immediately. Induction is more or less a
matter of propinquity. Then he hit upon
the scheme Of OSCILLATION He went to work
than an instrument to throw out and pro-
duce the enormously swift Hertzian waves
| Through this Instrument he thought II nos
sible to solve the problem of aerial teleg-
raphy. In speaking of this possibility Tesla.
SAID; In time the electric envelope of the
| earth Will enable us TO send messages from
an instant "
rms is a rather broad assertion. but there
are those who believe as Tesla does, that
the electrical elements of the earth and the
atmosphere are infinite. and that il will
be only matter of time when these forces
or nature are subjugated TO the will of
mankind. Tesla also asserted that this
electrical element of the earth's atmosphere
| might at some future time be utilized for
| communication with other planets of our
| system. Here is a dream, indeed. Those
| who have suggested such communicative
in the past have expended their mental in
genuity on schemes for gigantic electric
| lettering on the worlds deserts and Dlains
This would be aerial telegraphing with n
| vengeance. But do not get nervous Moth
| ing of the kind will ever occur unless some
| fool with a billion dollars TO spare leases
Sahara desert for his intersteliar electric
| plant. This is something Of q digression
but let us follow ii a bit further SuDDos,
| ing such gigantic lettering were possible
and supposing that return signals were re-
| ceived, what would ii prove?
| Nothing more than an interchange of in
| telligence, surely. Nothing more would no
| possible. What would be the first word
flashed across the abyss of space? God ;"
| of course. And right here we would stall
| No human ingenuity could go further than
| this. unless some strange comet should
| flare across the sky TO hinge another word
| upon. Telegraphic communication along
the currents of the earth's upper atmos
phere may be possible but intersteliar "a Tx
is as far off as Byron's dream of darkness
| And yet Tesla believes great things OF his
oscillator, and, upon being asked once
| whether it would be possible TO signal to
the stars, replied:
Perhaps. in time. Not yet There are
| many things 70 be fixed first. / have no
doubt that il would be possible to signal to
| the stars
Well. II may be so. If in the future I
shall stand on the pale and ghost haunted
hills of the moon. looking across the sound
less tracts OF space TO the red disk Of the
world, and shall hear far cry tingling to
| the stars. voice that walls through the
waste lands like the cry Of q lost soul. /