The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-20

peres), and with his transmitter and re-
ceiver placed over 800 feet apart, he
sent a message through seven or eight
solid stone walls in the general post
office building in London. Another dis
patch was sent mile and three-quar-
ters, across Salisbury Plain, with the
same apparatus and without any con-
Meeting wire. Macaroni tells his inter-
viewer that he believes that with prop
er instruments a message could be sent
through four miles of city buildings
and, perhaps, twenty. Indeed, he Is
not willing to declare transmission from
London to New York impossible, al
though at present he does not see his
way clear to accomplish such feat.
incidentally, it may be remarked that
so long as the Macaroni radiance is
permitted to spread equally in all di-
rections from the generator, like light
from a lamp, it would be possible for
anybody to pick w a message tele-
graphed by the news system, If he only
knew the exact rate of vibrations en-
ployed and had q receiver precisely
tuned thereto. There would seem to
be some difficulty, therefore, about
maintaining that secrecy which is usu-
ally desirable in telegraphic corr
spondence. But this difficulty can
probably be overcome.
Apart from the practical uses to
which the discoveries of Rontgen and
Marconi may be put, their work derives
interest from recent speculations upon
the possibility of human thought and
feeling being transferred to a distance
by modes with which we have not
hitherto been familiar. Curiously
enough, In combination with its inter-
view with Marconi, McClure's Maga-
zine prints another with a Hindoo
scientist, DR.. Jagadis Chunder Bose,
who has not only conducted some eX-
periments like the Italians, but has
considered the chance that impulses
may be sent from one brain to another
over long distances in the form of
etheric waves. He declines to talk for
publication on this point, although
confessing that he entertains positive
opinions relative thereto. However,
William Crookes, the eminent British
chemist and newly elected president of
the Society for Psychical Research, was
more outspoken in his recent inaugural
address in London. The suggestions
which he offered in regard to brain
waves" while by no means new, and
though received with favor by COM
paratively limited class as yet, are
wonderfully attractive to people pos
sessed of imagination.
DIFFERENT WAVE VELOCITIES.
Every one who has given any atten.
tiOn to the phenomena of sound, heat
and light is aware that the first-named
form Of energy is propagated through
ponderable matter in waves ranging
in number from 80 to 40 600 per second
Light, it Is now generally believed. con.
sits of undulations numbering from 40t
trilliOn cat the red end of the spectrum,
to 800 trillion cat the violet end). These
waves are transmitted through hypo.
thetical Weightess medium which the
physicists are practically agreed II
supposing to fill all space between the
stars, and to pervade all matter. Hea
is believed to be represented by a SCI
of vibrations only q tritie slower thar
those of light, say from 80 trllions t
400 trillions a second in frequency. Be
low this point in the scale there is al
enormous gap of possibilities, broken
| SO far as we know, only by the variou.
| grades of electric waves here referred
| to, and covering an exceedingly small
| fraction Of the interval. Then, again
there are still more rapid oscillations
than any yet mentioned. An eye at tht
spectroscope can perceive nothing be
yond the violet. But the camera ex
tends the spectrum to about twice it!
visible length in this direction. Crookes
ha
as light, says that we know of vibra
tions reaching frequency of 1875 tril
| lions a second, and asks how mucl
further we may go. Then comes th
| profoundly absorbing question: Wha
other phenomena, of which we mortai
are now, or may some time, be, con
| scious, are represented by the un
known regions here hinted at, in tn,
scale of etheric vibration?
DOES IT EXPLAIN TELEPATHY
OF late years much has been heard
of "telepathy," thought transference'
and kindred interchanges of feeling
and idea by a mysterious process. Are
| these genuine experiences? And are
| they explained by ether waves al high.
er frequency than any yet known? Mr.
SiOohSo DtiltNcS DOlll Vi THESE pTOpOSl-
| tions credible, although not yet demon
! strated. The vibrations might be re.
garded as not susceptible to either re.
fraction or reflection, and travelling in
strai tht lines through any kind of mat
ter 18th ease. The hypothesis is in
| volved in more than one difficulty, and
vast amount Of research is yet nee
essary to its confirmation. In this con.
nection the following passage from g
note to the Electrical Engineer, re,a-
tive TO Mr.. Crookes's ideas, may prop
erly be quoted, with the predatory re.
mark that the author is a we'll known
authority in electrical science. He
says:
1t is very improbable as 1 pointed
out long ago, that brain action is un-
accompanied by wave disturbances in
the ether. 1t Is only a question as tc
their intensity and capability of awak.
ening thought in q recipient brain
| This, as | understand it, Is the rea
| question at issue; not whether there
be brain waves, but whether they be
capable of accounting for the pheno.
mena of telepathy. l still see no rea.
son to change my opinion as to the
| possibility of this action"
NO FURTHER INTERRUPTION
Says the Rev. DR.. F. w. Gunsaulus