Evening star., 1897-01-16
PELEGRAPHY WITHOUT WIRES.
Authoritative Account of Simple
and Important Invention.

From the London Chronicle.
Mr. W. II. Preece the telegraphic expert
OF the post office, had surprise in store
for his audience at Toynbee Hall on Satur-
day night, when he lectured on ''Telegra-
ply Without Wires" There is, of course,
nothing new in the fact OF being aole to
communicate without wires, but toward
the close of his lecture Mr.. Preece an
nounced that a new invention, which might
have the widest possible influence not only
on the future of telegraphy. but on the
safe navigation of ships, had lately been
brought before the department, and no ex-
pense would be spared to thoroughly test
it, Mr.. Marconi. young italian eiectri-
clan, came to him recently, he said, with
"a system Of telegraphy without wires, de-
pending not on electromagnetic, but on
electrostatic efects-that is to say, on
electric waves set up of much higher
rate Of vibration. 2J0. 900 900 a second in
fact These vibrations were projected
through space in straigh: lines, and could
be reflected and refracted like light-indeed,
they were capable OF all the phenomena
which light was allowed to go through.
The inveEtion-which dealt with the
method of receiving and sending messages
ty this means-was first experimental with
on the roof of the post office. and then
for -three-quarters of a mile on Salisbury
Plain. Mr.. Marconi was present that night,
and this was the first occasion on which
the apparatus had been shown. except to
government officials. The great differ
ence between the system which had al
ready been tried and Mr.. Marconi's system
that in the former a wire on each
side was necessary. and in the latter no
wire was required Vibrations were simply
set up by one apparatus and received by
the other. the secret being that the receiver
must respond TO the number of vibrations
OF the sender.
The apparatus was then exhibited. What
-. dina Ifx ne
were stationed at each end of the ROOM
the current was set In motion at one. and
a bell Immediately rung in the other.
TO show that there was no deception,
Mr.. Marconi held the receiver and carried
1t about, the bell ringing whenever the
vibrations at the other box were set up.
Continuing. Mr.. Preece said he had had
the greatest possible pleasure in telling
Mr.. Marconi that day that the post office
had decided 10 spare no expense in expert
menting with the apparatus, and one OF
the first trials would be from Penarth TO
an island in the channel. He might add
that he had the greatest faith in the ap-
paratus. The curious thing about IL was
that there was no new principle introduced.
The first man who taught US how to gener-
ate these waves was Hertz the German
physicist, and they had been developed by
others. But in making practical use of
these waves Mr.. Marconi had invented de-
vices which were highly novel and very
beautiful and when they were patented
and could be made public he thought they
would be admired by everybody. Lord
Kelvin 1t was who dubbed the apparatus
first used for setting up these vibrations
''the electric eye" and in this connection
he might say that there had been great
deal Of nonsense written about Prof. Bose,
who. beyond experimenting on these waves
had done nothing. He ventured to say
that the subject was not only interesting
in itself, but II the experiments were sue
cessfuEas he believed they would belt
would be of inestimable value to our ships
for II would provide another easy way OF
communicating with lishtships and light
houses. To take an instance: Since last
year they had had a cable with the Fast
net Light the first light seen by Atlantic
voyaeers. but In the early part of this
year II broke down, and they had never