The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-08-20
Honors to NJ. Bourouze.

| Signor Mar conf, the young Italian savant
has Won worldwide reputation owing u
| the recent announcement that he has dis
covered sure method Of telegraphins
without wires. Now, however, French
| paper of considerable authority informs U.
that the Invention of wireless teiegraphy
| Is not OF Italian but of French origin. anJ
that 1t was discovered not recently. bu1
| twenty-seten years ago. AT the same time
II franikly admits tina, great credit Is due
te Signor Marconi for perfectins the sys-
| tenn and for attracting the worlds attention
| to Il.
The French Academy OF Sciences pos
stsses some documents which seem to
show that the statement In the French
paper is correct During the siege of Paris
IL appears that NJ. Bourbouze. professor OF
physics at the Faculty of Sciences. spen;
much OF his tine in trying 10 reestablish
telegraphic Communication between the
capital and the rest of France. The wires
had been cut by the enemy. and TO re-
pace them was clearly impossible. ".
Bourbouze, however, did not despair Of
achieving his object, and finally ne went
to work in the garden of his house, No.
$40 Rue ST. Jacques. There he set up q
manipulation ard a receiver at a distance
of a hundred yards from each other, and
after ne had brought them n relation with
the earth he sent forth an electric current.
Communication was at once established, IL.
spite of the fact that there was corsi1er-
able waste OF current This. then. 1t IS
claimed, was the first successful experi-
ment in telegraphing without wires.
On November IS, 1870. NJ. Rourbouze ar
peared before the members Of the Academy
of Sciences. and placed in their hands d
lengthy document, in which he gave fun
account OF his invention. AT the time Sci
sntists were greatly interested II his work.
and many were confident that III future all
teiegraphing would be done without wires.
VI. Bourbouze, however. was not yet sat
isfed. Earth was a good conductor, but
he soon found that water was better. and
after severa. tests ne was convinced that Il
would always Yield satisfactory results.
During the night of January 10. 1871, he
made several successful experiments, and
before morning he had sent by means OF
the river Seine several dispatches between
The National Bridge and ST. Denis, a dis
tance of forty kilometres.
Whether ne made any further expert
ments or not no one seems to know. Prob
ably not, as the war soon came to a close
and there was no more need of his services.
Certain II is that no more was heard of
his work, and the manuscript lay forgotten
in the library Of the Academy Of Sciences
until the French journal above referred to
brought it to light again.
That Signor Marconi knew anything OF
NJ. Bourbouze's method is by no means Ger
tain. The two men worked with the same
object in view, but 1t Is not likely that they
used the same tools. We know, indeed, that
S.gnor Marconi uses air as a conductor,
" hereas NJ. Bourbouze used first earth and
then water. To both men honor is due
to the Frenchmau because he was appar-
ertly the first TO think OF telegraphing
without wires: and who car say that he
would have thought Of it il necessity had
not spurred him oI?-and 10 the Italian be-
cause he has apparently made wireless
a success.