The Winslow mail., 1898-09-03
TELEGRAMS BY AIR.
The Wireless System Is Now in
Actual Operation.
Experiments Have Been Successful
and the Atmosphere Is Now Used
as O Conductor of
Messages.

The experiments have gone on quiet
", however, and now anyone who
wishes to travel to Bournemouth, in
England, can see the wireless tele-
graph system in actual operation at
the experimental station established
there by Prof. Marconi.
The principle of telegraphing across
space without the aid of intervening
wires finds an apt illustration in the
responsive action of two tuning forks.
If we place a couple of tuning forks,
which are tuned to exactly the same
note, a short distance from one an
other, and then by drawing violin
bow, or. by striking one of them, cause
it to sound a note-which is another
way of saying that we cause it to emit
sound-the second tuning fork will
catch up these vibrations and begin
itself to vibrate sympatheticallly. 1t
will give evidence of its vibration by
echoing the sound of the first tuning
fork. Within certain limits, and with
slight differences in practice, this is
the way in which electric waves by
being sent by one electric instrument
and being received on another trans
NIT first vibrations and thence mes
sages through space.
This was a method of signaling
which was known and experimental
with by Prof Nikola Tesla, of New
York; by Prof. Oliver Lodge, in Eng
land; by DR.. Swaby, in Berlin, and by
DIR. Brownies, in France, before Prof.
Marconi-who up to recent period
used Brownies coherer to aid him in
getting distinctness of messages-was
heard of.
Prof. Marconi, however, claims to
have been more successful in the prac-
tical transmission of messages than
any of his forerunners. One of the
great difficulties in sending messages
is, of course, the difficulty of getting
instruments sufficiently sensitive to
record the Hertzian waves when they
are sent If the two tuning forks,
which have been suggested as an illus
tration of electrical methods, were
placed half mile apart, the instru-
IuCUlS WulCu WOulQ uClCOI
ic vibrations in the receiving tuning
fork would have to be extremely sensi-
tive, and some difficulty would be
found in distinguishing sympathetic
vibrations from those due to extrane-
Gus causes.
So it was with the electric tuning
forks. Hertzian electric waves, like
light waves, or sound waves, do not
run in parallel lines straight from the
starting point; they radiate in all di-
rections like fragments of bursting
shell. Prof. Nikola Tesla, therefore,
suggested some years ago that an
electric screen should be added to the
apparatus of the receiving station in
order to catch as many of the waves
as possible. This suggestion Prof.
Marconi has adopted and adapted.
In the case of the instrument at
Bournemouth, he has supplanted the
receivers by the addition of a mast 100
feet high, and from ring near the top
a narrow strip of wire netting runs to
the receiving instrument and acts as
collector of the vibrations from
Alum bay, where the second station is
located,
I So satisfactory have been the ex-
periments conducted by Prof. Marconi
that he is about to extend the distance
between his stations, carrying the sec
ond one to Cherbourg, 60 miles away.
The experiments are at present in a
very elementary stage. 1t has been
found that the sound waves travel
much faster and better in foggy, rainy
or windy weather than when the air
is clear and the weather fine and still.
AS the clever man who can telegraph
without wires cannot make weather to
order it is necessary to overcome the
atmospheric conditions that influence
the system, and Prof. MarcOni is bend
ing all his energies to bring this about,
Broadly speaking the success of the
experiments is assured inasmuch as
messages are sent and clearly inter-
preted without the aid of wires.
Though much remains to be done,
wireless telegraphy will surely be in
general use before long, and people
who marvel at the idea of sending
messages between widely separated
points without intervening wires will
then look upon it as matter of course,
as they now do the telephone.-Pitts-
burgh Dispatch.