The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1898-01-22

" ed it; on the other,
there has been ex-
travagant prediction as to its POSSIBLE
tiles, says the New York Tribune. The
young inventor, who for two or three
years at least has been resident of
London, recently undertook to correct
some of the erroneous ideas which have
thus been advanced. His medium Of
communication with the public was an
interview reported in the London
Chronicle.
The charges Of plagiarism and lack
of originality were first dealt with. 1t
was frankly admitted that the ether
waves which Marconi employs for long
distance signaling are those which
Hertz so extensively Investigated. He
never claimed that they were anything
else. But DR.. Oliver ]. Lodge, whose
work on the labors of Hertz was pub
lisheG in 1894, remarked that Hertzian
waves appeared to be discernible 40
yards off. This, then, so far as known,
was the limit. But Marconi found a
method Of generating them so that
they could be detected at least twelve
! miles away. How much farther they
can be made to travel and convey in
telligible signals remains to be seen.
But it is his receiving instrument on
which Marconi specially prides him
SELF This, he says, is based on the
principle of devise invented in 1889
by Branley. Pains are taken to deny
that Lodge had any share in the mat
ter. But paper read in public on
May IL, 1894, by Prof. Minchin showed
that Branley's "cohereE" and kindred
apparatus for detecting electro-mag-
netic vibrations were all unreliable
Marconi perfected the device and made
it practical success.
Those readers who have not followed
the matter closely may be reminded of
the fact that the coherer is a tiny glass
tube, into whose sealed ends run wires
which terminate within about a fiftieth
of an inch of each other, and bear fat
silver pads. Between them are few
fine iron filings. When the tube is ex-
cited by waves coming in sideways
from outside, the filings fly up, stick
to each other and also to the silver
terminals Thus they bridge the gap
and permit current from local"
battery to flow and to actuate an or
binary telegraphic "sounder" But the
filings had bad habit Of cohering aft
er the exciting waves had ceased TO
come in from outer space. Marconi
provided a delicate vibrating hammer
with which he kept tapping the tube
and overcame this tendency.
Mr.. Preece, at the head of the bureau
of telegraphs and telephones of the
British postal service, was thus moved
to say: "He has not discovered any
new rays; his transmitter is compare
lively old; his receiver is based on
Branley's coherer. Columbus did not
discover the egg, but he showed how
to make it stand on end and Mar
conf has produced from known means
an electric eye more delicate than any
known electrical instrument, and a
new system of telegraphy that will
reach places hitherto inaccessible"
Marconi says it is ridiculous to talk
about blowing up powder magazines
on an enemys ship by his apparatus.
Such a scheme pre-supposed the exist
ence of a receiving instrument on the
vessel, carefully tuned" to the precise
rate of vibrations of his tTansmitter.
Similarly, the suggestion that he regu-
lates every ones watches from a cen
trail station depends for its success up
on the possession of a special attach
ment to each watch. And it would
also be necessary for the possessor TO
mount a sort of lightning rod on mis-
hat, to catch the waves and lead them
down into the chronometer. The now
famous inventor says:
But as to what 1 myself think real
ly possible: First and foremost, it can
be used for communication between
ships at sea, between the shore and |
ships, and between lightships and |
lighthouses and ships. 1t can be en-
ployed, also, for sending messages
from one island to another where 1t
has been found to be impossible to
connect the places by telegraph wires"
Although scarcely any substance is
opaque to the Herzian waves, and only |
to a slight degree, Marconi deems II
expedient to place his transmitter an
a pole above the level of ordinary
buildings, to reduce the resistance to
the lowest possible minimum. Recent
ly on the Italian coast he conducted
correspondence between a fortress on
shore and great ironclad Warship IL