The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-08

other. and then. by drawing a violin
bow, or by striking one of them. cause
IL TO sound a ~note-which is another
way of saying that we cause 1t to emit
sound-the second tuning fork will
catch up these vibrations and begin
itself to vibrate sympathetically. 1t
will give evidence of it's 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 hy
being sent by one electric instrument
and being received on another transmit
first vibrations and hence messages
through space.
This was a method of signaling which
was known and experimental with by
Professor Nikola Tesla. Of New York.
by Professor oliver Lodge. in England.
by DIR. Swaby. in Berlin, and by DR..
Brownies. in France, before Professor
Marconi-who, up to a recent period,
used a Brownies coherer to aid him in
getting d~istinctness of messages-was
heard of. Professor Marconi. however.
claims to have been more successful in
the practical transmission of messages
than of his forerunnners.
One of the great difficulties in send
ing messages is, of course, the diff
Guilty OF getting Instruments sufii-
GENTLY sensitive to record the Hertz
ian waves when they are sent. II the
two tuning forks. which have been sug-
gested as an illustration of electrical
methods. were placed half a mile apart.
the instruments which would detect
sympathetic vibrations in the receiving
tuning fork would have to be extremely
sensitive, and some difficulty would be
found i'm distinguishing sympathetic
vibrations from those due to extraneous
causes. So II is with the electric tun-
ing forks. Hertzian electric waves, like
light waves or sound waves, do not run
i'm parallel lines straight from the START
ing point; they radiate in all directions
like fragments of a bursting shell.
Professor Nikola Tesla, therefore, sug-
gested some years ago. that an electric
screen should be added to the appa-
ratus of the receiving station in order
to catch as many Of the waves as posi-
BILE. This suggestion Professor Marconi
has adopted and adapted. In the case
OF the instrument at Bournemouth, he
has supplemented the receivers by the
addition of a mast 100 feet high, and
from a ring near the top a narrow strip
of wire netting run to the receiving in
strument and acts as a collector of the
vibrations from Alum bay, where the
second action is located.
So satisfactory have been the expert
ments conducted by Professor Marconi,
that he is about to extend the distance
between his stations, carrying the sec
ond one to Chebourg, sixty 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
Professor Marconi is bending all his
energies to bring this about. Broadly
speaking. the success of the experiments
is assured. inasmuch as messages are
sent and clearly interpreted 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 sepa-
rated points without intervening wires
will then look upon it as a matter of
course, as they now do the telephone.