The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-10-23
MARCONI SYSTEM
To Be Tested by the War
Department.
After Which the United States Navy VIII
Conduct a Series Of Scientific
Experiments

NEW YORK, Oct. T.-"Uncle sam is |
making elaborate preparations TO thor
oughly test the Marconi sys-
tem," said prominent Gov
eminent official today. Wireless te-
Biography will mean more to the Gov |
eminent than any other great Inven- |
ton of modern times. Marconi will |
show us some brand new inventions. |
such as | have never yet seen de- |
scribed, and which are improvements
on those used in his foreign eXper-
ments. The War Department will give
him the first test. The Navy and
Treasury Departments are arranging
TO do so afterward. y proving ground
is being selected for the purpose, and
balloons are being fitted out for some
new and fascinating experiments at
extraordinary high attitudes. These
air vehicles will be small. capable OF
lifting only forty or fifty pounds, but
will be ample to support the necessary
wires and fixtures. Ii will not be nee
essary TO send any men or instruments
aloft. This by itself will be a great adj
vantage over the present methods. The
most dangerous post in the signal ser
vice, if not in the entire military or
ganization, will thus be eliminated.
These balloons will be sent up to
various attitudes. They will be en-
ployed instead or high poles. which
Marconi has hitherto used. Some OF
them will be covered with tin foil:
others will use plates. such as are now
attached to the tops of poles. y few of
the famous Weather Bureau kites will
also be used, very probably. If so. they
will be maze conductive by coverings
of foil. Since the height to which
these aerial crafts can be sent is very
great, the distance over which wire
less communication is now possible
will be enormously multiplied. provid-
ing sufficient potentials can he gener-
ated.
With the pole experiments the limit
thus far appears to be beyond eighty
miles, twice the distance of the first
telegraph line using wires. While Mar
conf was working in Europe il was
supposed that provision had to be made
TO overcome the curvature of the earth
but this no longer seems necessary
from facts l have lately learned. l un-
| derstand that an S0-mile message was
sent from station only seventy feet
| high, although the curvature of the
| earth here was a thousand feet. The
| oretically, the balloons will make the
space possibilities almost limitless. Ac-
cording to the old formula providing
| for the earth's curvature, two bal
| looms, each a thousand feet high.
| should send messages $500 miles.
I'VE also hope to prove the utility
Of set of new devices not heretofore
used in any of Marconi's experiments.
| Receivers and transmitters will each
| be provided with refiectors made of
metal and curved to the shape of a hol-
low cylinder turned on edge. These
will be mounted in connection with
| mariners compasses, showing exactly
the directions in which the reflected
rays are going or from which they are
coming. The enormous value OF such
combination can be seen at a glance
By noting his angles the transmittel
can accurately aim at the receiver
while the latter, by turning his reflect
or until the mixer begins to write, car
also note the angie at his end and tel
exactly where the person sending tn.
message is situated. A combination o.
these advantages will, of course. ap
| pear when both a transmitter and
receiver are installed at eacn end O
the line. Each operator will then III
able TO trace the movements of tn
other, and troops can be immediatel,
dispatched toward either when Gale,
for. Furthermore, a central station a
headquarters can constantly keep tract
of the movements of detachments il
the outposts of skirmish lines.
Doubtless the naval tests will prov
this apparatus of Marconi's to be OF a
great, if not greater, value to- that arm
of the service than to the army. Yo,
doubtless wonder how any electri
system can be relied upon on board
warShip, where metallic armor an
equipments exert such a distracting in
| fiuence upon the steering compass
Large conductors near the instruments
= strange to say, make not the slightes
difference. In Italy Marconi placed
transmitter in the fortress of San Bar
| tolomeo and a receiver on board tn
ironclad San Martina, twelve miles a
| sea. The receiver was placed unde
the guns and in the engine rooms. SUI
rounded by tons of steel. yet the mes
| SageS were recorded with perfect az
curacy.
Il see that in one of Marconi's recer
| patents he claims that his apparatu
will transmit signals through earth. al
or water, and | suspect that this is n
exaggeration. We will test his claim
at least. We want to learn TO what eS
tent his wave vibrations will trav,
through or over intervening hill
mountains and forests, which make q
rect Photograph and semaphore sigma
#, ing impossible except over a minu
distance. The Isle OF Wight eXper
ments show that messages can be r
lied upon through fog, snow, rain
7. hurricane"