The Worcester spy., 1899-04-16
Wireless Telegraphy
By Marconi's Meth
cd Seems Practical.
IDEA is AN OLD ONE.
Clerk Maxwell Predicted
All That Marconi
Has Done.


electricity across the English channel
without the aid Of wires has astounded
the world; but wireless telegraphy, like
most other new things, had been
known for some time before any prac-
ticable application of it was possible
The theory and the law had both been
carefully worked out before Marconi
began dreaming of practical methods
for utilizing electric waves. To the
constructive genius of the young Ital-
ian, however, belongs the full credit
for applying these laws and theories
while other scientists were still test
ing them to ascertain whether or not
they had been really discovered and
accurately classified.
The science of wireless telegraphy,
for it has become practically a new
science, dates it's birth from Michael
Faraday, who first recognized the ma
ture of the electric waves, or rather
the true movement and play of cleo
tricity, although the waves were not
known to him as such. Faraday said
that electricity was the result of the
play of atoms and molecules. Inls
suggested to James Clerk-MaXWe4l, the
great Scotch physicist, who died in
1879, the similarity of light waves and
electric waves. After experimenting,
he came to the conclusion that they
were of the same species and governed
by similar laws. He concluded that
the undulations or waves of electri-
city could be transmitted through the
air in the same manner as hght, ana
with about the same rapidity, as the
electric waves. differed from luminous
waves only in force.
The German scientist, Heinrich
Hertz, who died in 1894, was able to
prove beyond question the correct
ness of the theory announced by Clerk
Maxwell The Veritication of this
theory, and the advances he made up
on the laws discovered by Clerk Max
we'll. have warranted scientists in
naming the electric undulatlons after
him. as the "Hertzian waves.
IT is with these waves that Marconi
has been experimenting so successful
lv. The way had been blazed out, but
no scientist had followed it far enough
TO Justify the conclusion that the
waves would ever be used for the prac-
tical transmission of messages without
the aid of wire. Marconi took up the
study where Clerk-Maxwell, Hertz,
Right. Popoff, Sarasin Branly and a
arrived. He acted upon the example of
Haeckel who, when he became a. be-
lever in evolution, said that he would
not make it the conclusion of his life's
study, but the starting point. Marconi
saw where the study Of the undulations
had come to a stand, and he took up the
Investigations exactly at that point,
and soon had perfected a system by
which actual messages could be trans
mtted. The hypothesis became as
practical a matter of commerce and
daily life as the ordinary telegraph li1@
or the submarine cable. The theory and
| the law had been established by others;
he utilized it for the benefit Of man
kind. Hertz had measured the waves.
Branly and Ducretet had invented re-
ceivers for registering them, and the
Russian savant, Popoff, had successful
| ly sent messages by means of them as
early as 1885, but it had not been thor
oughly demonstrated that the waves
could be transmitted for considera-
| bic distance, registered with ease and
| easily read
| In nearly all discoveries Of the pres
ent day it is remarkable that some sci
enlist, in the capacity of prophet, had
| already announced in advance just
what would be accomplished. Leverrier
| indicated the place in the heavens
! where Neptune would be found by a
| telescope sufficiently pOwerful; Haeckel
nounced that some day the skeleton of
| the real ancestor of mantle missing
| link-would be unearthed years before
| it was found in Java and Max
well and Sir William Thompson an
nounced. in turn, the laws by which
| the electric waves would act wen their
! discovery and utilization were accom-
! plished. Clerk-MaXwell showed that
4 the light waves and the electric waves
| IN
could be transmitted through and by
| means of the air or ether. Sir Will
| liam Thompson showed that when a
! condenser was discharged by dead
wire. oscillations Of lessening intensity
were produced. each series Of oscilla-
tions being followed by period oil
] rest. This proved that the discharge
was oscillatory and it was by this fact
/ that the waves We're accurately meas
! ured and brought within practical use.
\ Feddersen verified this theory.
Sir William Thompsoh, while he had
4 indicated the way to measure the
I waves did not succeed in measuring
I them himself. The short period Of the
i waves was so infinitesimally short thar
/ if defied measurement. In this they diff
/ fered from light waves in that their
! Deriod could not be measured in cent?
i meters but in millionths IF millimeters.
But another characterisTsC OF the ele'-
u tric waves was used for the purpose JI
arriving at an accurate measurement
of their short period. This was the iact
that after each series Of oscillations
or uudulations there was period OF
| rest When once the geOmetric form OF
| tbe undulations was determined Il was
comparatively easy to determine when
a series of a given nuniOer of Osclll&-
tions would end. A series of undula-
tions was produced by every Interrupt
tion of the induction spool. If the os-
i citations were short, the period Of rest
would be cOrrespondlngly snort; ana ln
I tbis wav Prof. a. Righi of Bologna,
1 TtaIv. under whom MarcOni studied,
vas able to measure more exactly the
1 duration of the electric undulatiOns.
After the waves had been measured
and their character determined as
,,nsr1I- as possible. the next step was
tbe receiving and registering Of them.
! Hertz and Sarasin, in their expert
ments, made use of large metallic
mates. on which the electric waves
were reflected, as light waves are re-
/ Gacted in a mirror. 1t was estimated
tbat the oscillations were as high as
1o0 OO0 900 a second. The result Of these
/ evneriments showed the accuracy Of
! nrevfous calculations. They showed
! also that the phenomena were prop
/ agated with about the swiftness Of
LIGHT. and that they were transmissible
i'm the same way and by the same
means.
ing and in registering a message. Righi
| had improved on his methods, and
/ Warconi. in turn, improved upon the
/ methods of Righi. He introduced the
uee Of the mast for increasing the
length Of the conductor, having discoy-
cred that the distance to which sig