The Anaconda standard., 1899-06-05
THE FIRST TO DISCARD WIRE.
A Scotsman Performed The Feat 45
Years Ago.

Years Ago.
For many days past we have had
dinned into our ears the wonderful dis
covery of wireless telegraphy' attrib-
uted to Signor Marconi, an Italian, says
writer in the Edingburg Scotsman.
We have had the opinion of experts of
all nationalities on the great "discov-
cry" but none Of them has informed
the world that wireless telegraphy"
was practiced in Scotland by a Scots
man before Marconi was born. In Civ
ing an account of any discovery or
invention it is right to give honor to
whom honor is due. Therefore We can
not refrain from paying a tribute to
the memory of the man who, in these
islands at least, was the first to sug
gest method of signaling across space
without intervening wires. The man
we refer to was James Bowman Lind
say, who was born at Carmyllie, in
the year 1893. Not only did Lindsay
suggest, but he also carried out sue
cessful experiments in proof of his the
ories.
James Bowman Lindsay was a man
after Samuel Smiles own heart, and
one whose biography would have sup
piled the writer of Self Help with
splendid material. Certainly few if
any, have accomplished so much
through a long lifetime of penury. All
his life he had to pinch himself to the
utmost in order to purchase materials
for his numerous experiments. He
worked, and worked alone, on the bord-
ers of starvation. He had no house
at least the house he had, if it could be
called a house, consisted of one room
all he could afford-but that solitary
room had in it more than any palace in
the world could boast at the period to
we Ieb cd
an electric light of his own installation
in the year 1885, 1t is difficult to re-
alize that I'd years ago room in Scot
land could have been so Illuminated.
That same room was famous for other
reasons-it was here Lindsay wrote
several of his. works, and that portion
of his marvellous dictionary in fifty
different languages which, in his own
handwriting, is to be seen at this day
in a glass case in a Dundee museum.
In 1S45 he suggested the possibility
of extending the electric telegraph to
America. In 1853 he maintained it was
possible to establish electric communi-
cation through water without wires.
In 1854 he patented this invention, and
in the same year he conducted expert
ments in London and Portsmouth
where he successfully telegraphed with
out wires across stretch of water 500
yards wide.
In 1863 he telegraphed in this manner
across the River Tay at Glencarse.
where it is about a half mile wide, and
also read paper on the subject be-
fore the British Association at Aber-
deem. In the presence of the membrs
Lindsay conducted experiments at the
Aberdeen docks. where he proved con-
clusively the correctness of his theories
That Lindsay's was a prescient mind
will be seen in the remarkable words
inserted in the advertisement announc-
ing the opening of his science class,
which appeared in the Dundee Adver-
tiser of April II, 1884: Houses and
towns will in a short time be lighted
by electricity instead of gas, and heated
by 1t instead of Goals, and machinery
will be wrought by it instead of by
steam. all at trifling expense" Fancy
all this foretold by a poor Scotsman 65
years ago.
After repeating his experiments across
a tWo-mile stretch of the Tay between
Dundee and Woodhaven it was thought
that something would result from the
achievement, but nothing was done to
give them practical bearing. This
was not Lindsay's fault. The business
OF the philosopher is to find out the
mysterious forces in nature and simply
to indicate their application It re-
mains for others who have the neces-
sary capital and practical ability to
adopt the ideas and suggestions and
shape them to a useful and profitable
end. The philosophers part was done
and well done-by this poor Dundee
mechanic-a man whose work as a
linguist apart from his scientific
knowledge, would have made a reputa
tion for him rivaling that of Mezzo-
fanti.