The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-07

|
lasts. In this way the armature of th'
| mixer gives a practically exact reproduc
! ton of the movements of the key at tbs
transmitting end-dashes coming out a:
dashes and dots as dots.
| '.It has been said that coherers are IN
reliable, but that is not my experience
Properly adjusted, one of these instru
! ments is just as share in its actions a!
| an incandescent lamp. The eoherer usec
! at the south Foreland Lighthouse in com
municating with the East Goodwin Light
ship has done it's work well since last Dec
| ember.
II find that vertical wire twenty fee
| long at transmitter and receiver is enough
to communicate one mile. forty feet al
| each end of four mics, eighty for sixteer
| miles and so on. An installation is now
working over distance of eighteen miles
| with vertical wire eighty feet high al
| each station
Professor Marconi was asked to tel
| something about the more interesting OF
the experiments leading up to his present
proficiency with wireless biography. In
particular he was asked about his exper-
fence with royalty.
81 had the honor" he said, "of being
asked to install communication between
the royal yacht Osborne and Osborne
House, Isle OF Wight, in order that her
Majesty might converse with the Prince
of Wales on board his yacht in Cowes
Bay and during his cruises. This gave me
an opportunity of studying the effects of
intervening hills. j use induction coils
III /,
stations The pole at the Osborne House
was a hundred feet high. The conductor
on the yacht was suspended on the main
mast, eighty-three feet above the deck,
close to one of the tunnels and many wire
stays. 1t would have been impossible to
carry on direct signalling between these
two stations because of the hills in be-
tween, but for fifteen days we kept up
a constant interchange of messages with
out any hitch. Many of them continued
over a hundred and fifty words and the
average speed of transmission was fifteen
words a minute
Here are some of the messagesb which
I give you with the Princes permission:
g From DR.. Fripp to Sir James Ried:
"'H R. H the Prince of Wales has
passed another excellant night, and is in
very good spirits and health. The knee
is almost satisfactory
&c From H. R. H. the Prince of Wales to
the Duke Of Connaught:
VIII be very pleased to see you on
board any time this afternoon when the
Osborne returns
This last telegram was sent when the
yacht was off Bembridge, eight miles from
Osborne. Two days later-on August 12-
the Osborne steamed to the Needles, and
communication was kept up with the Os-
borne House at a distance of seven miles,
the two positions being completely screen
ed from each other by a range of hills
In the same position we found it possible
to speak to our station at Alum Bay, al
though Headen Hill, Golen Hill and over
five miles of land lay directly between.
1.-The FRINGE of Wales and the Duke of
York used the system great deal and
wree all satisfied with it"
The professor then had something to
say about the famous wireless system be-
tween the South Foreland Lighthouse and
the East Goodwin Lghtshp.
'',The apparatus was taken on board in
up in one afternoon 1t worked from the
first without hitch. During a big gale
in January a heavy sea struck the ship,
carrying part of her bulwarks away. This
was promptly telegraphed to the superin-
tendent of Trinity House, with all details
of the damage sustained, and he was able
to send out repairs at once.
THE height of the wire on board ship
is eighty feet, and the instruments are
placed in the aft cabin. Various members
of the crew learned in a couple of days
how to run the station, and nearly all
the messages during the very bad weather
were sent and received by these men, be-
cause our man in charge suffered from
seasickness. Strange to say, wireless tele-
graphy proved far more trustworthy in
stormy weather than the old system with
wire The men on board send messages
ashore to their friends every day, and that
makes them less lonely"
Passing further back among his English I
experiences, the young Italian savant de-
scribed his first important installation be-
tween Alum Bay, Isle of Wight, and
Bournemouth, a distance of fourteen and
a half miles, which has since been in
creased to eighteen miles. A pole 120 feet
high was used at each station to support
the arial conductor. The first tests were
made between the Isle of Wight and a
steamer in the channel having a mast
about sixty feet hige. Readable signals |
were obtained up to a distance of eigh-
teen miles 1t has been thought that this
kind of communicat ton would be inter- !
fered with by unfavorable conditions of
weather: hut fourteen months of contin- |
ual experience has convinced me that no
kind of weather ON effect such an install |
lation. Tests weA made every day be
tween the station between Alum Bay and
one at the Poole. One thousand words !
a day on an average were sent through |
in each direction, and there was never an
interruption.
Lord Kelvin. president of the Royal So |
ciety. inspected our station al Alum Bay |
last Spring. and was very complimentary |
about eve rything he saw
Then YOU have heard about our tests !
off the Irish Coast. They were made at |
the request Of Lloyds. It was desired |
10 have an Illustration Of the possibility |
of signalling between Ballycastle and |
Rathlin Island. The distance between the |
two positions is seven and a half miles, |
about evenly divided between land and |
water. with a high cliff intervening.
we used at Ballycastle pole seventy /
fe, high. and az Rathln n conductor was /
supported on the lighthouse a. a height Of I
eighty feet. it was thought desirable 70 /
hc.shten the elevation at Ballycastle 70 /
one hundred fest as The proximity of the I
ghthouse a. Rathlin seemed TO diminish !
the value Of the installation at that end.
-'This successful experiment lead up 70 /