The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-04-22
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
Signor Guglielmo Marconis success
ful experiment in sending messages by
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 practical an
plication of II was possible. The theory
and the law had both been carefully
worked out before Marconi began
dreaming of practical methods of ut:l-
izing electric waves. To the construc-
tive genius of the young Italian, how
ever, belongs the full credit for apply
Ing these laws and theories, while other
scientists were still testing them to as
certain whether or not they had been
really discovered and accurately classi-
fed.
The science of wireless telegraphy,
for it has become practically 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" We're not
known to him as such. Faradav said
that electricity was the result of the
play of atoms and molecules. This
suggested to James Clerk Maxwell, 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 species and governed by
similar laws. He concluded that the
undulations or waves of electricity
could be transmitted through the air
in the same manner as light, and 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 be-
yond question OF the correctness Of the
theory announced by Clerk -MeXwelL
The verification of this theory. and the
advances he made upon the laws dis
covered by Clerk-MeXwell, have war;
ranted scientists in naming the electric
undulations after him, as the "HertZian
waves
WHERE MARCONTS WORK BEGAN
1t Is with these waves that Marconi
has been experimenting so success
fully. 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
practical transmission OF messages
without the aid of wire. Marconi took
up the study where Clerk Maxwell
Hertz. Righ, Popof, Sarasin. Rranly
and a dozen others had left off or had
just arrived He acted upon the eX-
ample of Haeckel, who when he be-
came believer in evolution said that
he would not make It the conclusion of
L.. g H. .g.,A
Marconi saw where the study Of rhe
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 transmitted. The hypothesis be-
came as practical matter of COM
merce and daily life as the ordinary
telegraph line or the submarine cable.
The theory and the law had been es-
tablished by others he utilized it for
the benefit of mankind. Hertz had
measured the waves. Branly and Du-
cretet had invented receivers for reg
istering them, and the Russian savant
Popoff had successfully sent messages
by means Of them as early as 1895. but
It had not been thoroughly demonstrate
Ell that the waves could be transmit
tered with ease and easily read.
In nearly all discoveries Of the pres
ent day it is remarkable that some
scientist, in the capacity of prophet,
had already announced in advance just
what would be accomplished. Lever
rier indicated the place in the heavens
where Neptune would be found by a
telescope sufficiently powerful; Haeck-
ell announced that some day the skele-
ton of the real ancestor of man-the
missing linl-would be unearthcd
years before it was found in Java, and
Clerk Maxwell and Sir William
Thompson announced. in turn, the
laws by which the electric waves would
act when their discovery and utillza-
tion were accomplished. Clerk Max
Well showed that the light waves and
the electric waves We're subject to SIM
liar laws, and both could be trans
mitted through and by means of the
air or ether. Sir William Thompson
showed that when a condenser was
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