The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-04-06
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.
Tho Idea Is Not New but Has Not he
fore Been Used Practically.


v,rsIess te,agranbv O. not n new thing.
Tn. ,oss,h,li,x. az ssrs,,,,s r,sssasas and
S,op.is thro,a,, ,ha al. ~, ,,e.,s ~ mag
petic wave. has bes,, a,scpssad for half n
oenturv Thu pr,nc,oIs xvas reooonized
long ago bv prof uenrv vho conduosed
..xe,aI snccassfnt sxnar,,.rts. Prof
Iosge of Isxsrnooi ganr,ob Hertz of
Berlin and other famous soientists and
electricians William H. Preece, chief
engineer of the british postal service, has
been aevoting n cr.at deal of time to the
sub,ect. hut Sic. Marconi. young
I..I,.n a. .,r..,,,.,, -,tn IN. a,st nracti.
A'aiia", IS o'eui'ou "i'' '"o
cal application OF the principle. tie mas
constructed apparatus by which he has
bean able recantIv IN send a message
- p,--~,.-. =,
scross Cue hns"hn onanhe'' uis''noe VI
thirty-two miles, and the first newspaper
speoisl transmitted in this manner an
-. -, a., -. 1870, 1,,,.,a. -, a.. osth
:" VIC -'1uo. =" '"' '
OF Marcn. Marconl Is only 20, out MS
genius has been recognized for some
wars. and thu italian goverpment has
-. -
reward for his discoveries. He has re-
ceutly beep copductino SOMA remarkable
.xnarir.n.. ha.-a., ~. s..,,,.h poro,a,,a
'A' 800"
lighthouse ana tine HAST ooodwin nght-
house OF the south coast of England, and
hatxvsap Sootb Eoraland and RouIoona
FRANCE anu aurihs sne iecene s'ori" was
able to communicate without Interrupt.
ton either from wind or weather. The
ro,a, x.,h. =, ~. pr,,,a ~ wa,ss 4. NOW
.o' '- 49,
engaged In carrying ON experiments Win
military stations along the English coast.
and Emperor william of Germanv has
.., ,-,,- -
innusu ia'ea " similar seiie9 W eAPeits
for the beueft OF the German army and
navy. Several persons In this country
| have been working In the same line for
months, but nothing serious has been
done until recently.
The apparatus used consists OF trans
mitter and receiver similar in many re-
spects to the instruments used In the ord
| insry Telegraph of1tce.
The transmitter, says Lieut.. Squire,
| U. b. A. who has experimented in the
| work, consists of an induction coil of
great power, capable of producing
spark. In circuit with this Is reguler
| Morse key. The spark is caused TO pass
between two or more brass balls from
of the coil runs into the ground, the
other is attached to a vertical wire,
which varies In length according to the
distance We wish to send the message
1t will average about twenty feet for the
first mile, and after that by doubling the
length of the wire we can communicate
| four times the distance. The newspapers
say that for signaling eighteen miles sig
Marconi used vertical conductor OF
eighty feet, and for thirty.two miles,
when he sent his message across the chan
mel, he had conductor ID feet long.
I'm sending message we use the
| simple Morse characters. Every time the
circuit closed there is q torrent OF sparks,
| which produces dot or dash, accord
ing to the time the key Is held down
This starts a series of electric waves
| through the atmosphere, which travel
with the velocity of fight-that is, 1856, goo
miles second. We could send a message
to the SUI, for example, in about eight
minutes The waves are guided 20 their
| destination by what we call reflector
acting on the same principle as IA ref cot
| or which concentrates the rays OF light
from lamp. except 1t is made of zinc or
| copper instead OF glass.
Arriving at their destination, the
waves which bear our messages are re-
| ceived by special instrument known as
coherer. It Is minute tube OF glass
| Tiled with filings of silver and nickel
The ends ara closed with metallic plugs,
one being connected with the earth and