Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-11-11

IL
provements in electro magnets. 1t was
in 1887 that Morses telegraphio instru-
ment. SO simple and efiicacious that It
is used in modified form today, was
first exhibited. and that same year
Steinheil's telegraph. extending ~
miles. with q single wire and the use OF
the earth to complete the circuit, traced
lines and dots on ribbons or paper.
Many great minds were engaged upon
the problem of telegraphy when Morse
filed his caveat for q patent in 1897, and
that very year Wheatstone and Cooke
In England took out patent for an
instrument of their own.
1t is JUST GO years since n patent was
granted Morse for his telegraphic in
strument and Sc since he brought it into
practical use over the first line erected,
between Washington and Baltimore.
Since then has come the vast develop
ment Of the land lines and the subma-
rine cables-the first of the latter, by
the way. having been laid between
Governors island and the Battery, New
York, and almost Immediately carried
away on the anchor of an intruding
vessel.
AS with the discovery, or, rather, the
development, of telegraphy by means
of wires and cables, so it was with this
latest and in some respects more Won
der1ul science of wireless telegraphy.
1T is a question for experts to decide
whether Faraday or Henry was the
true discoverer of electric waves or the
propounder of n theory respecting their
propulsion. but Clerk Maxwell, the
Scotch physicist who died so late as
1879, crystallized their theories into fact
by his extensive experiments and
proved that the waves or undulations
of electricity could be transmitted
through the air in the same manner as
light and with the same rapidity.
| A German scientist named Heinrich
Hertz verified these theories and eXper-
| iments. carrying forward the work to
the time of his death in 1895, and
made such progress that the undula-
tons were named, after him. "Hertzian
waves" The Russian Popoff success
fully sent messages by them five years
ago, in 1895; Branly and Ducretet
Irenchmen, invented receivers for reg
istering them, so that men OF several
nationalities are entitled to the honor
, of having established the law that gov
erns the phenomena. Suddenly there
appeared one of another nationality. an
Italian named Right of Bologna. who
had hardly published his account Of
some improvements he had made when
his laurcls We're wrested from him ~
his pupil. Guglielmo Marconi. then only
u years old. 1t may have been by in
tuition, or from Il remarkable grasp OF
the subject. but there is no doubt that
Marconi, like the great American in
ventors, Thomas y. Edison and Nicola
Tesla, is a natural born genius" and
was able to advance farther than any
| of his predecessors. He availed him
self OF all the inventions and discover
les that had been made before and has
been declared Il ''practician." rather
than an inventor. But whatever his
peculiar gift. whether as an originator
or adaoter OF other mems inventions. 1t
was through him that wireless telegra-
ply received its greatest impetus.
No one man can claim the glory or
achieving this great discovery, and it
might seem unjust to grant one n pat
ent. and refuse it to another In fact,
the validity OF Marconis patents has
been questioned in some particulars,
the French, for instance. advancing the
claim for precedence in the practical
use of electric waves for transmission
of messages. and especially for NJ.
Branly's invention of that most essen
tial feature of the receiving instru-
ment the "coherer." Indeed, the his
tory of all past discoveries of like mag
nitude teaches us that the individual
is nothing-the cumulative impulse of
the century or the cycle is everything.
For n few years. say for the duration
OF n patent. one man or company may
control the invention and receive us
usufruct. but in the end the world will
be the beneficiary.
| However,, Il was Signor Marconi, n
Florentine by birth, but whose mother
was an English woman, who gathered
all the threads of the various inven-
tons together and placed them before