The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-20
THE BALLOON
DID NOT RISE
The Various Reasons for the
Trouble With Wireless
Telegraph System.

An attempt was made last evening to
raise the balloon which the Wireless
Telegraph Company has had made to
catch the electrical impulses from the
stations on the other Islands. 1t proved
unsuccessful owing to the high wind"
so Manager Cross stated last evening.
Nor was the night dark enough.
Leading scientists are much at odds
as to the real reasons for the failure of
the telegraph system to do it's work
properly. Some assert that it is be-
cause of the failure of the thermometer
cal waves to adjust themselves proper
ly to the centrifugal motion of the
earth. They assert that the poIaric at
traction of the mountains in the vicini-
ty of the stations is so great that cleo
trical current deviates and fails to en-
ter the induction coils in sufficient
quantities to cause the decorators to
vibrate. This of course results in an
unintelligible series of disconnected
dots and dashes which the operators at
the receiving end are unable to inter-
pref. To remedy this sthe experts hope
to send up a balloon wherein they will
place receiving wire. When they get
it up high enough the influence of the
mountains Will be dispelled and the
dynamic energy transmitted through
the air by the so-called Hertzian waves
will be caught on the fly and impaling
itself or the sharpened point of the
wire will be forced to wriggle down to
the instrument below. Once captured
and Gagged, the experts will turn on it a
cathode ray and having ascertained it's
internal economy thereby to see that it
has brought along no plague bacilli tfor
| as it arrives at the Island without be-
ing first examined by Dr. Carmichael
it is liable to bring along almost any
old disease), it viii be switched through
a wet rag onto the positive pole of the
instrument, and thence through seven
induction coils and one deduction coil
These being thus magnetized viii set
up vibrations in the decorators and all
will be well, providing the gilderfluke
acts
There are still others who believe
that if a large seine were suspended
from the balloon it would prove much
more efficacious in catching the impul.
ses than the sharpened wire. These
gentlemen contend that it will require
an expert of considerable skill with the
lance to spear the messages as they
come by. Andimoreover it will cost the
company small fortune to pay the sal
airy of the man in the balloon for, as i
would be position of some danger, b,
would naturally require big salary t.
compensate him for the risk And to,
In the excess of his zeal and the ex
element of the chase he might fall gu
as he reached after some more thar
usually agile message and then Their
would be damage suits and widow
pensions to pay. IL the seine were used
the message might be beguiled into |
by some bait which a study of its hab
its would suggest and all would be cas-.
after that.
With all this isagreement among tn
savants 1t is not surprising that, as yet
the wireless biography system has no
proven successful, but if Manage
Cross and his group of scientists. i'm
ported all the way from England, can
not solve it no one can, so all the publ
can do is wait and trust, and whel
communication is established at last, t
make no kick even if the heavens ar
filled with bulgy balloons or oversprea,
with nets.