New-York tribune., 1901-07-07
TIISSENDEN TELEGRAPHY.
AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENTER WHO
MAY OITSTElH MAECONI.
WHO

Although occasional press dispatches from
Wcsrf@ston have referred briefly to Professor
REGINALD A. Fessenden's experiments IN wire
less Biography their Importance is far from be
ing generally recognized. This work is far from
cc4-plete and a full disclosure of the progress
aIreacy made is not permissible. But from
pr sart Indications it seems possible. not to say
pr. bllIc that Professor Fessenden may utterly
outrtrip Marconf in the efficiency and simplicity
cG his apparatus
The Yankee here referred to was for several
ycars connected with tha University Of Western
PENNSYLVANIA hut Iatter}y he has been attached
t. the National Weather Bureau. Professor
Ieesenden has conducted numb-r Of researches
iato the nature and behavior Of electricity and
n created something of q stir among scientific
people last year by his advocacy of the notion
that grayjtatiou is an electrical phenomenon.
fomc of his theories still lack verihcaton and
general acceptance but he is regarded
p.isiral thinker and a patient investigator, and.
While thoroughly up to date, he is not given TO
hrag.
Professor Fessen7en contributes to a recent
issue of The Electrical World and Engineer"
rhCrt paper wireless telegraphy. This is
doubtless drawn out hy an address made last
month, in which Marc nj described a number Of
improvements on his earlier apparatus; because
American
-ticle is devoted to showing wherein he has
paraIleled the young Italians methods and
wherein he has departed from the same
For instance. Marconi has OF late ernploved
hollow vertical cylinders. instead Of an upright
v.re because he finds that he can produce a
more prolonged wave development from each
rpark Professor Fessenden has used cylinders
too. but does not arrange them one inside the
ether. Again. Marconi tunes his transmitte-
and receiver 50 that they both sensitive to
Hertz waves &c the same frequency. and hc does
50 by Introducing dcN ices known 10 the elcctri-
clan as the 'inductance coil" and condenser
III objects # this procedure are 10 prevent the
receiver from taking more than ono message.
~ matter how many transmittcrs are at work
near it, ana To insure secrecy. Professor Fes-
seHden has employed the same means for the
same purposes. but in somewhat different
manner while Marccni makes the length of wire
N TIE secondary" part of one Of his coils equal
to tae height Of his radiating cylinder. Fessen-
d,n doubles the ratio. He has also tried several
forms of radiator"
But two other advances have been made at
Washington compared with which the other in
noyations insignificant Professor Fessen-
zen has greatly simplihed the r.echansm for
&c ending messages and at the same time en-
HANGED its efficiency. He says that while dis
pensing with induction coils and cylinders he
las produced radiation sixteen times great
IS that obtained from Marconi Instrument
having a one-inCh spark gap. He has thus sent
messages for distance OF fifty miles without
using more than a part Of his available energy.
He was successful in finding TWO other ways OF
accomplishing the object. For reasons
that seem good to him, Professor Fessend
trains from telling how big distance he has
actually covered, hopes to cover. But here is
already promise of exceeding Marconi's maxi
mum of two hundred miles.
The other radical Improvement to which tn
Washington expert briefly refers is his system
D. tuning, IN order to secure secrecy. The state
n.ent is made that Marconis latest plan has
been tried and found open to objection. only
avoided. Professor Fesserden describes a de
vice 10y means of which ore could break up com
munication by Marconi's tuned tranSnitter and
receiver. "Coys -Quently." adds the Yankee in
vestigator this methCd has be n supe erSsded by
several others which permit of se.ective signal
hcg, no matter how strong the interfering ra-
diator may be how close il may be even
approaching the interfering radiator within It
few feet producing absolutely no effect"
81 UDEN RECOIERIES.