The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-07-31
To PROVE
ON MARC0N|
Yankee inventor Is
Working Out a
System.

Although occasional press dispatches
from Washington have referred briefly
to Professor Reginald A. Fessenden's
experiments in wireless telegraphy,
their Importance is far from being gen
orally recognized. This work is far
from complete, and a full disclosure of
the progress already made is not per-
missible. But from present indications
it seems possible, not to say probable,
that Professor Fessenden may utterly
outstrip Marconi in the efficiency and
simplicity of his apparatus.
The Yankee here referred to was for
several years connected with the Uni
versity of Western Pennsylvania, but
latterly he has been attached to the
National Weather Bureau. Professor
Fessenden has conducted a number of
researches into the nature and behaV-
ior of electricity, and he created some
thing of a stir among scientific people
last year by his advocacy of the notion
that gravitation is an electrical phe-
nonenon Some of his theories still
lack verification and general accept
ance, but he is regarded as an origi-
nal thinker and patient investigator,
and. while thoroughly up to date, he
is not gwen to brag.
Professor Fessenden contributes to Il
recent issue of The Electrical World
and Engineer a short paper on wire
less biography. This is doubtless
drawn out by an address made last
month. in which Marconi described
number of improvements on his earlier
apparatus; because a considerable pof-
ton of the American experts artcle Is
devoted to showing wherein he has par
alleled the young Italians methods, ana
wherein he has departed from the same.
For instance, Marconi has OF late en-
Moved hollow vertical cylinders, IN
stead of an upright wire, because ne
finds that he can produce more pro-
longed wave development from each
shark. Professor Fessenden has USED
cylinders, too, but does not arrange
them one inside the other. Again, Mar
conf tunes his transmitter and receiver
so that they are both sensluEe ~
Hertz waves of the same frequency
and he does so by introducing devices
d known to the eIGCLIICldli 40 NAS -
! ductance COLI and condenser. Inc
I objects of this procedure are to pre-
/ vent the receiver from taking more
than one message, no matter how many
I transmitters are at work near it, ana
10 insure secrecy. Professor Fessenden
has endowed the same means for the
same purposes, but in a somewhat dlf-
ferent way. While Marconi makes the
length of wire in the secondary part
of his coils equal to the height OF ms
radiating cylinder, Fessenden doubles
the ratio. He has also tried several
new forms of radiator
But two other advances have oeen
made at Washington, compared Win
which the other innovations are insig-
nificant. Professor Fessenden mas
Greatly simplified the mechanism 1or
sending messages. and at the same
time enhanced it's efficiency. He says
that while dispensing with 1nductlon
coils and cylinders he has produced ra-
| diation sixteen times as great as ina
obtained from a Marconi instrument
having a one-inch spark gap. he mas
thus sent messages for distance OF
fftv miles without using more than
mart of his available energy. he wa
I successful in finding two other ways o.
accommodating the same object. foi
reasons that seem good to him, Froies'