The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-08-20
FITCH GIVES HARD SHOTS HAS GOT NARCON| BEAT
DISCOVERS REVOLUTIONIZIN
PRINCIPLES.
improvements to the Italians System
of Wireless Telegraphy Which f. ].
Cross has Made and is Making.

Manager F. j. Cross, of the wireless
telegraph company has already made
what he claims is a distinct addition
and improvement to the Marconi sys-
tepn, and in addition to that he believes
that he has practically completed two
other and important additions and i'm
proVements which when perfected will
amount almost to a complete transfor-
nation of the Marconi system.
The first of these additions and i'm
provements is in actual operation now
ana is NOTHING more nor less than a
means of transferring automatically
the electric impulses received by the
wireless instrument to an ordinary tele-
gr2ph wire and conveying them thence
Dy wire to an ordinary Morse instru-
ment. This Improvement is in opera
ton between the Waiaae wireless sta
ton beyond Diamond Head to the down
town office on Fort street. Messages
received at the Waialae station have in
the past been transmitted to the down
town oI1lce by the operator at the Wal
alae station sending them by telephone
or by telegraph. BY Mr.. Cross device
they can now be received by the wire
less instrument and automatically
transmitted to the down town office.
To make this device and improve
ment of the Marconi system completely
available and useful, it is necessary to
30 adapt it that messages FROM the
wire will be received automatically by
the wireless instruments and automa-
tically transmitted from one station to
another by the wireless system If this
were done the operator in the down
town office could transmit a message
from the Office to the Waialae station
where it would be automatically re-
ceived and transmitted by the wireless
IN OF
thence in the same automatic way by
that station to Lanai, and thence in
the same way to Mahukona This
would do away with the necessity for
maintaining operators at any stations
except where original messages are re-
ceived for transmission, and money is
received for the same. Mr. Cross be-
lieVes he has discovered the principles
on which this can be done and that
the working out of the principles to
practical results, is only a question of
experiment.
But important as this is considered,
Mr.. Cross does not consider it of as
great On immediate Importance as an
other principle which he has discover
ed and is now working out. This prin-
ciple is in connection with the arrange
men and working of what are known
as the "coherers." The coherer is a
small glass tube from which the air
has been exhausted, and in which has
been placed filings of silver and nickel
The electric impulse caught by the
Marcont receiver is carried by a plati-
mum wire to these filings causing them
to 'cohere" and transmit the impulse
to where it can be recorded. But these
illlngs having been acted on by the
electric current and "cohering," are
not in state to receive and trans
ifo1TA 1T,
ence has been overcome, dssipated
Marconi overcame this by the mechani-
cal means of little hammer striking
the glass tube and by the force of
striking separating the filings, Just as
one strikes pepper-boX to make the
pepper come out. But this continual
Jarring of the filings soon wears away
all faces and corners, tending to make
them smooth and round like well worn
grains of sand. In this state the point
OF contact between any two of these
fllings is so small that it~does not form
a good connection for the electric inn
pulse to be transmitted, and the "co-
herers' thus quickly wear out adding
greatly to the expense of operation
Mr.. Cross proposes to do away with
the tapping of the hammer which so
| quickly wears the filings smooth, and in
place of the hammer he will place a
Under the axis of the cylinder and the
axes of the tubes being parallel. When
a message is being received or trans
mitted the cylinder will revolve. AS
each tube comes to the top in the re-
volution it will connect with the receiv-
er and receive an impulse. The next
! impulse will be received by the next
| tube, and so oo the succession of the
| impulses being continuous, though
each is received through a different
| tube or "coherer." As the cylinder
continues to revolve, each coherer will
in turn reach the bottom or lowest
| point in the revolution, and as it does
! so, the filings which have cohered on
receiving the electric impulse, will fall
! apart, "de-cohere," by the mere force
of gravity, the filings being so packed
in the tube that their weight VII tend
| to separate them when the tube
reaches a certain position in the revolu-
| ton Of the cylinder. Thus there will
be the alternating processes of cohering
and de-cohering without the rapid me-
| chanical effect of wearing the filings
smooth that follows the hammer pro-
| cess of Marconi.
1T SAVED HIS BABY.