The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-29

increase of population and of money
from abroad means greater opportuni-
ties for you and your children and your
children's children. Your future rests
with you. All honor to the heroes who,
dying, gave Texas to civilization and
to freedom. They laid the foundation,
cemented with their own blood, for a
Commonwealth which holds in it's
grasp potentialities vouchsafed to no
other region of this or any other land.
SOMETHING OF THE PRINCIPLE
OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
1t may be said that certain kind of
electricity tends to travel like waves
made by dropping a stone In a pond
in all directions. But 1t travels farth-
est and with least resistance in those
directions where it finds the best con-
ductorS for it. Some substances are
better conductors than others. Glass
and rubber are on-conductors, so
called, as you may see by looking at
the rubber covering Of wires on the
street car system, or the glass insulat-
ors on telegraph pole. Metals. such
as iron, steel and copper, are first class
conductors, and that is why wire is
used for telegraph and telephone and
electric light purposes. Water and the
earth are conductors of electricity, and
so is the atmosphere. When Benjamin
Franklin, by his famous experiment
with the kite, proved that lightning is
nothing but electricity, he also proved
that the atmosphere is a conductor, for
bolt of lightning may travel many
miles before striking the earth. Mere
space. finally, is a conductor of cleo
tricity, as you can prove by passing a
current through a vacuum
AS soon as one comprehends that
electrical waves can move in space
without the conventional wire con-
ductors, 1t is evident that the ques-
ton of telegraphy with wires or with
out wires must depend largely upon
the transmitting and receiving apparat-
US. Wires hitherto have been used be-
cause, with the apparatus available
for sending and receiving electric cur
rents, they have afforded the best re-
suits; indeed, for considerable distanc-
es they afforded the only results that
could be depended upon. Even with
wire as a conductor, far more delicate
receiving Instruments have to be used
on an Atlantic cable than on a circuit
between Springfield and Buffalo Now
Marconi Is by no means the first one
to experiment with wireless telegraphy.
Many men have been working at the
problem for years. And essentially
their problem has been to perfect ap-
paratus at one end which would gen
crate electric waves strong enough to
| travel long distances with mere space
as the conductor, and apparatus at the
other end sensitive enough to receive
and record those waves.
| The transmitting and receiving appar-
atus thus far developed is complicate,
and one needs some technical knowl-
edge to understand it. You will read
much about Hertzian waves in this con-
nection. HertZian waves are waves of
electricity. Hertz was a German pro-
fessor, who died in 1894. He was the
first man to prove by experiment that
whenever in any circuit electro-magnet-
ic changes are brought about, as when
an induction coil is in action, the dis
turbances are transmitted in all direc-
tions, bringing about similar changes
in neighboring conductors. His great
work was to show that these disturb
anceS are transmitted by means Of vi
bration of the luminiferous ether
(Which is assumed by physicists to fill
all space,) and also to show the char
acter and measure the velocity of those
waves. The wireless telegrapher, there
fore, first generates Hertzian waves Of
electricity into space. Gen. Greedy
head of the United States army sig
nal sci vice, in describing the transmit
ter used by the signal corps in expert
ments, over two years ago, reported
that he used a coil in oil, "energized by
three-quarter horsepower rotary
transformer, furnishing 1875 volts alter
mating potential" an arrangement
making "a very powerful and efficient
source of Hertzian radiation" Marconi
used at that day Ruhmkorff coil. Ac-
cording to present methods, the Hertz
ian waves are transmitted by the gem
orator through a wire to the top Of a
high pole, and that is where the jump
ing-off place is.
From the top of the pole, the Hertz
ian waves are radlated off into space
About one-fifth Of a horsepower is
necessary to send them 60 miles to sea,
and 1OO0-mile range, it Is said, ought
not to require much more than 10
horsepower, provided the energy can be
utilized. To send the waves across the
Atlantic, the problem of transmission is
a question of propelling force The
Hertzian waves follow the curvature of
the earth.
Marconi improved the receiving ap-
paratuS by discovering or inventing,
what is known as the "decoherer,'
which consists of ball working on an
arm attached to the arlnature of an
electromagnetic in the circuit Of the Co
herer," or receiver. But that aside
Enough has been said to show that this
apparatus, both sending and receiving
| is highly technical, and difficult to be
understood in detail by one who is no
electrician, or has never witnessed ex-
periments in wireless biography. Suf-
flee it to say that when MarcOni, the
other day, in Newfoundland. received
the wireless message from the coast Of
England. he few kite in the air, and
from the kite was suspended a wire
connecting with his receiving instru-
ment. The Hertzian waves had passed
over the ocean from the tall pole on
the England coast, and had struck the
wire on the kite in Newfoundland The
electric vibrations were thus transmit
ted to Marconi's delicately adjusted re-
| ceiver, and read by him exactly as
they had been sent across 1900 miles
Of ocean.
Marconi's system uses the atno-
sphere as a conductor. Nicola Tesla. 1t
| is understood, is experimenting on a
| system that uses the earth as a con-
| ductor. 1t seems safe to predict that
| science will completely master the field
| of wireless communication through
| long distances before many years have
passed. Evidently the experimenters
are only in the infancy of the art
| Springfield Republican.
hcfnIIndnd tho Editor