Evening star., 1901-12-28

not have accomplished any great invention.
More than anything else, an inventor must
possess the capacity to profit by expert
ence.'
But to Marconi must be given the credit
of the combination of infinite patience,
acute observation, practical skill and an
active imagination, which brought about
his great triumph. He was the first to send
recorded message through space by cleo
tro-magnetic waves, which he accomplished
in "a, the first to telegraph from a ship in
motion Utalian navy, 1890 and now the
first to send wireless signal across the
Atlantic.
Early Feats.
Very few Americans are familiar with the
previous attempts to attain transatlantic
telegraphy without wires, but as long ago
as 1850 two Frenchmen had a plan of SYM
pathetic telegraphy by which they hoped
to communicate between Paris and New
York. Machines were actually erected In
the two cities and thousands of dollars
spent In experiments. A public exhibition
was arranged for, but before the great day
arrived one of the projectors disappeared,
and when he was afterward found he had
gone insane. Eight years before this
French trial Morse made an attempt to
telegraph from Governors Island to Cas-
tie Garden without wires, but was unsuc-
cessful. Three years later, however his as
s1stant succeeded in getting wireless sig
nals across the Susquehanna river where
II was nearly q mile wide,
Perhaps one of the most astonishing plans
OF wireless transatlantic communication
was that proposed by J. H. Mower In '6S.
At the inconsderable cost Of $4,000 this
inventor expected to establish communica-
tion between Montauk Point and Oporto.
Portugal. His plan was based on the theory
that electric currents can be transmit ed
through water in straight line and he
mad evidently forgotten that the curvature
of the earth between the two hemispheres
mill hnic IN, ~
center. In 1872 America was again ex-
cited over the theory Of Loomis, a dentist,
VINO proposed to utilize electricity from the
earth and high stratum of air to COM
munlcate from one continent to the other
1t was claimed at the time that the in
ventor succeeded, with the aid Of kites. in
sendlng and receiving signals from one
mountain top to another ten miles awav
Looms great plan was to erect a very tall
tower surmounted by q very tall mast on
the very tallest peak Of the Rocky noun
tains; similar structure was to be built
on the highest peak Of the Alps With this
apparatus the dentist expected to reach a
stratum of air loaded with electricity By
simply establishing ground wires from his
towers the electric circuit would be com
piete-presto-fortunes would be made.
What a Scientist Thinks.
No less an authority than Professor
TroWbridge Of Harvard University studied
the problem Of telegraphing across the At
lantic without cable. Powerful DYNAMO
electric machines" he writes, could be
placed In Nova Scotia, having one end of
their circuit grounded near them and the
other end grounded in Florida. the connect
Ing wire being of great conductivity and
carefully insulated throughout By explor-
Ing the coast of France two points on sur
tace nnes not at the same potential could
De tound; and by means of a telephone Of
low resistance Morse signals sent from
Nova Scotia to Florida could be heard in
France" Professor Trowbridge had evil
dsntly counted the cost, for he adds:
Theoretically this is possible, but prac-
tically the expenditure of energy would be
too enormous"