The Opelousas courier., 1901-03-23
POCKET ~TELECRAPHY.
Some Business and Domestic Compile

Some Business and Domestic Complica'
cations Hitherto Unforeseen
If in the neal future an electric bell
concealed about the person of a mar
In the street is heard to ring, and he
draws from his pocket a small case,
listens to 1t, and then hurries off, it
must not hastily be assumed that he
Is mad. The probability will be that
he has just received a message by
wireless telegraphy.
Such things are not yet, but that
they may be is not so very wide an
assumption from q demonstration
which took place yesterday at the
Crystal Palace. In wireless telegraphy
there are several Richmonds in the
field. Best known is, of course, Marco
ais system. But on Saturday Sir
William Preece described to the Brit
lsh Association q system which he
claims to be both earlier and simpler,
and which may be used for telephony
as we'll as telegraphy. Yesterday the
first item at the Cafe Chantant Of the
Crystal Palace was an exhibition of
Mr.. Rosenberg's system. The chief
point of difference between this and
Marconi's method is in a slight but
important alteration in the construc-
ton of the ceherer, which arrests, as
they travel through the air, the Hert-
zian waves on which all wireless teleg-
raphy depends. Otherwise, the ap-
paratus is much the same, and for long
distances Mr.. Rosenberg depends on
vertical poles, just as Marconi and Sir
William Preece do. Mr. Rosenberg
uses an induction coil, supplied with
electricity from an accumulation; a
Morse keyboard is fitted to enable him
to make or break the current at will,
and the message is sent as usual by
means of an oscillator. It Is taken at
the required spot by an instrument
containing the coherer, a small brass
tube filed with nickel filings, and @
receiver, from which the message may
be printed on tape in the usual way.
This was demonstrated to the interest
ed audience at the Cafe Chantant TO
their complete satisfaction. But with
a view to obtaining further informa-
ton, the representatives Of the press
present afterwards accompanied Mr..
Rosenberg to the press room of the
Crystal Palace and discussed the mat
ter more at length. Mr.. Rosenberg's
claim is that he has provided a prac-
teal system which Is clear Of Mar
coni's patents and which can be much
cheaper. With only the apparatus used
yesterday and with no vertical poles,
he maintains that he car telegraph
two miles; with poles he can send
messages forty miles, and is engaged
on an automatic repeating device '
which shall enable them to be sent on
indefinitely. But in the course of con-
yersation he mentioned an interesting
fact. When he leaves his Office to
lunch in a restaurant, a couple Of
hundred yards off, he takes with him
a little box containing the receiving
apparatus. This he sets on the table
beside him, and if the bell rings, he
knows that he is wanted at the office,
even though his clerks might not be
aware where he was, and he can re-
ceiye a message from them.
Whether this introduces a new boon
or a new terror to life cannot be has
tily decided. 1t is not too much to
suppose that before long the receiv-
ing apparatus might be improved and
reduced in size, so that a man could
easily carry it in his pocket; and the
range of the message may be increas-
ed up to, say, half a dozen miles. Then
the business nan may carry his re-
about with him, and be in touch
his office all day.-London Tele-
graph.