The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-01
BETTER THAN MARCONI'S
NEW SYSTEM OF WIRELESS TELEG-
RAPHY TESTED IN ENGLAND.
1t Also Can Be Used for TeIephoning
and Furnishes Energy to Guide
a Torpedo in the Water.
Chicago Inter Ocean.

Prevention of collisions at sea, absolute
control from the shore of the movements
of vessels and perfect TRANSMISSION of
sound and of electrical energy, without the
use or wires, Is what is promised by Ariel
Orling. whose recent discovery in electrical
science, known as the Armorl system, has
astonished scientific men of England.
Orlfng's system, it is believed, is of vast
ly more Importance than the Marconi sys-
tenn, as similar effects with several addi-
tons can be transmitted without the use
OF wires or tall poles. Associated with Or
ling is j. T. Armstrong. an English ~electri-
clan, at whose country residence in Buck
i~nghamshire experiments have been in
progress for a year. Mr.. Armstrong will
head a company of English capitalists for
the introduction of Orling's invention.
Briefly the new system, besides trans
hitting ordinary dot and dash messages,
VIII carry sound like a telephone, and will
carry energy sufficient to steer a torpedo,
all the time under the control of the OPP
orator. The whole mechanism at each end
Is hardly more bulky than al ordinary tel
egraph instrument, while the only install
latfon required consists of sticking the two
ends of the ground wires into the earth.
whereon the apparatus is ready to receive
or transmit messages.
AT Mr.. Armstrong; country seat a prac-
teal demonstration of the Armorl system
was recently given during a heavy rain for
the benefit of a party of electricians who
had gathered from all over England at the
request of Mr.. Armstrong. In spite of the
bad weather the demonstration was a sue
cess.
At the corner of a fve-acre field a quaint
structure like a primitive railway signal
Dox, painted white, showed where the wire
less messages were transmitted. a short
distance way a lake of muddy water was
the scene of the torpedo experiments.
N ---IU
tent denoted the spot where the messages
were received, while in the hazy distance.
two and a half miles away, another long
distance station was family observable to
the privileged spectators who tramped the
muddy lanes for the purpose of witnessing
the demonstration.
The spectacle of these primitive prepara-
tions was not encouraging. and certainly
not indicative OF marvels in store.
Inc hrst experiment was to show that
the system is available for receiving the
Morse code signals. In the shed below a
signal box arrangement was attached TO
the walls, an instrument which looked like
a combination of telephone and telegraph
instruments. Ordinary telephone receivers
were hanging by, n double wire, and beside
IL was an ordinary Morse key.
Placing the telephone receiver to his ear,
the spectator was asked TO signal any
humber OF dots and dashes on the adjoin-
ing key. These were instantaneously re-
peated, having in the meantime been trans
mitted TO the tent, 500 yards away, where
an operator worked a similar key, beside
a similar telephone receiver.
One Of the spectators who was familiar
with the telegraph code sent a regular dot
and dash message. to which an instantane-
Gus reply was received.
The second experiment was even more
uncanny than the first. Two of the spec
tators were asked by the inventor to de-
eide between themselves on a series of evo-
buttons to be executed by a torpedo in the
familiar with steering terms, and wrote out
a set of instructions. which one carried
brought to the lake side, where the tor
pedo lay on the water.
At a signal from a whistle the man be-
side the torpedo consulted his paper, while
at the same moment there was a buzzing
sound of the machinery Of the little vessel,
and the next instant the rudder of the tor
pedo swung hard aport. Another whistle
and the rudder Strengthened out backward
and forward. At every angle in steering
the little brass rudder swerved and turned,
every motion being checked by the man
by the lake side as correct with a pre-
arrangement made with his associate be-
fore the experiment began.
1t was a weird scene. a dozen men under
dripping umbrellas bending down to watch
the gyratiOns of the miniature torpedo,
whose rudder moved this way or that, ap-
parently of its own motion: A toy steamer
suddenly endowed with life would hardly
be more %uncanny There was not a vestige
Of wire within twenty feet.
The inventor of this mechanism, standing
among the crowd, was evidently as enthu-
siastic as the rest, even to the extent of adj
hitting his inability to tell how it was
done.
Perhaps the most unearthly experiment
was the telephoning to the distant tent.
whittier a group of spectators plodded over
the marshy ground, oblivious Of their per-
sonal discomfort in amaZement at the won
derful results. Fastened to a pole in the
middle of the tent was an ordinary tele-
phone receiver Connected with the small
boxed-up apparatus in the shed below the
railway signal box. A telephone mouth
piece was fixed against the wall.
The telephone between these two stations,
therefore, is only capable of transmitting
added, perhaps. TO the mysterious character
of the experiment. To listen i'm a telephone
receiver and hear voices coming apparently
from a Sodden grass field, with no sign Of
wire or overhead apparatus within sight.
strained the belief of the spectators in the
marvellous. Nobody could explain 1t.
Similarly, when the fourth experiment
was made. showing how sounds could be
transmitted from ship to ship or from shore
to ship without any apparent connection
beyond the fact that at each end one of
these mysterious boxes was connected with
a battery on one side and with two ground
ed wires on the other. everybody present
was prepared TO believe the new system
capable of anything.
Unfortunately. although the experiments
appeared TO be successful in every respect.
the inventors are not prepared TO give a
technical description of the apparatus or OF
the principle by which the first known
demonstration was made. An expert cleo
4 IrlClan VINO examined SuCn pOTIlOnS OF the
apparatus as the inventors would allow
thus explains the invention:
9TH advantages of this over other wire
less systems arise from the fact that the
earth is used directly as a transmitting
medium and no natural Instructions inter-
fere with the transmission OF the impulses.
Stripped of technical terms. the system
may be thus described: At the transmit
ting station are two earth terminals.
The transmitting instrument. connect
ing with IN ordinary eight-volt battery.
causes electric action between these ter
minals consisting OF a high potential dis
charge and low tension current. BY this
means a number of impulses are set up
whose radius of action extend over a GER
tain area.
within this area is interposed a recejv-
ing instrument which. by a similar. but
reversed, action. will ~reconvert the trans
mitted impulses into mechanical action. For
instance, the action of the Morse instru-
ment I'm dots and dashes Is thus conveyed
in the earth, transmitted in the shape OF
impulses to the receiving instrument.
where the mechanical dots and dashes are
repeated. This system differs from the
Marconi system, inasmuch as IL requires
no cOherer or overhead poles. while It's in
stallation. when perfect. should be sim
plicity itself. IL is certainly the most
wonderful electrical discovery of this new
century"
The name Armor is a combination Of
the first syllables OF the names OF this dis
coverer and his associate. Orling was horn
Stockholm. Sweden, in 1870. He received