The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-28
WIRELESS rELEGRAPHY.
A Comprehensive Definition as to
What Tt Is.
academy and Literature)

IQEIE Is nOtnlng NEI3 14AS SSAAOO0
about ii, and there is no reason Why
it should nor be within the mental
grasp of those most uEinstructed IN
matters of science, so long as they nave
sufficient imagination to comprehend
the fundamental hypothesis on which
all later theories of electricity are
based AS is now well known to every
intelligent, well informed person, be-
tween star and star. filing up a seem
ingly boundlesS void. and there is also
between molecules OF all substances,
whether solid. liquid or aeriform,
something which is vaguely known as
ether. OF course. This something, this
ether. cannot be handled-it is not tan
gible; we can best infer il only from
the fact that light. according to the
latest scientific discoveries, is prodnced
by extremely rapid vibrations in an
elastic medium.
1t is by means of this ether, however,
that we are now able 10 telegraph
without wires. 1t was shown by Hertz
that if sparks are allowed to pass be-
tween two conductors of certain
shape, electric oscillations are set up
which extend TO a considerable distance
in all directions. The effect is, in fact,
very like that produced in a pond when
one throws a stone into it 1t may
seem, at first sight, as if the medium
in which those oscillations are pro-
object impermeable to air, such as the
wall of room or a house, is interposed
in the path of such oscillations, they
pass through 1t as if Ii were not there
| There can. therefore, be no doubt
that the medium of transmission is the
ether, and that we cannot only trans
NIT signals through Ii in all directions,
irrespective of intervening objects, but
to almost any distance. provided We
can only make the oscillations suf-
| ficiently violent.
The usual means of producing these
/ oscillation creating sparks is the
Ruhmkorff or induction coil, whereby
a rather feeble current of a voltaic cell
| or battery is transformed into one of
enormous intensity. 1t is possible to
! make coils that are capable of produc-
| ing oscillations that will extend for
thousands of miles. but they are some
what impracticable, owing to teehni-
cal difficulties. This, therefore, i'm
poses some limits upon the use Of wire
less biography.
This setting up of electric oseilla-
tions, or Hertzian waves, may be lik-
ened 10 the waving of a flag by a sig
! mailer anxious to attract the attention
| of a comrade on a distant height. In
! the latter case, however, the observer
| has his eyes to help him, while the
| HertZian waves are not perceptible by
| our unaided senses. As they are given
/ off every time that an induction coil,
| or the WimShurst electric machine, or
| even one of the electric gas-lighters in
| common use, is worked, it is evil
| dent that they are passing through
| and around US every day, without our
being aware of the fact. Something
| like an artificial eye is necessary,
/ therefore, to fulfill the same office as
| the telescope which the observer of flag
] c1c ON n he col n DC oil h y
lance is too great for his unassisted
| vision.
| This first assumed practical shape in
| the "coherer" invented almost stimuli
| taneously by Professor Brandy of Paris
and Principal Oliver Lodge. 1t consists
of a glass tube filed with metal filings
| which, though they offer a strong re-
| sistance to the passage of an electric
| current at ordinary times, have the
| singular property of becoming an ex-
cellent conductor when the HertZian
waves fall upon them, and of relapsing
| into their normal condition on receiv-
| ing light tap.
Signor Marconi conducted his ear
iier experiments with his "coherer,'' but
| he now prefers to use a soft iron core
| surrounded by a coil of copper wire
near which magnet is kept in con-
slant revolution by clockWork. The
1 core is alternately magnetiZed and de-
magnetiZed, and a CORES onding cleo
trie current is set up in the surround
ing wire. of which one end is connected
with the recording instrument and the
other end in the earth. BY the i'm.
pinging of a Hertzian wave upon the
! apparatus a slight extra impulse i!
occasioned, sufficient to set the record
ing instrument in operation.
There remains to be said how it i.
possible to confine the ether waves sen
out by the transmitting station to thos'
instruments by which it is intended
that they should be received. 1t is re
ported that an enterprising French
man, who set up his own wireless ap
paratus, had become the unwilling re
cipient Of messages passing between
warships of the British northern
squadron
There are many ways in which th'
problem may be overcome, and Prin
| cipdl Oliver Lodge has shown that wItl
apparatus so simple as two parable
wires and a sliding ring eonneetin;
them, it is possible to tune" an cleo
trio circuit so accurately that it vii
omit sparks in sympathy with anothe
one of exactly the same adjustment
with which it is not in contact. Tn
| Italian navy claims to have Overcom
the same difficulty by the substitution
of a globule of mercury between tw,
carbon plugs for the recording instru
ment. Signor Marconi is employing
somewhat different means for achiey
| / ing the same result
: There is ground to believe that, be
fore a great while, the wireless sys
TEN VIII transmit human speech owe
} moderate distances, and replace gu
present clumsy telephoning method
completely. Scientists are now dis
cussing the question whether ethe
may be utilized for the transmission o
mechanical power. or of light Wireless
telegraphy has brought US face to fac
with many new, almost romantic
problems by its use of ether as trans
hitting power.
The Philosophers Find.
sTst,so,-~. r5aoor5