Morris tribune., 1902-03-08
MARCONI'S MESSAGES.
Inventor Tells More About His
Wireless Wonders.
WILL DEFY ANY CHANCE OF LOSS.

nous Scientist on the Subject OF
Secrecy-MarcOni's Claim That Pri-
vacy OF Messages Can at ALI Times
Il he Maintained Proved by ship Um-
bria.
i Garrett P. Serviss, the well known
astronomer and scientist, interviewed
4 William Marconi for the New York
Journal regarding the wonderful
achievements Of the wireless telegraph
accomplished on the steamer Philadel-
i phia. The inventor asked particularly
4 concerning the charge made that it
/ would be impossible to maintain the
/ secrecy of messages under the Marconi
j system.
! Il do not WISH" said Mr.. Marconi,
"to discuss any comparison with pres
ent methods, but will say, as said
to the stockholders Of the company, If
anybody thinks he can pick up one Of
| my messages with a receiver not in
tune with it let him try"
It is upon the proper tuning Of the
transmitter and receiver that Mr.. Mar
conf depends to secure secrecy and non
interference, but experience has shown
that certain number of vibrations
must intervene between those that are
employed for two different sets Of in
struments in order to avoid interfer-
ence. Just what that number is Mr..
Marconi is not prepared to say, but he
has no difficulty in finding plenty Of
vibrations sufficiently separated along
the scale to give an indefinite number
Of frequencies available for different
and independent sets Of instruments.
Asked as to whether the sound waves
cannot be directed by refectors, Mr..
Marconi replied in the affirmative, but
only over distances so short that the
curvature of the earth's surface does
not conceal the two stations from each
other. ...a.s "a .r n,.t ~ a.
The reader will recall that during
the wonderful experiments on the voy-
age Of the Philadelphia code words
were received and read on the steamer
sent from Poldhu, in England, up to a
distance Of 1851 miles, but that beyond
that distance no complete words were
received, but only signals representing
the letter u.s." and these continued to
come until the distance Of the ship |
from the sending station was almost
2,100 miles. Then the delicate ticking
ceased to be audible. ~ .t..<
Mr.. Marconi- was asked why the |
words failed to carry as far as the sep
arate signals, and he replied that the |
signal for the letter "S' is the easiest |
of all to transmit and consequently it !
was heard after the energy employed
had ceased to be sufficient to transmit
the signals representing complete
words. AS to the exact amount of |
electric energy needed to send the mes
sages 1000 miles Mr. Marconi did not |
care to make any definite statement,
els it an amount within easy reach"
l asked. .,:
ooh, yes" he replied.
''Then there would be no difficulty in
a ship-any ship, sailing vessel, for
misunderstanding an apparatus pow
erful enough to send MESA ges thou
sands Of miles?"
mo, there would be no difficulty"
GAS far as developing the necessary
energy is concerned there would be no
trouble in Captain Bernier's taking, as
I hear he proposes to do, a wireless
telegraph transmitter on his proposed
trip to the north poleY'
mo; the energy required could easily
be developed"
So soon as he has established his
system Mr.. Marconi will
attack the problem Of, sending mes
sages long distances overland, which
be believes to be perfectly practicable,
but requiring more force for the same
distance than over the sea.
When Mr.. !Marconi was questioned
about the speed of transmission by Z
wireless telegraphy, he replied: Il
Twenty two words minute. That
If course is the record on relatively
short lines. But see no reason why
We should not send practically just as
asst on oceanic lines. In the expert
nents on the Philadelphia no attempt
vas made to attain speed. That was
lot our object and no preparations for
UGH a test were made. But there Is
10 difficulty about speed"
Further confirmation Of the claim
hat Marconigrams cannot be stolen
vas supplied by the operator OF the
wireless system on the Umbria, Daniel
1ollins, which recently arrived in New
FORK. To a reporter he said: q
"The Philadelphia was ahead of us \
II the way across, SO that we were be- t
Yeen her and the station from which :,
he was receiving her record messages,
ct they passed us by without giving
5 any indication Of what was going
i, and, as far as any chance Of inter
epting them was concerned, our re.
eiver was useless"