Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-02-04
The Transmission of Messages Ey
the MarconI System.

To one of the polished brass balls ia
wire is attached, which runs up high
mast, or hangs from a kite. The elee-
trio pulsation, set up when a spark leaps
from one ball to the other, runs along
the wire and are thence radiated Ctf
into space Just how large a role this
suspended wire plays in the sending is
not yet very clear Maybe some day
it will not be needed The sending
instrument might be located in tie
cellar, for these electric waves seem TO
go through brick and stone, and all
most everything, save the metals.
1t is clear enough that if the sending
operator can open and close his circuit
as he likes, he can make the series Of
sparks long or short as he likes. So you
have long or short series of waves
flying through space at the speed of
light While Signor Marconi waited in
Newfoundland with the telephone at
his ear, this is what his operator in
Cornwall was doing. In Newfound-
land was an arrangement of a little
different sort.
Here were batteries, and a circuit,
just the same But instead of the
transformer and the polished brass
balls, little glass tube makes a part of
the circuit. Into this runs the two
ends of the wire from the batteries.
In the gap between the two are some
nickel-silver filings. Ordinarily, these
will not let the current from the bat
terry pass. The path is blocked.
But if this little tube, about as big as
a quill toothpick, be attached at the
same time to the receiving wire, which
runs out through the window and up
the mast, a curious effort is observed.
When the waves strike the high wire,
and are absorbed, they come running
down in II way to make the nickel fil!-
ing stand up in hurry. The little
particles seem to cohere, and in such
a way as to let the other current, from
the batteries on the floor, flow through.
Why, nobody knows Give the tube a
little tap, and they fall apart again.
1t is the oldest sort o. performance,
and was quite unheard of until Pre-
lessor Branly's discovery, ten years
ago.
When Professor Lodge heard of the
Brandy experiments, he fixed mp little
automatic Taper. 1t worked on the
same principle as an electric door-bell
Il wonder how many people ever
stopped to think how even that simple
everyday affair operates). The effect
of this tapping arrangement was to
give the slender tube of filings smart
jog every time the electric wave made
them cohere. 1t was decoherer.
The rest was simple. If the battery
on the floor could be made 10 operate
the Taper, it could also set a common
Morse printing instrument going. Ac-
cording as the series of waves coming
down the receiving wire was short or
long, the machine prints dot or dash.
These you read off on the tape, Just as
you read the quotations on stock
ticker, only you have to know the Morse
alphabet to understand
Ordinarily, the waves are strong
enough and their effect clear enough
so that no telephone attachment is
needed. The clicks can be read off by
the ear just as in ordinary telegraphS
But the waves seem to waken with the
distance, and those which had travelled
1900 miles from Cornwall to New
foundland, were faint indeed That
was why Signor Marconi held an in-
Strument to his ear. From wireless
Telegraphy and Signor Marcoufs
Triumph by Carl Snyder. in the
American Monthly Review of Reviews
for February.
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r dyeruSed Letters.