The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1902-03-05
He PRECEDED MARCONI
Wireless Telegraph's Real In
ventor a Scotchman.

Wonderful Story of James Bowman
Lindsay, Who Lighted His Room
with Electricity In 1885 and Suf-
fered Poverty For Years In the
Cause of Science.
Wireless teegraphy was used long
before Marconi first saw daylight.
AS far back as 1854 James Bowman
Lindsay of Carmylie, tiny seacoast
town of Scotland, used wireless sys-
TEN for sending messages, even patent
ing the invention, says the New York
World. Lindsay had conceived the
idea the year previously. He put it
into successful operation in 1854, send
ing the first wireless message at Ports
mouth England. 1t was projected
along the wall of an aqueduct. This
message was sent distance Of 500
yards. Five years later Lindsay sent
other messages across the river lay,
distance of half q mile.
Before the British association assem-
bled at Aberdeen Lindsay read a paper
on wireless telegraphy in 1859. This
article is preserved in the records of
the British museum toGMy.
The real inventor of Wireless telegra-
ply was an extraordinary character.
BY the canny Scotch people Of his I'M
mediate neighborhood he was regarded
as bewitched Some said he held
nightly communication with the devil,
from whom he had learned all his
knowledge of the black art. Lindsay
was, however, only odd through his SUI
perior knowledge, which stood out in
such strong contrast to the common
people around him that they could not
but regard him as marvel. Lindsay's
solitary room in Dundee was lighted
by an electric lamp in 1885, and he pub
licly exhibited this form of light in
Dundee the same year.
Considering how far ahead of his
times Lindsay was, he may be looked
upon as one of the most remarkable
natural philosophers who ever lived,
ranking with Humboldt and Faraday.
He was born in 1899 at the obscure lit
tie Scotch village of Carmylie and in
his early youth was taught the trade
of weaving. He developed at very
early age a passionate craving for
knowledge, studying all the books on
natural phenomena which he could get
his hands on. At the age of twenty
two he began to work his way through
the College of st. Andrews. During
recesses or long vacations he labored
at his trade of weaving, thus managing
to pay his own expenses through col
lege.
When thirty years old, Lindsay show
ed so much knowledge and had such
clear conceptions of physics and other
kindred sciences that he was appointed
a lecturer at the Watt institute, Dun
dee Here his classes were attended
by large bodies of students, who came
from far and near to hear the strange
creature" hold forth on science, in
those days considered almost an occult
art.
When Lindsay had finished his course
as master of arts, he first thought of
joining the ministry. He found so
much to interest him, however, in nat
ural science that he could pay little
attention to religious matters. Lindsay
was so poor at this time that he had
often to go hungry. His clothes were
threadbare and his shoes worn to
shreds. Nevertheless he seemed to
have sufficient money to spend on cleo
trical appliances and other apparatus.
He cared nothing for his personal
appearance, generally wearing tall
top hat" which was two sizes too
large for him and wonderfully high in
the crown. He is said to have looked
more like one of those fantastic images
carved from the root of a tree than a
huGan being. He considered $3.50 a
year an ample income when he was
forty-two years old, as that sum en-
abled him 20 purchase from time to
time WHIT he needed for carrying out
his ideas in physics and electricity. He
earned this large sum by lecturing to
the convicts in Dundee prison.
Speaking in one of these lectures In
1884, Lindsay prophetically said:
Houses and towns will in short
time be lighted by electricity instead
of gas and heated by it instead of
coal, and machinery will be wrought
by it instead Of steam, all at a trifing
expense"
That was a long look ahead for a