Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-11-27
THE FEssENDEN PATENTS.
The Wireless System Devised by an
Old Associate of Edison.

The expected issue of patents to
Prof. Reginald A. Fessenden, covering
his system of wireless telegraphy.
which he has developed in connection
with his work in conjunction with the
weather bureau, has taken place. In all
there are Ii patents, containing 20
pages of drawings, So diagrammatic
views and 220 claims. AS pointed out
in the Electrical World, they comprise
a most instructive and interesting me-
moir of the very latest advance in the
art of wireless biography. 1t is probable
there is no man in America better
equipped theoretically for the solution
of wireless telegraph problems than
Prof. Fessenden, and If to him should
fall the world-competed prize OF sue
cessful system, it would be emfnent1y
fitting to the one-time assistant in the
Edison Laboratory, from whose sacred
precincts so many famous Industrial
electrical experts have made their adj
vent. 1t will be remembered that Prof.
Fessenden's system is unique in the
speed at which the messages can be
transmitted, the distance at which they
can be received, considering the expen-
diture of energy in producing them, the
novel receiving devices employed,
which are essentially different from
the niversally-employed coherer, and
the tuning or selectiye effect secured.
The antenna, or sending wire, is reduc-
ed considerably in length by reason Of
his discovery that electromagnetic
wave oscillations may be controlled by
producing them in a proper medium
possessing greater permeability and
specific inductive capacity than air. The
rapidity of sending signals is attained
by maintaining the generator in con-
tinuOuS action and producing the
makes and breaks of the signal code by
throwing the sending antenna out of
tune with the receiving station by
short-ciFcuiting the tuning device.
Speed is further enhanced by substitute
ing telephone receiver for the cum
bersome Morse registering devices us
ually employed. This requires very
sensitive and delicate, quick-respond-
ing wave detector, which Prof. Fessen-
den developed in his detector, which is
said to be far more rapid In operation
than any form of coherer yet devised.
This consists of the minutest of plat
mum loops, barely visible points, her
metically sealed in a bulb, in pretty
much the same manner as an incandes- I
cent lamp filament is attached to lead
ing-in wires, sealed in a globe. To fur
Their increase the sensitiveness of the
apparatus, the platinum loop is incased
in a silver bell or cylinder inside the
glass bulb Even though the electro
magnetic radiations or waves which
are caught by the receiving apparatus
represent but an fnfinitesimaI amount
of energy, yet this energy is sufficient ,
to heat the minute platinum loop, and !
so, by decreasing the resistance, ever
so slightly disturb the balance of an
electric circuit, nomfnally divided into
two equal portions. 1t is this disturb
ance of the equilibrium of an electric
circuit that is utilized for the detection
of the waves received through space,
much or the same principle as the de-
lection of heat radiations from distant
stars by the bolometer of the late Prof.
LANGLEY