The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-27
SENDING WIRELESS MESSAGES.
Electric Spark Causes Waves That
 Spread in All Directions.

From the New York World.
 When a wireless message Is sent across the ocean an electric spark Is made to snap between the two brass balls. The sparks may be said to make a splash in the ether, the high wire taking the place of the stone which when dropped in a pond causes ripples to flow outward in every direction. The electrical ripples similarly stream out from the wire in every direction at the speed of light, which is 1855, 900 miles a second.
 The number of waves which stream from a Marconi pole Is from 500,000 to 100000 a second. These waves are not to be confounded with the air waves which cause sound, though for the pur- poses of explanation they may be com pared to them. When a poker is struck the vibrations of the steel rod transfer themselves to the surrounding air in the form of waves in the atmosphere.
 Wireless telegraphy waves travel not by means of the atmosphere, but through the far more intangible sub stance, ether which is held to fill up space and penetrate all matter. Even in ordinary te1egraphy the current flows through the ether surrounding the atoms of copper rather than through the wire itself. In wireless telegraphy the current does not flow through wires, but from wires, using the ether, which penetrates the atmosphere as & medium through which to flow.
 Many years ago it was found out that electricity passed through the space sep arating two long parallel wires. When current of electricity was made to flow through one wire magnetic influence spread out from the wire and on reaching the ether induced in 1t a state of cleo tricity similar to the current flowing in the first wire The current was trans ferred, as 1t were, across a bridge Of magnetism.
 The waves which fly from the trans hitting station almost instantly reach the distant receiving wire. The waves are then feeble and could not operate an instrument, so that :'coherer' and "re- lay have to be used.
 The coherer consists of metal filings which remain separate from one another and offer resistance to a current until the Hertzian waves strike the aerial. Then the filings press together and the ob- struction is bridged. The relay current can then act, and a strong current in- stantly flows through the circuit and op- crates the machine which prints the code on paper tape
 
 might be placed back to back and the waves made to pass completely around the world. This would require waves of very great length in order to overcome the great curvature of the earth
 The induction method was the one used by all the earlier experimenters with wireless telegraphy. and 1t was not until Hertz published his experiments with the waves caused by the spark-gap method that Hertzian waves became the more popular field of work with electri- clans. Marconi studied these waves un- der Professor Righi, himself an expert in them.
 Marconi is generally recognized as the first to make use of Hertzian waves for the basis of a system of telegraphy, prop erly so called
 Mir. Marconfs progress has been from tens to hundreds. then from hundreds to over 1000 miles, and now he has spanned the Atlantic. distance Of 25oo miles.