The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-07-26

would pass directly through the earth.
impeded by its presence no more than
If no solid body had been in its path.
or. TO draw the scale down TO small
proportions. / hold my hand up-so-
and the waves set in motion by my
words vibrate 10 you through my hand
as freely as they do above. below and
on either side OF II. The hand might be
bar Of steel, OF for that matter sec
ton OF twenty inch armor plate. The
vibration would pass through IL and
not seek an easier way around IL. II
there were an easier way around u. no
doubt it would seek il. as the sea
wave does at the rock. but 20 go
around is not any easier for the ether
wave II knows no easy and no
hard because what seem TO US OBJ
stacles in its path 10 il are nothing.
Edgar Poe in his Eureka was not so
far astray from the truth as has been
supposed, though errors-inevitable in
guesswork OF intuitiye work like his
materially lessen the value OF his con
illusions.
Marconi clearly misconce;ved the
operation of these ether vibrations
That is. he presumed them TO be sub
lished lofty stations for setting in mo-
ton the waves and few kites high in air
to catch them as they passed a distant
point; whereas he might have accom-
plished the same results on level plains
or in deep canyons. His error was in
supposing the vibrations passed around
the earth-like sea waves around the
rock-instead OF through it. When that
signal from overseas reached him il
was in his thought that the waves
that brought it had come over the
earth's curvature. though in reality
they had vibrated through it in the
straightest possible path. Had he been
at point antipodal 10 the transmit
ting station the waves would have vi
brated TO him from directly under his
feet, and a wire sunk in an artesian
we'll would have served as we'll as a
kite flying in air. The tremor of an
earthquake travels in precisely the
same way-from any one spot in the
earth 10 any and every other spot in
the straightest line.
II admit that when the thought is
new it seems difficult 10 believe the
ether waves pass through solid bodies
as freely as through thin air. But that
is because We understand so intper-
fectly the nature of the vibrations.
Why shouldn't they pass through them
freely? By aid of the X ray sight
passes freely through an opaque solid.
l mention the y ray merely because 1t
Is of recent discovery, is novel in its
workings, and vet has won popular be-
lief for itself through it's demonstra-
bility. 1t would lee quite as much 10
the point. however, and far more apt
by way of illustration, for me 70 cite
a plate glass window or a crystal globe
Both are very solid to the sense, vet
they furnish no obstacle to the pas
sage of sight. | don't pretend TO say
that etheric waves Vibrate through
solids in precisely the same way that
sight passes through q plate of clear
glass; not at all. But after such an
illustration 1 fancy you viii not find
the other idea quite 80 unbelievable.
Il have gone into an explanation Of
these etheric vibrations at some length
because without some knowledge Of
them you would probably find il diff
feult to credit the rest have 70 tell
las the writer Of that magazine ar
ticle states. quite the most wonderful
achievement OF Marconi is what he
calls the tuning OF the vibrations.
fancy that in this his inyention--dis-
covery perhaps should call it-differs