Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-01-17
> MARCONI'S TRIUMPH =
Inventor Tells How He Will Revolutionize
Telegraphy


of wireless intercontinental telegraphy,
found Guglielmo MarcOni, to whose
bare little room at the foot of his four
wooden towers kings, queens, princes
and prime ministers have been sending
their congratulations in reply to mes
sages flashed across the surface of the
Atlantic ocean, writes James Creelman
in the New York World
AS he stood beneath the great loose
harp of fifty wires hanging from a
cable stretched across the tops of the
towers, he waved his hand upward and
said:
There it is. Powerful currents of
electricity sent into those fifty wires in
termittently from the power house be-
low start forth the electro magnetic
waves which cross the ocean in one
ninetieth of a second and record them
selves on similar wires at the Poldhu
station ON the coast of Cornwall, 2, 400
miles away. Nothing can stop or divert
them. They will go through or around
any obstruction. Like sound waves,
they do not have to go in straight
line. The MESA geS are received
through telephone or are printed au-
tomatically in Morse letters as clearly
as though the stations We're only a
mile apart"
Marconi seemed fearful of talking to
the public lest he might be suspected
of Boosting, and, besides, the bitter
war waged upon him by the desperate
ocean cable companies has made him
cautious and suspicious, but after
awhile he spoke freely.
wireless biography across the ocean
is now as practical as cabling he said.
I'VE have sent more than 1000 words
in all from Glace Bay to Poldhu and
have reached a speed of fifteen words
a minute, which, considering our
clumsy sending apparatus "a mere
wooden lever to connect and discon-
meet the current-indicates what we
can do when we substitute a sending
key designed for speed. With a proper
sending key we can easily get off thirty |
words minute, and 1 shall~be sur
prised if we do not soon send at high |
er rate
The Atlantic cables average about |
twenty-one words a minute in their |
regular work, l believe. And there is |
this vital difference in the two systems
of transoceanic telegraphing: As the |
cable grows longer the rate of speed in |
sending messages decrea ses, while dis |
lance makes no difference in the rate |
at which we can send by the wireless |
system"
Can you send more than one mes |
sage at time from the same statiOn?"
Yes. 1 have already demonstrated /
that we can send two at q time for a
short distance. Whether more than
two messages can be transmitted ST. !
multaneously by the same wires 1 am
unable to say; probably not. But
separate stations can be set up and
worked in the same neighborhood with
out interfering with each other, so that
our capacity for sending messages can
be multiplied indefinitely"
How can you prevent other people
with similar wireless apparatus from
reading the messages you send from
continent to continent? The secrecy of
Geographic communication is vital"
The sudden flash in the cold gray
blue eyes showed that Mr.. Marconi
understood the Importance of the ques-
ton. 1t was the point of attack select
ed by the cable companies in their
combined attempt to discredit him.
with properly tuned instruments"
he said, 1--WE can make the reading of
our transatlantic messages very diff
cult. To read a wireless message an
outside station would have to be in ex-
act tune or vibratOry unison with our
stations at the same moment. 1t would
cost rival not less than $4,000 to try
the experiment ON the smallest scale.
Besides, we can arrange our apparatus
so that the tune or rate of vibration
can be automatically changing every
moment at the same rate in sending
and receiving stations on each side of
the ocean.
''Those who talk about the danger of
having our messages read by outsiders
do not understand the subject. When
1 was in England, 1 offered to pay a
large sum of money TO any one who
could pick up one of our wireless ocean
messages after notifying me that it
was to be attempted, and 1 even Of
fered to lend apparatus to any one who
desired to try the experiment. No one
took up my offer.
| But even if it were possible to read
our signals-and 1 do not admit that it
is a contingency to be feared-it would
be the simplest matter in the world to
use constantly changing secret code
between our stations, and if secrecy
were actually impossible there are thou
sands of messages to be sent by cheap
system of telegraphy which are not nee
essarily secret in their nature. If it
were not so. postal cards would not be
used so extensively. If a man in New
York wants to send a sailing date or
birthday message or any other such
communication to a man in London,
what does he care whether his message
is read by an outside operator or not?
Remember that it only costs US $780,
600 to establish wireless transatlantic
system and that our rates can be made
cheap enough to attract an immense