Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-01-16
is ANYTHING NEW?
is INVENTION MERELY REPRO
DUCTlON OF THE PAST7

Is Marconi Only Exploiting Discoveries Al
ready Made Even Electroid, Which Forces
Vegetable Growth in a Few Minutes. Was
Known in i6SS-Santos Dumont. the Aero
naut. Was Preceded by Another Of the
Same Name in 1909 The Iron.CIad War
ship Was Used by the Dutch in i5S5-The
Steam Engine Was in Use in 1902. and
a Century and Half Earlier King Charles
of Spain Rewarded an Inventor for Exhibi.
ton Of Paddle Wheel Steamer-AIuminum
the Newly Discovered Metal. Was Known to
Tiberius. the Roman Emperor.
New York World.
1t was inevitable that Marconi's
splendid achievement should be chal-
lenged by lawsuits brought by al
legged prior inventors. The Atlantic,
however, has never before been crossed
by ether-borne messages, and that
tremendous practical success securely
belongs to the Italian electrician.
The first discoverer of communica-
ton by etheric waves, and the first to
apply it over shorter distances, can
not be certainly named. 1t is on
record that sixty years ago Prof.
Morse, father OF the electric telegraph,
sent wireless messages across the
Susquehanna River not far from Balti.
more; also that in 1864 Clark Max
well demonstrated that ether waves
conld be utilized over long distances
for electrical purposes. Possibly, like
the telephone, types and printing
and according to WI Ting-Fang the
game of ping-pong - wireless tele.
grams were known to China any num-
ber Of centuries ago.
Ralph Waldo Emerson says in one
of his exquisite essays: "All ma
chimes in use have been invented and
reinvented over aud over; the mari
ner's compass, the pendulum, glass,
movable types, the kaleidoscope, the
railway, the power.loom, ETC., have
been many times found and lost,
from Egypt, China and Pompeii
down." For example, London is just
now deeply interested in the discovery
OF a remarkable substance called elec-
troid. Under its influence, plants have
an extraordinary forced growth, bios.
soming, coming to maturity and fad.
ing away within a few minutes. But
Papin, q 17th-century scientist, re-
cords in the Journal de Savants for
1856 q precisely similar discovery.
Santos .Dumont and the other air-shir
builders are supposed to belong to thi.
and the last century, but the archives
Of Portugal hold letter written to
the King OF that country in 17O9
signed curiously enough by one Santos
who assures His Majesty that he has
contrived machine that will travel
in the air more than two hundred
leagues in day and make the dis
covery of the North Pole easy.
The ironclad ship was the child o
American ingenuity in the Civil Wa
l-so we think. But in 1856, durinj
the siege Of Antwerp, the Dutch de
tenders built large ship and platee
it thickly with iron to protect it from
the Spanish fire. Moreover, the!
built roomy platforms around it
masts for sharpshooters, thus antici
pating by about three centuries th'
supposedly new fghting.tops of ou
battle-ships. The steam engine VI
credit to James Watt, George Stephen
son and Robert Fulton, but one wa
certainly exhibited by Papin, alread!
mentioned, TO the English Royal So
ciety in 1899. Three years later h'
fitted it to boat and ran it so sue
oessfully on the Weser River, in Ger
many, that the alarmed bostmer
wrecked and sank it. A century ant
. half earlier King Charles l. Of Spair
gave $1,000 crowns to q man Wit
amused him." as the record says, b!
fitting up an old war-vessel with pad
dies worked by steam and running i
At . speed Of nine knots an hour. Be
ing a normally dull king, it never oc
CURED to him that the invention hat
fany practical value. And the meta
aluminium, first discovered in our owl
time, As most people believe, wa
known in the time of the Roman
Emperor Tiberius, who ordered ,
workman named Faber beheaded TO
bringing to him q cup Of silvery whit
metal much lighter than silver
which the Emperor feared nigh
make silver itself valueless.
Marconi's performance will los
nothing in value if it shall be fnall,
proved that wireless telegrsphy i
among the thousand and one arts AM
sciences that have been lost and foun,
again.
SHE-Reggie, dear, there is some
thing OF the old-time love.light il
lyour eyes tO.night-someth abou