The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1903-12-10
EDISON TALKS OF
WIRELESS SYSTEM
EXPLAINS SIMPLY SOME SCIENTIFIC
FACTS
He UnqualIfedly Commends the System
and Says 1t Will Have u Wonderful
Effect On the Industrial world-Possi-
bilities of Great Speed.

! In an interview just published Thos.
A Edison, the worlds greatest electri-
clan and inventor, makes two prophe-
cies concerning wireless telegraphy
one that it will be he telegraph of the
sea, the other that it is not likely to
find great field over land. He re-
CARDS its future commercial use q
foregone conclusion, and sees the great
est benefits to humanity in its develop
ment. q.
"Wireless is going to be the telegraph
of the sea. Time will come when any
one OH the Maritime Exchange can
send out a wireless message and catch
any vessel atioat in any part of the
world and change her routing You
can readily see, when such a system is
in thorough working order, what a
wonderful effect it will have on the in
4 dustria' world"
l. While the name of the young Italian
Inventor Marconi is most prominently
associated with wireless itelegraphy
now, it is worthy Of note that AS long
ago as 1885 Mr.. Edison made applica-
ton for patent npon his discovery
that messages could be sent through
space without the ad of wires, but it
was not until 1891 that his patent was
allowed.
Speaking of the way in which elec-
trio waves travel the great inventor
says:
"When an electric wave Is shot out
from the sending instrument, Ii does
not go from point to point in direct
line, as many persons unfamiliar with
electricity suppose. 1t is shot into the
Universe and it goes in every direction,
spreading out in circles much after the
manner of the circles in a pool of water
after stone is thrown into thecenter.
The further away from the center or
sending point the weaker the wave,
and tho more delicately constructed
must be the instrument to record it,.
THUS you can see that it is possible to
Ehavs the electric waves meet at point
where they will not conflict.
"How are the messages kept secret?
Well, they have been kept secret up to
now by tuning. This method has, /
believe, been found to work well,
though its possibilities are limited.
The probability is that Marconi will
manage to get three or four stations for
transatlantic transmission tuned 80
that they will not interfere, but he is
not likely to get many more. You see
he has perhaps only one octave to work
with; if he gets too many tuned instru-
ments the vibrations will overlap and
confusion Will result.
| "You can understand how this would
happen by cohsidering a simple exam
pile. Suppose you had ten tuning forks
lof different pitch sending out sound
waves, and ten Instruments of exactly
the same pitch to receive the sound
waves. The receiving / instrument
would vibrate in unison with its send
fling mate, and would remain silent to
ell others; but II you get too many of
them the tones would commingle and
you would get confused number of
vibrations. So you see there is limit
to, the possibilities of tuning.
"But with wireless telegraphy there
ID no reason why this should limit its
usefulness. The wireless system has
advantages that far more that out
weigh any such restriction as that
named. 1t has latent possibilities of
tremendous speed. There are certain
natural laws that limit the speed of
land and cable telegraphy, but these
laws do not affect the wireless system
believe that they will easily reach 4
speed of several hundred words min
ute with the wireless. and this with
the possibility of four transatlantic STA
tions would give ample scope. In this
lie the great possibilities of the wireless
method.
| "Of course one can Readily see what
| the wireless system will mssn CONNER