Omaha daily bee., 1903-04-05
FOR ARMOUR'S WIRELESS
Expert de Forest Arrives TO Arrange His
Systems Installation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EQUIPMENT
Inventor TELLS How Messages VIII BE
FLASHED from south Omaha TO
Kansas city without =
cable.

native Of Council Bluffs, son Of Rev. II. s.
de Forest, who for eight years previous to
1875 was a minister Of the Congregational
church in the Iowa city. where Mr.. de
Forest was born in 1873, is in the city.
While here he made arrangements with
the Armour Packing company for the con-
struction Of a station OF the de Forest
Wireless Telegraph which is to connect the
Omaha plant OF the Armour company with
the Kansas City plant.
During the last month the de Forest
Wireless Telegraph company. or strictly
the American de Forest Telegraph com-
pany, which has acquired the rights Of the
original company, has operated an expert
mental system between the Chicago stock
yards and the Chicago ONCE OF the Armour
company for the purpose OF demonstrating
the ability OF the invention. The expert
ment was so successful that the Armour
company entered into a contract with the
telegraph company for the Omaha Kansas
City line. which is to be extended as soon
as possible to Fort Worth. Tex. and later
to st. Louis and Chicago.
Inventor Outlines Plan.
According to the plans outlined by Mr..
de- Forest, the inventor Of the system. there
will be constructed at South Omaha, upon
AEmOuE uilAs lht OIudnh OllCts utTt
will be two towers made OF wooden lattice
work, 200 feet high and 100 feet apart.
between which will be built the office Of
the company. Joining the tops of the tow-
ers will be an insulated wire cable, from
which will depend forty insulated wires,
which. co%nverging into a cable above the
once building, will enter that room through
the roof, where they will be Joined TO the
receiving and transmitting instruments.
The power to be used in the transmission
of messages from Omaha to Kansas City
will be supplied by the Armour company.
II will require thirty amperes Of electricity
at 500 volts to produce the required 1T
teen horsepower which will he used In
sending the messages. The current OF
electricity, which In this case is the usual
alternating current, will be stepped up to
$4,000 volts before It comes into contact
with the transmitting wires. The receiver,
which was invented by a German scientist
as a laboratory experiment and was de-
veloped to mercantile use by MIR. DE- Forest,
presents the antitheses Of the Marconi re-
ceiver, which is known as the coherer,
from the fact that the sound is produced
by the cohesion OF minute particles OF
metal between two silver plugs In a glass
tube. The Marconi coherer is not salts
H A1SteAy " Nn6 INdbOu mat the now oil
electricity which produces the cohesion
causes the PARTICLES to cohere after the
sound has been produced, thus giving a
stable current when 1t should be broken
To separate the particles OF metal a Taper
Is used and this Taper sometimes ia Is t.
work and ordinarily works 20 slowly thai
ten words a minute is about the limit Of
the Marconi system.
How Receivers Differ.
The receiver Of the de Forest system II
an anti-coherer. Between two special,
prepared aluminium wires, placed at RICH
singles to each other. is placed a small
quantity Of viscous fluid. carrying an cleo
%trolite, which In this case is water. A
long as this huid remains in it's norma
state there Is a current continually passing
through the wires, but when the additiona
current is received from another station
the water is broken into minute bubbles
breaking the circuit and producing tn
sound In the receiver, which is similar Il
the receiver of an ordinary telephone.
The t~ransmitter OF the de Forest system
consists Of a battery Of Leyden Jars con
nected TO a spiral wire OF varied length
each pole connected TO a metal ball, tn
two balls being placed about an inch apart
When the electricity OF high potential /
passed into the wire to one of the ball
there is a spark OF electricity created
which jumps to the other ball, thus com
pleting the circuit. IL Is the jumping Q
this spark which produces the e~lectrics
wave transmitted to the wires which ex
tend to the top OF the towers. and fror
them passed on into the air to be carrie
In irregular circles Of waves until IL actu
ates the receiver at the point desired.
How Regulated.
The receivers and the transmitters ar
attuned so that the impulses from on
transmitter will actuate only that receive
which is similar to II. This is governe
by the number Of Jars in the battery an
the length OF the wire used to connect tn
Jars with the transmitter and the receives
At the present time the rules for fixing IN
various tones in which the instrument
sound are empirical, but experiments al
being conducted and observations recorde
which are expected to result in o well dc
hned rule for the construction Of instr
ments which will respond only TO the IN
pulses OF instruments similarly construete,
and then there will be no experiment as
the results to be obtained from the differeI
machines. Where there IL but one VII
attached to a single tower, as at the 81
pertinent station at ooney Island, in Ne
York the electrical waves move in circle
but where the construction is similar
that which will be used at South omaf
the waves travel more rapidly and strong,
In the directions perpendicular to the plaI
OF the towers. and for this reason Il
towers at South Omaha will be east al
west, to give the strongest impulse to Il
south, as Kansas City is the point to
reached. While hfteea-horse power will
used at South Omaha to reach Kans
City. which is distant about 200 miles, on
horse power has been successfully used
transmit messages the same distance fro
the Coney Island station. but these me
sages passed over the water. Land one
greater resistance.
Al Kansas City the once OF the eompal
will be upon the roof Of the Armour pac
ing house and the towers will spring fro
the tops Of two smokestacks above Z
building. these towers 10 be about six
feet taller than the stacks.
In the Transmission CT messages I