The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1904-11-17

ator who last week startled the scien
tihc world by demonstrating the prac-
ticability Of sending ana receiving
wireless MESSAGES in mid-air Young
Mcqueen started in life as a messeu-
ger boy in the local telegraph office
and received his first Instructions in
telegcaphy froia Manager l1urlbrt
His letter follows
St Louis, Mo. nov 12. 1894
Mr. NJ T Hurlbut, Guthrie
Dear Friend received your con
eratulatory message just now and /
thank you for it. appreciate it more
than any other / have received, and
win try and tell you how it was done
The greatest difficulty we had to over
come was the absence of a ground
connection We wound l5e feet of in
sulated lamp wire around the balloon
in a spiral connecting the lower enc
to our tuner, dropped the same length |
of wire in a loop from the car. con
Meeting the upper cnd of this to the
tuner. thus balancing the capacity Off
the wires or either side of the tuner
/ CThe tuner Is simply a set of resist
ance coils used to Cit out static and to
tune your receiver to be affected by
vibrations of a certain frequency
Using three small cells Of dry battery,
we got a circuit through both loops.
running through the tuner and the re-
! sponder in series, and having a certain
resistance across a minute contact
point IN the responder As the electri'
cal oscillations from the sending sta.
tion hit the loops the resistance of
this contact is reduced. a greater cur
rent dow ensues, causing a conmo-
ton in the chemicals which form one
sound which Is reproduced on the tele-
phone receiver. The sound is not a
clicking Int continuous buzz; no
back stroke but il is as easy to read
and as speedy as a wire, / started
at 3:15, rising quickly When about
500 feet mp. | threw cut tho lower
loop, adjusted the responder and the
tuner and at 8 20 | heard the man at
the tower sending FGom that time
till we landed / didn't lose a word
except for about 4 minutes While we
were in the clouds. 1t came perfectly
. distinct and the experiment was more
satisfactory than any one had hoped
for don't take any credit at all. The
p idea Of the loops was DeForest's and
all did was TO adjust them and there
was Ao more difficulty in doing so
. than there is on the ground
Of course. balloon ascensions arc
becoming SO common they attract no
attention. hut the fact of receiving
messages from a balloon at a height
of two miles is interesting from a
scientific standpoint and disproves
theories that have heretofore been
nei4 by some
The trip itsels was one shall never
forget. We sailed over part Of the faiI
grounds and looking down could see
the gardens and plazas laid out in a
perfect picture. On up higher we los
y sient of the people on the ground anC
St Louis came in sight with the Mis-
sissippi river and East St Louis be
vopd As We vent higher the land
scape seemed to shrink and the ciu
and fair appeared TO be very smal
? and think we could sec for fftl
& miles in every direction can't sa,
Z which was the most beautiful The
z scene from directly under the clouds
8 or that which appeared as we rosI
z above them There all was silver,
Z white clouds everywhere with hill
z and valleys waving, changing and NOV
( ing on into other beautiful formations
8 Away down below as ON the white sun
Z face of the sea was our shadow sur
z rounded by a monHrous rainbow Tn
4 effect was probably the most bcaut
= ful and spectacular shall ever Sc
ard one that nobody could possibl
= appreciate without seeing. We wen
I ap fast again as we came through th
= clouds and the sun struck our ga'
4 BY putting the hand out Of ,he ca
one could feel The downward dreugi
. and the clouds appeared to he rollr
into a hole straight below as wit
mere and more coming in sight on tn