Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-19
IN THE. WONDER HOUSE
Amazing Things to Be Seen
in the Electricity Building.
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
THE RADIOPHoNEo OF PROF. ALEX.
GRAHAM BELL.
A Machine That Will Send Thousand
Words Manufacturing
: by Electricity.

By VIM. E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
ST. LOUIS October Z, 1904.
Miracles are performed in The Wonder
House every day and every night, and
Thomas Jefferson with all his fertility OF
imagination would never have believed that
his policy of expansion would be celebrated
in such a manner; not even If Benjamin
Franklin or DR.. Priestley had predicted it.
The electricity building and the art build
ings only are open during the evening-the
art gallery three nights in the week, and
the electricity building every night until IL
o'clock. And the most amazing things hap
pen there. The wizards in charge of the
different exhibits show off, as the boys
say and do all kinds of stunts to astonish
the visitors. Sometimes the air is so charg-
ed with escaping electricity that you can
feel it in your hair and at your finger tips.
noticed 1t while sailing around the lagoons
in the evening.
Wireless Telegraphy.
Wireless biography is, of course, COM
manding the greatest degree of serious IN
terest. 1t is no longer curiosity to sclen-
tific men, although it is still mystery TO
ordinary people. 1t has passed beyond the
experiment stage, and is now an estapilshed
fact, commercial success, recognized as an
investment and a commodity that may pc
speculated in on the stock exchange. Inc
Russians are using it in Manchuria to a
greater extent than has ever been zone pc
fore. They get all their news from fort
Arthur in that way. The Chicago Dai!y
News and the London Times correspondents
are using it to send their dispatches across
the water from their tugs to Cheefoo; the
United States army has utlllzeo IL III lts an.
nual war maneuvers for at least TWO years.
th. German French and Italian armies are
using 1t at their notifications; there Is an
outfit for receiving and sending dispatches
on every up-to-da e man-ot-War, ana oLle
of the transatlantic lines publshes a neW
paper while at sea containing news receiV-
ed through the currents of the air. Inc
United States weather bureau has adopteu
II and here on the fair grounds is tan
tower 800 feet high, In which accuIaIe anu
satisfactory exhibitions are made dally.
One of the evening papers of st. Louis re-
ceiyes all it's news from the exposition
grounds by the wireless system GaiIleu
over the roofs of four miles or pulldings
One of its operators sits at the top OF the
tall tower on the grounds and the other oc-
cupies a front window in the office on
Broadway down town. He wears heau.
dress like that used by the "hello girls a.
the central office of the telephone company
and hears the messages that are sent 10
him even more distinctly than he could II
they were spoken in an ordinary tone OF
voice by person In the room. EAhipitioiS
are given every day.
A small Marconi exhibit in the electricity
building is made at the expense OF the ST.
Louis agents, but for some reason or an
bother the parent company has ignored the
exposition. f "lt
An Interference Apparatus.
Col. Corbin of jamestown, N. Y, wanted
to exhibit an apparatus by which he claims
that he can destroy wireless dispatches
while they are passing through the air ana
prevent their delivery. He has method
by which he catches them on the fly, so to
speak He breaks the electrical waves that
carry them and scatters the fragments in
the atmosphere. He considers this quite as
important the act of sending, at least
from military point of view, and was very
much disguised when the exposition au-
thorities declined to give him space on the
ground. Mr.. DeForest, the inventor of the
American system of wireless biography,
says that Corbin's claim is possible, and
that he can doubtless do what he proposes
The apparatus of the DeForest system is
very simple. The Marconi method is more
complicated, and it's messages are received
in little cylinder of iron filings. The send
ing apparatus of the DeForest system is an
ordinary Morse key, which produces spark
and starts it on a journey over the hills
and far away at the rate of 10000 miles
per second. But it does not travel in a
straight line. The foot of the wave being
grounded in the conducting surface, which
may be either earth or water, it will follow
that surface by the path of least resistance.
Hence, 1t usually passes over heavily
wooded hills and mountains, following the
contour of the earth, until it strikes an up
right wire and agitates it with dots and
dashes just like an ordinary message COM
ing over an ordinary wire. Every time a
spark is released at the sending station a
click is heard by the receiving operators
ear, and, having interpreted it in his mind
he writes it down upon piece of paper.
Prof. Bells Radiophone.
An even more wonderful machine is the
"radiophone"-a wireless telephone by
which Professor Alexander Graham Bell of
Washington can send song or a speech or
any sound of the human voice across
country or an ocean astride one of those
same electric waves. The apparatus is in
operation here in two forms, and the ma
gicians in charge OF it amaze hundreds of
visitors every day. Spoken messages are
transmitted over beams of light thrown
from an electric seafchlght upon a mirror
at any distance you choose. The strength
of the sound at the receiving end varies ac-
cordng to the strength of the light and the
resistance 1t is received through an ordi-
nary telephone connected with selenium
cell concealed in the center of the receiving
mirror.
Another form method of sending oral
messages through the air consists of two
coils of wire, one of which is carried around
with the operator and the other is buried
somewhere in the earth. / have not been
able to understand how they do It, very
polite gentleman in charge has exhausted
his patience in trying to explain it to me,
but 1t is simply a miracle and you must
come and see it for yourself.
A Thousand Words Minute.
Then they have machine here invented
by Mr.. P. B. Delaney of South Orange.
N. j., by which any operator who under
stands the business can send a thousand
words thousand miles a minute, between
Chicago and Philadelphia, for example,
while over short distances. between Phila-
delphia and Washington, or Chicago and
ST. Louis, he says he can send $500 words
a minute over a single wire, and / believe
him. 1t is better to believe everything Won
see or hear in The Wonder House. This is
done in some mysterious way by means
OF perforated paper soaked in a chemical
compound and drawn through a pair of
metallic springs Fat a.. high rate Of snead
That is all / can tell you about II The
gentleman In charge gave me a long nrinted
analytical explanation but / could not nm
derstand the technical terms with which II
is loaded, and simply took what he said for
granted.
The Automatic Telephone.
The automatic telephone which has been