The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-06-01

New Y ork, that his opinion should be
obtained on important business. The
message was sent to him in mid-ocean,
and his reply went to the Marconi
station at Cape Cod, and thence to his
office
There are fourteen Atlantic cables,
and their cost was about 50 millions of
dollars Even at that high capitaliza-
ton the income to the stockholders is
immense at % cents word. These
cables can be paralleled with the wire
less system for about a twentieth of
that sum; and at the proposed rate of
ten cents a word, the revenue should
. be large. The annual cost of maintain
ing cables is 800 per mile, and of land
wires $50 per mile. The annual cost of
the wireless is only $500 per mile, and
the speed of the latter greatly exceeds
the speed of the cables.
Electrical inventions have never end
ed in failure; and Thomas A. Edison of
ClCSGllS ~ lolllS, anu L lOIs L u pm vi
Columbia University, n. y, and Prof.
Fleming of London-three of the most
prominent electricians in the world
are connected with Marconi and their
inventions, past and future. are for the
benefit of his wireless system These
scientists are continually making new
discoveries. Not long ago any ship or
any wireless station could pick up a
message not intended for it; but by a
recent invention the Marconi receivers
not tuned i'll accord with the transmit
tiers are unable to take the message.
Only such stations can communicate
as are tuned to the intonationS of each
other. In this way secrecy can be main
tanned when desired
Lord Kelvin, the great English scien-
fist and philosopher, was the first to
send paid message by wireless, and
he predicted practical transatlantic
operations for Marconi.
Like Edison and Bell and other in
ventors, Marconi has had to resort to
the law courts to guard his patent
rights. A few years ago Il young Yale
graduate by the name of DeForest took
parts of Marconi's invention, organized
| a company, sold stock and sent mes
SageS. Marconi took legal action for
the Infringement, and the court issued
an injunction against the DeForest
Company, and restrained it from fur
Their use of the invention. The case
was decided in New York, April II, by
Judge Townsend. Similar suits had
previously taken place in England,
where spurious limitations of his inyen-
tions had also been used.
There are four Marconi wireless com
panies-the Italian, English, Canadian
and American. The capitalization of
the Canadian company is 100000,
and of the American company $685.
Oo0 The people of Canada spend over
three million dollars year for cable
messages and the people of the United
States more than twelve times that
sum. The Marconi companies expect
to be able quite soon to compete for
this business.
Wireless telegraphy is exceedingly
simple, both in theory and in practice,
from the fact that it utilities natural
forces already existing. Electricity has
been in the air ever since creation; and
Of tho wireless JnStTn-
ments sets the unseen current III mo-
ton, making the waves move on in
definitely, like the waves i'll pond
when pebble is tossed into it. Throw
stone into a pond and water-Wayes
are produced Strike the air with the
human voice or piano key or the
strings of violin and soundwaves are
produced. Light a lamp and light
waves are produced. Send spark
from one pole of a battery to the other
pole and electric waves are produced.
And the utilizing of these electric
waves is what Marconi has done with a
simple instrument called the "coherer."
The coherer is glass or hard rubber
tube containing metal filings, ninety
six per cent. nickel and four per cent.
| silver. Let an electric wave fall upon
| the coherer and it is at once trans
| formed from non conductor to most
sensitive conductor. And at the very
| instant that each electric wave has
passed through the tube it is struck
automatically with tiny hammer; and
the jar breaking the current again
makes the tube non-conductor The
process is repeated indefinitely by a
succession of electric waves and auto
| matte raps of the hammer. The opera
! tor keeps continuously making and