The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-03

The following is paper presented
by Alexander Anderson as a gradual
Ing essay at the closing exercises of
the Punahou Preparatory. In addition
to preparing and presenting the paper
Master Anderson assisted by Archie
Sinclair illustrated the workings of the
wireless by apparatus on the stage:
Wireless telegraphy is one of the
most wonderful and also one of the
most important inventions of the nine
tenth century. The system of tele-
graphy by means of wires is quite Won
derful enough in itself, but the send
ing of messages through space without
the aid of wires is almost beyond un-
Outstanding. Nevertheless Marconi and
other great inventors have proved to
us that it can be done.
Although Marconi was not the first to
experiment with wireless telegrap ply,
he is looked upon as the inventor of
it because he was the first to perfect
a system and put it into practical oper-
alton.
In sending messages through space,
a substance known as ether is used.
In the English language the word
ether has two very different meanings.
Ether is the name of clear, colorless
liquid which is used in surgical opera
tons to allay pain. This liquid, how
ever, has nothing to do with wireless
biography. The ether used in sending
wireless messages is an invisible, rare
fed, substance which is supposed to
fill all space. Scientists know very lit
tile about it but they do know that
it will vibrate. and they have called
these vibrations light, heat, and cleo
tricity
Drop stone into a pond and it will
produce ripples, or water vibrations.
If you strike a bell, the vibrations in
the air bring the sound to your ears.
In the same way ether has its own
peculiar vibrations. For instance, a
star millions of miles away produces
enormously rapid vibrations of light
and these vibrations finally reach us
as the ripples in the pond reach the
shore. In the same way vibrations in
the ether bring the light and heat of
the sun to us
Light, heat, and electricity are all
caused by ether waves or vibrations
anu are only lOlu apart Dy luelF lelIS III
and rapidity. If the ether vibrates
at the rate of about four hundred tril
lion waves second the color red is
seen, if twice as fast we see the color
violet, and if more slowly at the rate
of from two hundred to four hundred
trillion. heat is produced, while certain
other speeds of vibration produce eIec>
tricity.
Ether waves and air waves are very
different. Air waves carry sound.
while ether waves do not. They are
also very much slower to travel than
ether waves. The ordinary voice of a
man produces only about a hundred
and thirty vibrations a second, while
a woman's shrill scream reaches about
two thousand vibrations, which is very
little compared with the hundreds of
trillions which represent light.
Electric waves were discovered in
1912 by Joseph Henry, an American.
He discovered these waves when he
produced an electric spark in a room
at the top of his house. The instant
the spark was produced electric action
started up in another wire circuit in
his cellar although there was no visible
connection. After studying the matter
he found that action of some kind had
been set up in the ether causing in
duction, and this is what is used in
sending wireless messages. From a
generating apparatus this peculiar cur
rent is conveyed to a wire called the
aerial wire which is suspended from .
high pole, and from there it passes, by
induction, through miles of space to a
second hanging wire which takes it TO
the receiving instruments where the
dots and dashes of the Morse alphabet
are either heard or printed.
Now that | have told YOU the theory
of sending messages, | will explain the
actual apparatus used. The sending
part of an outfit consists principally of
an induction coil, which You see here,
an ordinary telegraph key, and some
source of electricity. either 4 dynamo
or battery. When the key is pressed.
the current passes through the pri-
mary winding of the coil. which induces
a powerful current in the secondary
winding The terminals of the second
airy winding are connected with these
two steel knobs. between which the
spark occurs. One of these knobs is
connected with aerial wires. When the
sparks occur. impulses go up the aerial
wire and thence through space to the