Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-01
LONG BEFORE MARCON|
Wireless Telegraph Successful
Forty Years Ago.
MAHLEN LOOMS RECALLED
Transmitted Electric Impulses
Through the Air.
vAINLY APPLIED TO CONGRESS
Panic of 1873 Prevented the Financ-
ing of the
Sanguine Until His Death.
vAINLY APPLIED TO CONGRESS

| After lapse of nearly forty years. the
| government intends to try out system
OF wireless biography invented by a
| ashinston man long before the advent
OF Marconi. system that in the early
days of telegra phing promised to do much
TO advance the art. 1t was picked up and
| then dropped and it has remained for the
weather bureau to take interest enough in
| It to try some experiments to see whether
the theories on which the system was
founded hold good or whether there was
some error I'm the observations of the men
who declared they saw wireless messag es
transmitted soon after the close of the
civil war
The inventor of the system was Mahlon
Loomis. then resident of Washington
and practicing dentist. His work in no
way trenched on that of Marconi, for the
Hertz waves were then unknown. and the
inventor depended for his transmission
ON what lie said were certain currents of
electricity to be found in the upper air.
1t was known at that time. and is gen
orally known among scientific men now,
that Prof Henry of the Smithsonian In
stitution in 1912 managed to transmit
electric force, though not in the form of
Geographic signals to a considerable dis
duu the HOOrS OF q mouse
where he was experimenting without the
use of wires. He did not use an induction
coil. and the electric impulse, although it
was such as could be obtained from any
ordinary generating machine, was not in
the form Of long distance discharge
from Leyden jar.
Patent Granted to LOOMS.
LOOMS worked for long time on his
invention and finally patent was
granted July 30, 1927, for IAN improve
ment in telegraphing." He set forth in
his patent that he did not rely on wires
or cables for the transmission Of electric
impulses. but used the earth for one side
OF his circuit and the electric strata of
the upper air for the other side. He said
that he used an ordinary Morse key and
a wire to connect his upper station with
the ground, but that was all.
DIR. Loomis carried on his experiments
in the Blue Ridge mountains not far from
where the weather bureau will duplicate
papers at the time that his work was
entirely successful. The Washington
Chronicle of November 10, 1870. contained
somewhat detailed account of his work.
stating that two mountain stations were
established and that the aerial was a
kite covered with fine wire gauze and
flown on a thin copper wire. The end
of this wire was grounded in a small
pool OF water.
Messages Transmitted.
With this equipment 1t was stated that
DIR. LOOMS transmitted messages 400
miles with his kites at an altitude of 2 100
feet. With his kites at 1900 feet he sent
fourteen miles. The old record does not
say whether the kites were this high
above the ground or were that distance
above sea level. 1t is probable in view
OF the absence of box kites at that date.
that the aerials were not put up as much
as 2, 100 feet above the ground
1t was stated that the experimenter
continued his work in the mountains, and
that In the summer of 1872 he was talk
ing regularly with his assistant over a
ltWenty-mile aerial circuit
The matter was brought up in Congress-
and the inventor tried to get $4,000 to
carry on his experiments. He could not
do this, and after fighting its way through
several sew, committees, he finally got spe-
Aerial telegraph Company in the Dis
| trict of Columbia. There were a number
of New York and Philadelphia capitalists
interested in the enterprise. Everything
looked promising for further developments
when the panic of 1873 wrecked the en-
terprise financially and nothing more was
done.
DR.. LOOMS retired to farm at Terra
Alta in West Virginia and died of heart
tIOuDIS III 1000 lie always retained 1altn
in his enterprise and said that somebody
would take up the work and profit by it
after he was gone. This has already come
true, in a sense, through the work of
Marconi, though he uses an entirely diff
ferent system. Whether the experiments
that are contemplated by the weather
bureau will have any tangible result can
not. of course, be told in advance, but
Prof. Willis l.. Moore Is interested enough
in the old reports Of DIR. Loomis' work 10
nd ir1n nd fro, IN, ;fx,
ing 1t.
The newspaper accounts of the day may
not be taken absolute proof of the
reality OF the achievement. but when the
bill to incorporate the company was be-
fore Congress a number of speeches were
made in favor CT it, some of the men,
bers OF Congress saying that they had
actually seen the apparatus at work.
Senator Pomeroy was one of these. also
Representative Bingham of Ohio. When
the bill came up for its final passage w.
s. Holman of Indiana. who even then had
a reputation as an objectOr. spoke in IA
vor Of it and gave 1t his vote.
The Proposed Tests.
The facts in the case have been trans
mitted by Prof. Willis Moore to Dr. Blair,
who Is carrying on series of kite-fying
experiments at Mount Weather, and he
will try to reproduce the results. The
experiment will not cost anything to
speak Of and possibly will be of value
The officials of the Smithsonian who
know something of the records in the
Loomis case are not enthusiastic over
the revival of the old story. Mr.. May
nard, who has charge of the technical
work, says that he has never found what
was to him satisfactory evidence that
Loomis actually accomplished anything.
He says that ii he could find any of his
old instruments he would be glad to add
that he has never heard of there being
such relics in existence.
1t must be said. however, that Loomis.
in his patent application, says himself
that he used no special apparatus, and
that what he accomplished was done
merely with an ordinary telegraph key
He points out in his statement that at
first the telegraph lines required a COM
plete metallic circuit and that this was
gradually reduced 10 one wire, using the
return He n ic