Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-08-02
ENGINEER /. N. SAMMIS =.
WRITES STORY OF WIRELESS
Maroon Official Now in Honolulu Was inventors Chief AS
sstant in the Early Improvements of the Original Inven-
tonSprang Into Commercial Success in Short Space OF
Time-Rado TeiegraphiC Tuning" T. - @*'.<~~

Writing in Popular Mechanics for
August, F. Minturn Sammis, chief en- :
gineer in America of the Marconi sys-
tenn, who is now in Honolulu arrang
ing for the building of great wireless
station here, tells. something Of the life
of Marconi and explains his wonderful
invention. Mr.. Sammis says: s9s
s. As wireless teiegraphy grips the
Imagination Of men more and more by
its ever growing wpnders, so does
the marvel increase that its inventor
developed and achieved his epoch
making idea when he was in age but a
scHooIboy, expected to do no more
than study his lessons and enjoy him.
selsl Gugiielno ,Marconi studied at
the universities of Bologna and Padua.
and when only Is years old, on his
fathers estate near Bologna, Italy,
plunged enthusiastically into the
dreamlands of electricity. In the
course of the next few years he headed
straight for one of its great mysteries,
the so-called Hartzian waves, or cleo
trical impulses which could travel
through air without the use of a wire
In 1895, when he was only 20 years old,
his advanced knowledge on this OBJ
scure subject inspired him with the
theory that these waves could be sent
out and received at will, and in that
year he had constructed the first wire
less apparatus, whose efficiency aston
lshed even his enthusiasm. ~. T. 4
Harnesses Waves. ..%s.-. ~
Wireless telegraDhy under the mas
/ terful hand of Guglielmo Marconi
sprang into commercial success in a
remarkably short. space of time Prior
to 1895, electromagnetic waves had
been discovered, and men of many
countries had Experimental with them,
but it remained for Marcon1 to see
that these waE yes could be harnessed
and made the servant of man. that
they could be made to transmit intel
ligence from ship to shore and from
one continent to another.
The waves or vibrations that make
wireless telegraphy possible are in
many respects similar to those of light.
They travel at the same tremendous
speed of IS6,330 miles a second. There
are several ways of producing these
waves, but the one in common use is
called the spark method. Briefly, it, is
this: An induction coil or high-ten-
sion transformer is connected to an
electric current supply so as to pro-
duce a spark across an air space. By
opening or closing an ordinary tele
graph key the operator causes spark
of longer or shorter duration to jump
across the air space. This spark pro-
duces the vibrations by virtue of it's
OsCillatOry character.
Acts Like Spring.
In other words, it acts similarly to
Il straight spring drawn back and sud
denly released. 1t Vibrates to and fro
until it's energy is exhausted and the
rate at which it Vibrates is determined
by its length BY varying the rate of
vibration longer or shorter waves may
be produced. By means of a device,
called the oscillation transformer, the
vibrations are transferred from the
primary circuit to the aerial or mast
head wire, always conspicuous at any
wireless telegraph station, thus per-
forming the same function relative to
the spark gap circuit that a radiator
does to a steam cheating boiler.
That which is called tuning" has
to do with the adjustment of the wave
length of the aerial wire to that of the
closed circuit In this manner a re-
ceiving station may be tuned to
transmitting station or. in other words,
the instruments of the former so adj
justed that they will be more sensi--