Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-11-17

modlfieS the trains or rushing eiectri-
cal waves sent out by the tiny arc.
Is it not astonishing that anything so
simple could be used to such marvel-
Gus effect?
The principle Of this device was
thought out 80 years ago by Chiches-
ter Bell nephew of DIR. Graham Bell
the inventor of the magnetic telephone:
but it was never put to any practical
use before.
The device and the methods employ.
ed by Count Arco are as different from
Prof. Vanni's as anything well could
be. You know that the electric cur
rents which light our lamps and run
ctr street cars are. generated by ma
chimes called edgnamos,. and these are
simply devices for whirling a coil of
wire in front of a strong magnet. Ev-
cry time the coil goes past the magnet
a, little electrical pulse is generated,
first in one direction and then in the
reverse direction. This reversal in or
dinary machines takes place about so
times per second Count Arco employs
a generator wherein the reversal takes
place 10000 times per second
Then by pitting one small dynamo
against another, and this against a
third, the frequency of these reversals
is stepped up" five or six times. and
each time the frequency is doubled.
The machine is incredibly ingenious,
and could only have been thought out
after electricians had learned to play
with electricity as an artist does with
the colors of his palette. The method
is far too technical to be described
here, but the result is precisely the
same as from the interruptions pro-
duced in the Moretti arc-that is. cleo
trical waves with a frequency" of
i60. 600 per second. d.
OF course the Telefunken machine Is
far more powerful than the Morretti
arc. sc that the waves it sends out will
travel an immensely greater distance.
The trouble is that it is too powerful
and that there are no means now ade-
Guate to control it. To talk from Ber-
lin (Nauen) to Vienna required q
whole battery of transmitters of the
most powerful type and man with a
very strong voice to talk into them.
TO telephone across the Atlantic, Count
Arco estimated that it would require
the equivalent of 1.500 or 1900 of the
ordinary telephones you use every day.
But whereas the current in the Or
dinary telephone is SO small that II
YOU put three or four receivers on the
liue the energy will not be SUFFICIENT
to make them all talk distinctly, the
messages from Nauen were received
hv n dozen or more stations and could
literally have been received by millions
Of stations if they existed. The elee-
trical waves which travel out from
Nauen, and frem every wireless sta
zion. travel in er-widening circles,
inst like the waves from the stone
dropped in the pond; you Will see,
tberafore that at q distance of sever
al hundred miles the amount of ener-
sy which is intercepted by any single
aerial is almost infinitely smali-not
millionth or even a billionth part. SO
there could conceivably be million
wireless ears listening for the mes
sages from Nauen just as easily as
there were a dozen. 1t would be no
more trouble in sending the messages
and would cost no more.
And this may be the use OF wireless
telephony in the future-that is, 10
distribute news and messages OF al
scrts from central stations to an enor-
NOUS number of subscribers, And mu.
sic. TOO, and possibly plays ana pic
tures as well, for televislon-seeins
through a wire-is not long way OH.
And as soon as we can see through q
wire we shall almost certainly be able
to see equally we'll. and possibly bet
ter without a wire-that is. by means
of electrical waves. 1t is worthy OF
note that speech by wireless is mar
valous,y clear and distinct. You know
that in an ordinary telephone the long
er the distance the more the voice Is
blurred and distorted. In wireless
there ia no such blur or distortion.
Sneech is lust as perfect at 600 or ~"
miles as it is at a single mile. The
only requirement for talking across the
Atlantic or the Pacific. or indeea aui.e
around the world, is. first, machihe
or arc capable of generating waves
that will travel the required oistahce
before they become damped uowh ~
far that they will no longer aetua.e
a telephone receiver; and, secohuis'
of a microphone or ,transmitter power
ful enough to modify these s.Iohe
electrical waves into the FORMS =.
sound and speech. No new Iorm ol
receiver is required. It IS OF slrikns
interest that the magnetic telephone
devised by Prof. Bell. now nearly "
vears ago. remains stiIl the most per-
feet and the most sensitive recep.a-
Gle of electrical sounds
Dynamos or generators OF sumcien.
newer can now be built; in deed, one u
now being set up at Nauen with wn',n
it would be perfectly possible 70 .aiA
from Berlin to New York or Chicaeo,
IL only they had a transmitter OF eaua,
nower. The microphone's the thinss
Here is a great chance for the lnven-
tor. Like the Bell receiver. the car.
hon microphone discovered py ro
Huphes. and developed by Edison anu
others, has been but little iinprossu
and long ago reached the limit OF ,.s
oanacitv which is only for the very
waakest currents. The Vanni micro
nhone will carry currents 10 or ~ tilnea ,es
as strong, Tut what is wanted Is wv
ar 600 as strong Prof. Pupin' OF Wv
york. not to speak of hundreds 0i o.n
ers has tried to develop such h,gn-
mower microphone, and young MI Ny =.
ers claims to have succeeded. nu. no
wir, not say what is his device, ana m