The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-03-02
FINISHING TOUCHES FOR WIRE.
LESS.

/ Many needs of wireless now seem
about 10 be filled. Il has been a
sturdy of great promise. who in spite
OF his wonders must have much train
Ing to give mans prime service.
I Coming first is q call bell. The
call now is faint clicking in tele-I
phone receiver and night and DAY
operators have to sit in the wireless
stations or cabins, their telephone re-
ceivers clamped to their ears, waiting
for warning. Sleep, or rest may
mean vital message lost. London
scientists recently discussed devices
for reliable alarm and the announce
ment was made that Marconi thinks
he has a practical device.
While the wireless current is so
faint that il will not ring a bell. IL
can be made to gently move the
pointer OF a delicaie instrument. Mar
coni's idea is TO have long dash for
! the signal call, which will move the
delicate gaiTanometer and If the cur
rent is prolonged much beyond the
ordinary dashes used in teIegraphing,
the gaivonometer will ring an alarm
bell Bur it will not ring during a
telegraph message With dots and
dashes Of ordinary length.
/ False alarms have been a serious
handicap. Stray electricity, such as
atmospheric discharges. might start
/ the bell. An operator listening at the
receiver soon learns 10 distinguish
I between signals from another station
and these strays. This new device
has succeeded fairly well in showing
/ the same discrimination.
A useful device would be a record
! ing apparatus. writing t the mes
sage in dots and dashes on q moving
l strip of paper. One device which is
/ too complicated uses q mirror on the
sensitive pointer. which flashes dots
and dsshes OF light on q Photographic
! film strip. The Mareoni engineers
have another solution they are now
pertecting
Once these two devices are practf-
cal there may come wireless recefy-
/ ing stations without operators, the
only thing 10 stand in the way at all
being the regulating of the apparatus.
Even that viii be conquered by little
4 perfections, and for that matter such
wireless receiving station would be
built TO receive messages from just
one station. For instance. q lonely
mining camp up in the mountains.
which could not afford to pay opera
tors. might have receiving station
TO obtain news and orders 4 central
sending station in sparsely settled
sections might send out a daily news
report much the same as the stock
Eickers work now
Wireless telephony is a farorite
problem for engineers today. Scores
Of solutions have appeared. but they
an seem TO be limited TO short dis
tances. & few hundred miles at best.
An English wireless engineer, Capt.
Fl. r. Sankey. has little faith in the
future OF wireless telephony, for he
says that the easier wireless tele-
phony is made technically, the worse
I it viii be for its commercial use. for
once it is easy there viii be so many
cross currents Of talking shooting
around in every direction that nobody
. could hear anything connectedly.
, So wireless telephony has two high
! hurdles to jump, one the perfection of
the apparatus. and the other some
scheme for getting the talk 10 the
right place without interference from
I other talks. The difficulty in getting
] the efficient machine is easy to under
r stand. Wireless telegraphy does not
! use simple currents of electricity to
make dots and dashes. but each dot
or dash is made up of an enormously
rapid series of sparks. say at the rate
: OF 5000 second. But a steady cur.
rent is needed 10 send human voice
; vibrations over the wire. or at least.
series of sparks which run at the
5 rate OF over 10000 a second, and so
are steady enough in practice So the