Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-02-28
The New Wireless
H. Gernaback in Electrical Experimenter.


II will come as a profound shock to all wire
less enthusiasts, scientific and amateur alike,
that their present-day notions on wireless are
totally erroneous and not based upon actual
facts. For years we chung to the theory that
a wireless message radiates from the aerial
wires of the sending station and speeds over
the surface Of the earth through the ether to-
wards the receiving station. We thought that
we were sending out pure Hertzian waves from
our transmitters. We thought that we received
these waves over the aerial wires OF our reeev-
ing station. All of these theories are wrong
and will be rehgated shortly into the past along
with the early notion that the earth stood shll,
while sun, moon and stars revolve around It,
Remain only the physical facts that we did
send and did receive messages without wires
but they are not sent by means OF pure Hertz
waves, nor do they so by way of the ether as
radiations.
In a highly Illuminating article Nikola Tesla
explodes all of our present orthodox views as to
wireless propagation and makes it clear that the
earth is the sole medium through which our wire
less impulses travel. in the form of true conduc-
ton. Particularly does this hold true for long
distance messages: Here we are sending out
a compound impulse three-q quarters of which IS
galvanic current, travelling through the conduct
ing earth, the other quarter or less is in the
form of Hertz waves, going by way OF the
ether This explains why we can send signals
to airplanes and vice versa; but even here we
probably have to do not with pure Hertz
waves; it is almost certain that we have capac-
ity-inductive effects as we'll
Tesla maintaining that there can be no long
distance effects by radiations transmitted
through the ether, but rather by currents
through the EARTH it follows that in his opinion
all our radio apparatus is designed and operated
faulty. Indeed, this is not brand new idea
of the famous inventor. He has been preach
ing it ever since he took out his first patents
and described his system in l8o3-long before
Marconi thought of wireless. But he was
preaching to a stone-deaf scientific world.
But how simple it all becomes when we stop
to apply little reason and logic to Tesla's
claims. For instance we can send radio inn
pulses three to five times as far over salt water
as over land. Why? Simply because the inn
pulses go through the water, which is much
better conductor than earth alone. If we were
sending pure Hertzian waves, why do we con-
meet one wire at both sending and receiving
station to the ground? Hertz never dreant of
such thing. If you are still unconvinced that
the earth is the chief medium of transmission,
disconnect your ground wires entirely and try
to send and receive. Now you may work with
Hertz waves but the distances you can bridge
will be pitfully small.
Already Tesla's logic is filtering into our
radio scientists minds. All the big stations are
beginning to scrap their towers and aerial
wires, at least for receiving. They now bury
their aerial" wires in the ground, and lol they
can receive signals twice as far as before. In
credible, but it is being done every day. And
wonders upon wonders-how we will laugh at
our present and past blndness-the static inter-
ference is practically gone the minute we pull
our aerial wires down and bury themi Static
electricity? There never was a reason for hav-
ing the bugaboo, for there is no static" in the
ground
But Tesla goes much farther. In time he
will show the world wireless power transmits
sion effected not by ether waves but by cur
rents through the earth, which is a irst-rate
conductor. Like all big things, the problem is
simple. At some point on the globe he will
erect a station powerful enough to charge the
whole earth with electricity-and keep it
charged. To do this we need about 10000 lilo-
watts. Then at any point on the globe the cur
rent can be tapped by means Of suitable appar-
atus. Like bell ringing transformer, con-
nected to your supply line, no current is con-
sumed unless you close the secondary circuit
Tesla's world wireless works just that way. No
tant receiving station.