Marconi Will Tell Wireless Secrets

Dinner in His Honor to Be Given by Electrical Engineers.

DISTINGUISHED GUESTS EXPECTED

Hosts Will Act as Critics in the Assemblage Which Will Gather in the Waldorf To-morrow Night.

Before a critical audience, made up of the most distinguished and able electricians in the world, Marconi, the inventor of the system of telegraphy which promises to revolutionize the entire system and make communication without wires possible, will give to-morrow night the first oral detailed description of his invention and the result of his experiments in signaling over the sea between two hemispheres. He will be the guest of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at a dinner in his honor, and his hosts will be his critics.

There never has been a gathering of scientific men in which the subject to be considered and described has been fraught with such amazing possibilities. The dinner to Cyrus Field was after his accomplishment in financing the great enterprise in laying the Atlantic cable; the recognition of Lord Kelvin followed his work in making the operation of the Atlantic cable practical and practicable. Marconi is to be toasted at the very inception of his revolutionary plan of telegraphy. It is a radical reversal of the usual conditions—as radical, in fact, as Marconi’s own invention.

THE GUEST OF 300.

Marconi will sit down at the hospitable mahogany in the Astor Gallery of the Waldorf-Astoria at 7 o’clock to-morrow night with a company of three hundred. He will be honored by the presence of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who has not attended a public dinner for years, and never cared to; he will be seated within speaking distance of Thomas A. Edison, who will go in defiance of his physician’s orders.

General Nelson A. Miles will be a guest and so will Admiral Dewey and several naval officers, interested intensely in the subject of wireless telegraphy, for in its perfection they see a change in the tactics of all the navies of the world. Captain Samuel Reber, chief of staff under General Greely, will represent the Signal Service Department.

The British Institute of Electrical Engineers has deemed the occasion of sufficient importance to be represented by one of its ablest members, George G. Ward, and Columbia University will send three distinguished representatives, Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, the president; Dr. Pupin, the electrical expert, and Professor Crocker. Nikola Tesla, who suggested the possibility of wireless telegraphy ten years ago, but never went into a practical test, has been invited, and it was believed last night that unless some previous engagement prevented he would be present to hear Marconi’s description.

ONLY FOUR SPEAKERS.

Calvin W. Rice, electrical engineer of the New York Edison Company, is the chairman of the dinner committee; T. C. Martin is the toastmaster. There will be four speakers only: President Steinmetz of the Electrical Institute, who is coming down from Schenectady to preside; Professor Pupin and Elihu Thompson of Columbia, and the young inventor himself. It is possible that General Miles and Admiral Dewey may be called to respond for the army and navy.

The Italian Ambassador has sent a message regretting his inability to be present in person. Italy will be represented by the Italian consul in New York. The Edison company will be represented, in addition to Mr. Edison, by Arthur Williams, and John Bottomly, nephew of Lord Kelvin, who, curiously enough, is Marconi’s American representative, will be present. Andrew Carnegie will send James N. Betram as his proxy.

The dinner will not be marked by any unusual features, save the talk on the present and future of wireless telegraphy by the inventor.

Signor Marconi arrived in New York yesterday from Montreal. He said he had been pledged not to make any statement for publication in advance of his talk to-morrow night. On Wednesday he will sail for Europe, but between Monday and Wednesday he may decide to take with him a bride.