Marconi's Newest Wireless Success

Huge Masts Are Replaced by Small Cylinders.

SYSTEM ALWAYS WORKS

Several Months’ Experimenting Results in Present Accomplishment — Timed Messages and Multiplex Systems.

PROBABLY the most important step in the advance of wireless telegraphy toward practical use is that which has just been made by Marconi. Only those who have followed the new telegraphy in its development can realize what this latest success means to the world. What has been done in wireless communication previous to this fall is pretty generally known. The old system — for it may be called old now that an entirely new one has replaced it — consisted of an elaborate set of instruments and apparatus, the chief external evidence of which was an aerial wire suspended from a tall mast. It was in the height of the mast that the virtue of the system was supposed to exist. Marconi discovered early in his career and yet only a few years ago, that if he doubled the height of his mast, he could send messages four times as far. It was the so-called law of squares for ether wave effect. For example he found that he could telegraph 100 miles if his aerial wires were 150 feet high at the terminals. It was easy to compute the height required for crossing the Atlantic with ether waves — a wire suspended 750 feet above the transmitting station would, according to the calculation, send a message 2,000 miles — and extravagant predictions were made based upon the possibility of establishing the invisible communication between the Eiffel Tower in Paris and a huge structure in New York or Washington. Some thought that, if the average height of the two aerial wires were 750 feet, messages could be exchanged. This was the theory of a number of German and English scientists, and thus a working plan seemed possible between the Eiffel Tower and the Washington monument. But, alas for scientific prediction that is not based on experiment! No one tried the proposed plan, not even Marconi, who succeeded in proving the law of squares in every attempt he made, but it may have been noticed that Marconi was not one of those who made the Atlantic crossing prediction.

The New System.

Now all this has been changed. The aerial wire and the tall masts are done away with, just as static electricity was replaced by chemical electricity and chemical by electro-magnetic. Marconi has already telegraphed sixty miles with a cylinder four feet high instead of a mast and wire 125 feet high. And we may be sure that if Marconi lets the world know that he has telegraphed sixty miles with a four-foot cylinder, he has done more than that, for Marconi is a man who never lets the public catch quite up to him. As long ago as last January, Marconi began to work on the cylinder plan. The experiments begun in his laboratory at Poole Harbor first from room to room with receivers only one one-thousandth part as sensitive as the one he used for regular work between France and England; then he took his apparatus out of doors and, for several weeks along the beach, he went through hundreds of experiments with the utmost patience, gradually approximating the proper relation between receiver and transmitter until perfect messages were finally sent across to the Isle of Wight, eighteen miles away. He did not tell outsiders of this success, because he felt that he must first perfect his apparatus and plans, and demonstrate conclusively that the new system was better than the old.

The Changed Method.

In essential arrangement and working, the cylinders plan is not greatly different from that of the aerial wire. The transmitting instruments are practically the same, a battery, induction coil, earth wire, etc., the only change in this part of the apparatus being the introduction of resistance coils where needed and an arrangement for sending “tuned” messages (which may be explained later). But on the outside of the room which contains these, nothing is to be seen. The cylinder stands close at hand, upon a table, it may be, insulated from any earth connection except through the transmitting instruments when in action. The receiving station presents the same appearance; indeed the stations are alike, being fitted to send and receive messages in the same room. When a message is being received, the wire leading to the cylinder is disconnected from the transmitter and attached to the receiver. This arrangement is used, of course, only when a single installation is in operation. With the apparatus for differentiating between messages which Marconi has worked a number of installations may be working together in the same room or building and then it is possible to send and receive just as many different sets of messages as there are instruments, differing in capacity. But this is a further step, and, just now, Marconi is busy with the perfection of the cylinder plan on one installation. The duplex and multiplex systems are as sure to come as they have in the case of ordinary wire and cable systems.

Some Scientific Problems.

Just how the messages are sent is more of a puzzle now than ever. Formerly no one doubted the statement that ether waves constituted the element of communication. Now this is being questioned. Why not earth currents? suggest some, and the inquiry is not easily answered. The production of those high tension impulses might easily disturb the electric equilibrium of the earth, it would seem, and the very sensitive receiver in electric harmony, so to speak, with the transmitter would record this disturbance just as it occurs — in long or short impulses, or in dots and dashes as they appear on the recording instrument. Of course, if this be true, any properly arranged receiver can “take” the message provided it is within range, but the same fact is evident in the old system. That difficulty is obviated, however, by the syntonic apparatus, which makes it impossible for a receiver not exactly in tune with the transmitter to receive the messages sent. One may judge of the difficulty in finding the right electric “time” when one realizes that these high tension vibrations vary from millions of vibrations to trillions per second. It is interesting to note that 400,000,000,000 vibrations in the ether per second produce light and some trillions per second produce the X-ray. To the theory that this wireless telegraphy is carried on through the earth, that is, by disturbing the earth’s electric equilibrium, the objection arises that such disturbance would affect near at hand wire or cable telegraph systems, dynamo power houses and all sorts of electric operations. Not so, necessarily. Sound waves and light waves do not conflict because their rates of vibration are different. These high tension vibrations of millions per second should not disturb vibrations which are lower, as are telephone vibrations, for example, or light vibrations which are higher. It is true that any disturbance of the earth’s electric equilibrium will, to an extent, affect electric operations on the earth’s surface, but this is not a large factor and the difficulties can probably be easily overcome. But it is not best to be too sure as to the nature of the operation. Marconi has given months of thought and experiment to just this problem, and it is doubtful if he, even, is sure of what the force really is. Tesla has made many predictions in connection with transmitting electric power in just this way. His plan meant simply that he would “kick” the earth electrically and the power put in the blow could be picked up anywhere on the surface of the earth, if the proper detecting and collecting apparatus was used. A French scientist has recently come forward with another plan quite similar and the French government is trying to carry out his ideas. He proposes to test the earth’s surface at a large number of places in France and find spots equal in electric capacity, or, by digging down far enough in the necessary places reduce all of these spots to an equal capacity. Then a disturbance at any one will be noticeable at all of the others. It is a simple matter, then, to create a disturbance of short and long durations as desired, and thus reproduce the Morse code. The difficulties here are also very great. A rain storm for example, in one section of the country would be sure to change the electric capacity of the earth in that neighborhood.

The System That Always Works.

It is with relief then that we turn to a plan such as Marconi’s, which seems applicable to all conditions. Whether it works through the ether above the earth, as we have been led to believe, or through the ether in the earth or by a disturbance of electric equilibrium in the earth, does not matter so much, as the fact that results are actually obtained.

“It works,” says Marconi, “and that is enough.”

Description of the Apparatus.

The present apparatus is very simple. The whole of it can be placed on an ordinary table. The cylinder, the new feature, is of metal and its function is to radiate ether waves, if we hold to the Hertzian theories, or to provide a sort of balancing capacity, if we believe in the electric equilibrium disturbance theory. In either case it removes most of the difficulties of the vertical wire system. If the law of squares still holds good, a cylinder twenty-five feet high will be all that is required for transatlantic messages. A thirty-five foot cylinder will send messages from England to South Africa or from San Francisco to Manila. If the result is brought about by the disturbance of the earth’s electric equilibrium, then it will only be necessary to make a greater disturbance in order that the effect may be detected at greater distances than are now covered. This latter plan is necessary because of the varying capacities on the earth’s surface and the loss of electricity at various points. It is something like pouring a little water into a pail that is already full: the water will overflow at the weakest point of resistance on the edge. A proper receiver, open for the electric disturbance, will detect the effect on the earth’s equilibrium. In the receiver there is no change save that of sufficient resistances to bring it in harmony with the transmitter. The usual Calzecchi Onesti principle of detecting electric waves is used.

Some Possibilities.

At the recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, considerable attention was paid to a wireless telegraph plan which would work provided wires were laid at the terminal stations parallel to each other. Imagine trying to use such a system on ships at sea. If the wires are stretched through the water, the length of the ship, messages may be sent when the ships lie parallel to each other and a limited distance apart. The inventor admits that his system will not work if the ships are not parallel. But how often will ships miles apart at sea be parallel? With the present Marconi system, the ships may be in any position, and no matter what the condition of weather, he can send messages from one to the other. With an apparatus which he can stow away in his cabin, the captain of a ship can communicate to any other equipped ship or to a land station many miles away. His command of space is wonderfully multiplied, he becomes a master of wind and wave.

Limitless in Value.

On land, what a change can be wrought in communications. The simplified apparatus can be carried about almost as easily as a trunk. For railway trains, news distributing bureaus, war maneuvers, etc., it should be most useful. Army movements could be accomplished and campaigns carried on many miles from the seat of war. The apparatus could be set up and put into working order in a half hour. Heretofore a large part of the expense of an installation consisted in getting and erecting proper masts for the aerial wire, and it always took several days’ time. With the new plan the expense is about one-half of what it was. Our own government is opening negotiations with Marconi for the use of his system on our battleships and cruisers. Some forty English ships are at present being equipped as rapidly as the apparatus can be constructed and put into working order. A great advance has been made. Marconi is only 26 years old and with the years of work which he has planned out ahead the imagination is taxed in the effort to put a limit on the possibilities of his future in the field of wireless telegraphy.

HERBERT WALLACE.