Telegraphy Without Wires

Take down the telegraph wires and sell them for old junk. If the claims now made by Nicola Tesla and Marconi, the young Italian experimenter, are correct the wires, never ornamental, will soon lose their practical utility and will serve no higher purpose than to fence in country pastures. Announcements recently made as to new electrical discoveries are so astounding that it is no wonder that the world is slow to grasp their real meaning. Under the circumstances skepticism is only natural and may be excused, but the history of electrical discovery and invention is so filled with marvels that the public should regard nothing as improbable. The high position which Tesla occupies in the electrical world gives great weight to his statements, and, if he has been correctly quoted, his announcement that the era of telegraphy without wires is here will be generally credited. Of Marconi the world at large knows less, but among scientific men his name receives the highest respect, notwithstanding that he is still a mere youth.

It is curious that these two men, without in any way collaborating, have been working along much the same lines to accomplish much the same result. For several years it has been an open secret that Tesla has been striving to make wireless telegraphy an accomplished fact. He has taken the public into his confidence to some extent and from time to time has given marvelous exhibitions in the line of his preliminary experiments. Few believed, however, that he had even approached the goal of his efforts until this last announcement was made. On Tuesday in New York the inventor in the presence of a number of friends gave a demonstration of his achievement, and, although the details reported are rather vague and decidedly unconvincing, his statement that he had produced an electrical disturbance which was felt everywhere on the earth’s surface was sufficiently definite. All scientific investigators agree that electricity is a latent force and that the earth is charged with it. The great dynamos of power houses do not make electricity, but simply gather it.

The inventor claims to have discovered a method of disturbing the earth currents so that this disturbance may be felt everywhere. His plan is to provide an apparatus, the mechanism of which is still kept secret, which will record the disturbance. Thus if one apparatus is located in New York, another in London and another in Melbourne all three will record the disturbance in exactly the same manner. The apparatus shown by Tesla to his friends consisted of a huge black disk about eight feet in diameter and hung upon a frame. From the centre of this disk protruded a brass electrode seven inches in diameter. During the progress of the disturbance great sparks leaped from the electrode with a crackling sound, displaying dazzling brilliancy. The length of some of these sparks was fully eight feet and like fiery serpents the waves of flame darted in graceful lines about the disk. According to Mr. Tesla’s theory, had a certain simple machine been in position anywhere else on the earth’s surface, it matters not how far away or how near, the electrical impulses of which these sparks were the visible demonstration would have been recorded, as the impulses sent over a telegraph wire are recorded by the clicking of the telegraph machine. When Tesla was asked what was occurring during the progress of this display, he replied:

“I am producing an electrical disturbance of intense magnitude, which is continuing throughout the entire earth. In other words, I am producing a disturbance of the earth’s charge of electricity which can be felt to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

“And the result will be?”

“Ah,” said Tesla, his face lighting up and his spare figure vibrant with pride and enthusiasm, “that is almost incomprehensible. This electrical disturbance by means of certain simple instruments can be felt and appreciated at any point of the globe. In this way messages can be sent to the entire earth around and be taken up at any part of the earth without the aid or intervention of wires in any way at all.”

Looking at the matter from one point of view Marconi has advanced still farther than Tesla, for the young Italian has actually succeeded in sending messages over short distances without the use of wires. His experiments have caused much excitement among electricians and scientists and there are few of them who do not have great confidence in the practicability of the discovery. Marconi claims that by means of electrical reflectors he can transmit a message in one direction and only one, which of course would bring the invention so much nearer perfection. The tales that are now being told of these marvelous new discoveries read like stories from the “Arabian Nights;” in fact, the author of those fascinating inventions would have been put to shame had he lived in the closing years of the nineteenth century. The new discoveries only serve to show what has been so often asserted — that the application of electricity is only in its infancy and what mankind knows of this mysterious and wonderful force is as nothing compared to that which it has not yet learned. The Teslas and Marconis of to-day may be truly called magicians, but in a few decades the world will look back upon them and regard them merely as pioneers who performed useful services, but whose knowledge was crude and small.