Tips Tesla to Beat Marconi

M. DU CRETTE A RIVAL OF BOTH IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Problem of Transatlantic Messages Not Solved, Says Frenchman — Says He and a Russian Perfected Branly Tube Receiver — He Believes Marconi Uses It.

Special Cable Despatch to THE SUN.

PARIS, Jan. 18. — M. du Crette, the eminent inventor and savant, has spent the past five years in a special study of wireless telegraphy. It is announced that he has patented a number of inventions relating to the latest mode of signal transmission.

He says that he does not believe that Signor Marconi has solved the problem of wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic, but he feels sure that the feat will be accomplished. He believes that Mr. Tesla is the likeliest to succeed, because he is working at the least perfect end; namely, the transmitter. He regards the receiving apparatus as a combination of the microphone and telephone.

The Branly tube, as arranged by himself and M. Popoff, the celebrated Russian engineer, may now be considered perfect. M. Popoff made successful experiments in the beginning of 1900, when a Russian battleship was injured by blocked ice in a rocky headland on the island of Hohlaad, in the Gulf of Finland. He established wireless communication with the town of Hotka, thirty miles away, and sent information, with the result that a number of sailors were carried off an iceberg and the ice ship Yermak was despatched and effected the work of rescue. This receiver has now been introduced into the Russian Navy.

M. du Crette believes that Signor Marconi has employed it in his experiment between the Lizard and Newfoundland.