A Wireless Telegraphy War

The war over the invention of wireless telegraphy may now be regarded as fairly begun and, from present indications, the country will soon be regaled with a legal conflict compared to which the telephone battles of the seventies and eighties will appear puny and of small account. So far as we have been able to discover, no less than four men now claim the honor of having been the originator of this marvelous method of electrical communication.

These are Marconi, Slaby, Lodge and Tesla, while they one and all freely admit that they simply make use of those singular etheric waves discovered by Hertz and which bear his name. True scientist that he was, Hertz had no desire to become rich at the expense of the welfare of the race. Consequently, he did not patent his various machines and instruments but gave the right to their usage to the world without a restriction. Apparently, then, all that has been accomplished by Marconi and the others who dispute his claims is the perfection of apparatus which in the crude state had been devised by Hertz himself.

As is generally known, a most important portion of the apparatus is the “coherer” — a tiny glass tube filled with fine silver filings which, when the invisible force affects them, immediately coalesce. The problem that confronted Marconi was therefore the devising of a means of separating the filings which otherwise would continue to cling together, to the destruction of all ability to decipher the messages received and which are interpreted by the movements of the filings.

This difficulty was successfully overcome by means of the “tapper” — a small hammer which, through its continuous tapping of the tube of the coherer, separated the filings at the instant, approximately, that the Hertzian waves ceased to act upon them. This invention, simple as it is, was of course a masterpiece in its way; but here comes Prof. Silvanus Thompson, an English electrician of fame, who asserts that Lodge, and not Marconi, was its inventor. And so the war is on.

Tesla will very likely play but small part in the affray, for he claims to be the possessor of a method of wireless telegraphy different from Marconi’s and much more efficient. So vast, however, are the interests at stake that one cannot safely venture upon a prediction in such a matter as this. The man who can assert sole proprietorship to any successful means of telegraphing without wires will become a millionaire many times over in a very short period. That is the prize that hangs before the dazzled mental vision of these warring scientists.