WIRELESS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1925, Page 4

WIRELESS.

THE ETHER, OF SPACE. (IJy “ Lambdlni.” in the Sydney Herald.” Recent developments respecting short wireless waves have ur.'yotF :;eientjlie investigators to an intensive study of the problems underlying tile constituents of ether, for up to the present absolutely nothing is known as to what ether is, or wily it is. Sir Oliver Lodge, E.R.S., has studied the ether of space probably more ( .|„vely than any other scientific investigator. Ilis conclusions are that ether i s the seat of all electrical force, and indeed, the sole transmitter of every kind of force; that it is manifestly the vehicle of stulistratum underlying all electricity and magnetism and the laws of gravitation and cohesion. He points out Hint though an electric charge must he composed of ether in a way that has yet to he discovered, ether is not electricity any more than it is matter. Ether is co-extensive with the plivsical universe, and is absent from no part of space. Physical demonstration of this absolute permeation of all space by other is found in the I act that wiielcss broadcasting lias been successhilly accomplished from the depths of a mine several thousand feet below the earth’s surface, and Iroin aeroplanes several thousand feet above the surlace of the earth. A recent American experiment was so siicccsslul that the message was siiccesslullv relayed without the natural voice of the transmitter in the aeroplane being “drowned’ by the noise of the engines. , Ether lias, Fir Oliver Lodge points out, its being in the heart of the atom and unites the parts of the,atoll? and holds the atoms together. These atoms lu* designates electrons or protons, and : points out that whilst science does not . know of what the atom is made it does know that all the physical bodies which i we see and handle are hut elaborate and beautiful congeries ol positive and , negative electrons held together by the | mysterious force, ether. Sir Oliver j Lodge further states that “ all the | material senses ol human beings are 'dependent on the omnipresence of j ether.” and that it is “the primary ■ instrument of mind, the vehicle ol j soul, the habitation of spirit ; truly it I may lie called the living garment of Hod.” ••THE FLOW OF (TERENT." Although scientists do not know o! what electrons are composed, they j have discovered means whereby electrons and the ether of space can lie ! utilised in the service ol inankiiul. the most potent example of this being found in wireless telegraphy and telephony. Other illustrations are the

wireless control ol aeroplanes and torpedoes; the “ray” that is supposed to he able to puL aeroplanes out ol ! notion when in the sky, eiiusing them to fall to the earth like a siriekmi bird, and the other “ray” that is believed to have the power of dealing death to large numbers from a considerable distance. Each transmission from a wireless broadcasting station consists ol the emission of a stream ol elect runs transmuted with a particular force and motion controlled by the transmitter with wonderfully delicate but exceptionally powerful machinery. The whirl or motion ei these electrons through the

ether of space sets up a sympathetic motion or whirl in the copper wire ol ihe aerial receiver, which is composed of an infinitesimal number of “stable’ ami "Moating” electrons held together la,- eiher. This whirl of the electrons

throe ;b space sets up in the copper wire of the aerial what electricians I all a Mow of current, ’’ which in its turn i controlled and regulated by what are technically known as "resistances.” which cause modulations in the telephones of the receiver in harmony with the son in 1 waves created by dm voice ol the transmitter. Dr A. T. Waterman, of Yale Fniver ■die. ui:o has liven conducting special experiments regarding Ibis subject, (om hides that in a piece of copper wire tie sir. of a pin’s head Lhere are .Y.!.li::<l.n,ii!.li;;:i.(H!() "free ” elect rolls, anil that there are gO.tlllll.lKri ■■lixeil" for every single "free " electron. Ilis contention, which as yet is hut a scientific tlieorv, i- that the " Mow ol eur-

rent " consists of movement amongst the "free” electrons. Dr Charles C. Ridwell, of the Cornell University, has started a series of experiments in hi-

physical laboratory to ascertain how the movement of these “ free ” electrons is brought about with a view to ! still further harnessing the ether ol I space for wireless telegraphy and telephony and other kindred purposes. As yet the results, according to l)r Bidwell’s latest statement on the subject, have been purely negative lull extremely interesting and important in that they p lint the way to further experiments, irom which he hopes to secure positive practical results. " THE HEAVISIDE THEORY.” Croups of scientists in Britain. America, and other countries are working on a different line of experimentation, with a view to discovering the laws which cause, as is at present believed, the wireless waves Lu conform in some mysterious manner with the spherical conformation of the earth, and why there is what wireless engineers tprm "lading” during certain

atmospheric conditions, and why this “ lading ” is worse during the hours of sunrise and sun-et than at other

periods uf the day and night. When Marconi, in the early days uf wireless telegraphy, transmitted messages from I’oldhu in Cornwall- the lirst ether power station in the world—to St .John’s, .Newfoundland, the late

I.onl Hnyleigh, one of the world’s greatest physicists, questioned the possibility of ether waves bonding round the curvature of the earth to the extent necessary to permit of such waves trussing the Atlantic. It has since been proved beyond the possibility of doubt, that wireless waves do travel right round the circle of the earth. Thus physicists were faced with the fact that a seeming physical impossibility is an accomplished fact, and they have sot about propounding theories to account for the fact.

The most generally accepted theory amongst the leading physicists is what is known as “ the Heaviside tlieorv, which was propounded early in the present century by Mr Oliver Heaviside, F.R.S.. who died early this year at the age of 71, and whose work on electric-magnetic induction is now universally accepted as the basis for further scientific investigations. When scientists were disputing the possibility of long-distance wireless telegraphy on the assumption that the ether waves would spread outwards and upwards, and so be lost in interstellar space. Mr Heaviside maintained that the contrary would be the case, as the semicomlucive surface of the earth would “ hind ” and control the ether waves in much the same manner as the con-(iu-'ior “ hinds ” and controls a 1 ‘lm

trie high-frequenev current. He furtier contended that there was a possibility of the existence, on the extreme verge of the atmosphere, about 50 miles upwards, of a conducive layer of ionised air, which would prevent tlie ether waves being lost in space, but which, on the contrary, would “ confine ” the wireless waves to a definite atmospheric zone. Professor ,f. A. Fleming, working on this theory, maintained that the upper atmosphere contains highly ionised dust flung off from spherical bodies by

light pressure from the sun, and that this ionised atmosphere causes the top of the wireless wave to deflect forward. Dr W. if. Levies, in 1912, showed by a series of mathematical demonstrations how an ionised rarefied atmosphere was capable of increasing the progress of electric wav«s, and cWJfefKfetl that if the ionisation increased from the earth upwards the top of a wireless wave would travel faster than the bottom layer, so that in due course the top of the ether wave would actually incline forward, after the manner of the leaning tower of Pisa, and thereby actually conform to the curvature of the earth.