BRIDGING THE ETHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 81

BRIDGING THE ETHER.

By a. Banker. All down the ages, until comparatively recent times, man has failed to make 'practically any advance whatever in the faculty of pressing the forces of Nature into his • servjce, the earlier part of the eighteenth century being a, most on, a level in that respect (with the exception of the mariner's" compass and of gunpowder) with the antediluvian age But with the advent of th© nineteenth century the knowledge of theee forces and the power to utilise them has advanced by leaps and bounds: steamships, railways. tel-egxa-plis, telephones, motors, ■electricity for lighting purposes and for motive power, photography, submarines to navigate the depths of the sea, and dirigible airships to navigate the aiT, the X-raya, sa valuable in surgery, with innumerable othei inventions and discoveries so conducive to our well-being and to our enjoyment., But perhaps the most wonderful discovery and invention of them all is that of wireless telegraphy, now brought to such, perfection that a regular commercial installation is in full and complete- working order between. Ireland and America, every tap of the little Morse sounder given at Cape Breton in Canada being recorded with perfect distinctness at the receiving station on the Irish coast, more than 3000 miles distnnt. ■ ATia truly startling and marvellous is the. apparatus which seta up those electrical vibrations, -which pulsate in less than w second of time acrose the broad Atlanta an<i are recorded tlaer& the same inßtant they are given In the centre of a, large shed is a huge coil connected by cables with a great series of metallic plates, forming a gigantio battery, charged by powerful dynamos, ana having such intensity that it is dangerous to approach nearer than 6ft or 7ft. But th« sending of a mesßage is still more startling. At first a deep growling roll of rending thunder reverberates from the battery, and then, as each spark passes, the deafening uproar is indescribable; cresh — crash — crash — as •though a violent skirmish were taking place between two opposing pickets of soldiers; now firing volley after volley, or now irregu ar file firing, until, the message completed, the uproar ceases and again all is calm. And who knows whether or no those pulsating vibrations reach our neighbour Mars, for the void of space oan offer no resistance. But this we do know that in the Grea* Hereafter, when earth-fetters are thrown asid« and mortality has put on immortality those who by patient continuance in well-doinsj and oy faith in the crucified Son of God, who by suffering in their stead has opened the gates of the glory land to mil believers, have become inheritors of that realm will be able, iike the angels of God, in the flash of a thought to traverse the gulf between earth and heaven But. «las, there^ art others for whom is reserved but the blackness of darkness. Many 6chool children suffer from constipation, which is often the cauec of seeming stupidity at lessons. Chamberlain* Tablets are an ideal medicine to Rive. 4 child, for they are mild and gentle in thei* effect, and will cure even ch^-vnio consti* pation. For -sJ© ftverywhasr--