BY WIRELESS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 5, 4 August 1916, Page 7

BY WIRELESS.

i}]'. Lewis I lonian.) Not infrcfpiently the familiarity of the uses iind blessings resulting from a science objures the interest attaching to tile origin of the science itself. Similarly the phrase "By Wireless." arises no interest, while a terrible murder tragedy evokes widespread public notice. It is hoped, i however, that in the proson! absence of domestic tragedies,, a lev, '<-i;inrks about Wireless Telegraphy .;.ay prove 1 acceptable. The disCi;vci\ of wireless telegraphy is older than is commonly supposed. So long ago as IS 12, Morse was experimenting in America, r.utl twelve years later 'J So I) Linsoy, a Scotchman,} transmitted a message 500 yard;- in water at Portsmouth (England) with-, out the aid • wires. Proeee, too, found that wio : ■■ there wen- overhead telephone wires and underground telegraph wire , the one disturbed the other. Working on tin's idea, he bridged The Solonl by a system of telegraphy without wires, and in 1886, succeeded ;;i transmitting signals through 122 yards of earth from the surface to the bottom of a coal mine, and later a distance of 3J miles across the, Bristol Channel. It was Edison (about tlio year 1889) who devised a practical system for signalling between moving trains and signal boxes, and this, be it said, is of incalculable benefit where there are fogs. In 1895 Marconi, who had then been experimenting in the science under review, sought the advice of Sir William I'roeee, and the following year the success of a system over nine miles was announced. Following this in 1898, it was reported a number of lives bad been saved on the East Goodwin Lightship through the ship being in communication with ! the South Foreland Lighthouse. In 1901, a message was transmitted from the Isle of Wight and received at the Lizard (Cornwall), ? distance of 200 miles. So great was the progress made in developing the .science that in 1905, upwards of fifty vessels were lilted with a system of wireless telegraphy, and during the siege of Port Arthur, war news was transmitted. To-day, the solitude of the ocean traveller is broken down, for the writer vividly Iremembers reading on one of the Orient liners when journeying from London, a full report of rioting in England, which took place the previous day. While the names already mentioned in this article richly deserve to adorn the page of history in connection with Wireless Telegraphy, it would < incomplete without the addition of Hi rtz. Sir Oliver Lodge, Lord Kelvin, and last, but not least, (lark .Maxwell,. of Cambridge University, whoso studies and investigations entitle him to some recognition wherever Wireless Telegraphy" is referred to.