THE STORY OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3187, 12 May 1909, Page 3

THE STORY OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

There are no applications of science which have inspired so much interest and attention as wireless telegraphy, a circumstance no doubt due to the almost uncanny mysteriousness of it all. That itshould be possible to actuate an instrument from a distance of hundreds or thousands of miles, and oblige that instrument, at will, to reproduce audible or visible signals through the effects of electric waves transmitted to it, without the aid of any continuous connecting wire or conductor, holds most people in spellbound captivity.

It is less than twenty years since I Mr Marconi requisitioned the aid of a broomstick in the construction oi an aerial station from which wireless messages might be made to span space. True, tha gaps could be measured by inches at first, but this small achievement opened up a world-wide field of adventure. Inches became yards, and yards extended to miles. Intervening houses and land elevations made' no difference to the radiation of the waves, for the signals reached their proper destination; and there appeared to be no reason why, with proper mechanical arrangements, telegraphy through space should not be feasible over unlimited distances. The basic principle was then as clear as daylight. Henceforth, the question was merely one of development. The working model was ready. All that remained was to enlarge it. Mr Marconi pursued a definite course, which had been mapped out witii unerring judgment. He decided to visit England, where, by reason of its geographical position, its shipping and its commerce, he considered there ought to be a wide field for the practical application of a system of wireless telegraphy. The inventor soon got to business by demonstrating the working of his apparatus to the British Post Office'officials, Dy whom he I was cordially received. The success attending these early trials created a great deal of wonder, and marked the awakening of keen Interest in a subject which had previously been confined to the sphere of theoretical speculation aid pretty class-room experiments.

After demonstrating the practibility of his invention to the British Post Office —sending a message over two miles—Mr Marconi followed this up in 1897 by a series of tests on Salisbury Plain, acroKS the Bristol Channel, and al, Spezia, in Italy, in the course of which the range was increased from ten to twenty miles. During 1898 and 1899 the apparatus was still further improved, and Ihe distance of practical working extended. Matters now began to extend rapidly. The idea of applying- radiotelegraphy to universal shore and ship communication began to dawn upon the commercial and official world. The general opinion prevailed that the scope oi wireless telegraphy would necessarily be restricted, because the curvature of the earth would be an insurmountable obstacle to signalling over long distances by means of optical signals, such as flashlights, the heliograph, or the semaphore. If this confidently asserted dictum held good, then to ikgoli'ite tne earth's curvature between St. Catherine's and Ihe Lizard, would require the serding and receiving poies at each point to be a mile high. As a matte/ cf fact, the stations were only 300 ft high; and the messages passed to and fro with as mtWi ease as it they were traversing yards instead of hundreds of miles.

It was urged that it was not possible to employ and control a transmitter cabable of radiating an amount of electrical energy large enough to actuate a receiver at really great distances, and that, even if this surmise proved correct, the power of the radiator would necessarily interfere with the successful working of all olh e .r wireless stations that might be on shore or ships, within the sphere of influence of the long-distance sender. What so often occurs in most pioneer wo?k repeats itself. The difficulties were purely imaginary, but in their place other barriers presented themselves and demanded attention.

Some new features of radiation were brought out in, the course of long-distance communications. In the first place, it was found that while fogs did not interfere with the elactro-magnetic, waves, strong light weakened their power, ths theory being that the upper atmosphere which is facing the sun contains move ions or electrons than that portion which is in darkness; and that, therefore, the illuminated and ionised air absorbs some of the energy of the electric waves. Hence the interesting deduction that clsar sunlizht and blue skies, though transparent to light, act as a kind of fog fa powerful Hertzian waves. The immense possibilities of the future can scarcely be comprehended. The attempt makes the mind reel, as though trying to think out infinity. Comparatively spaaking, a very brief space separates the dawn of the great discovery to its present state of practicable efficiency. The heights to which it may attain are beyond human conception. Ere long it will probably be thought as commonplace an occurrence to send a message from England to New Zealand in the fraction of a second as it is to use the telephone to-day.

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