The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays. Thursday, May 18, 1899. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 3899, 18 May 1899, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays. Thursday, May 18, 1899. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

For some time past considerable interest has been displayed in the experiments conducted " by Signor Marconi in order to demonstrate the fact that his system of wireless telegraphy ia of practical utility. A few weeks ago the cable informed us that a message had been sent from the South Foreland lightship, and the East Goodwin lightship, and that the fullest success had attended the experiment Last Saturday we were informed that extensive experiments were being conducted by the Italian Government in connection with the manoeuvres of the fleet in Sicilian waters. The messages from the lightships, by means of a wireless telegraph transmitter erected in one of the rooms of the lightship, were flashed across to a similar apparatus in the other ship. The wires from the lighthouse instruments were led to a pole fixed outside some 130 feet high, whilst the wiros attached to the lightship instruments were led to an 80 feet high pole. The importance of this method of communication is not solely to be estimated by the distance traversed by the signals. For that matter, if the distance were over solid ground it would be just as convenient, and probably cheaper, to use the ordinary telegraph or telephone. But communication across water has difficulties of its own. A British Royal Commission examined into the matter a couple of years ago, and found that out of the 1095 lighthouses and so forth on the coasts of the United Kingdom < nly 51 were in communication with the land telegraph system. Yet the importance of such communication is obvious, and it is not from want of trying that the difficulty in the way has not yet been overoome. The cable system lias been tried and found wanting. Just when it was

most imperatively necessary to send news to the shore, in times, that is, of heavy and stormy weather, the cable would snap and fall. Nobody has succeeded in discovering a way of firmly attaching a cable to a lightship in such weather. If this system of wireless telegraphy should succeed where other plans have failed, Signor Marconi, the practical exponent of the system in Europe, will have emphasised his claims to the world’s gratitude.

Granted the feasibility of the scheme on a small scale, it is only a matter of time for its employment in still larger concerns and over much greater distances. When Signor Marconi said that with a pole of 130 ft. high communication could be established between Folkestone and Boulogne, the world smiled quietly to itself in placid scepticism. But only the other day the Times received the first press message transmitted by wireless telegraphy from Boulogne to Dover, and fittingly enough, that message announced the success of Signor Marconi’s experiments. This once achieved, there is apparently no limit to the possibilities of the system; and one is hardly surprised to learn that an offer has been made to establish electrical communication by wireless telegraphy between London and the Cape. True this was to be through the conduction system, by which the messages are sent, not through the air but through tbe earth or water. This, of course, would be much more costly, at any rate in the early days, and Signor Marconi’s system, under which messages are received and sent by Hertzian waves, has the merit of singular cheapness. It certainly seems to combine all the advantages of telegraphy by cable without its inconveniences, and in places where wires cannot be laid it is of course absolutely superior to our present method. In times of war the conveyance of messages by land is of supreme importance, and some doubt is expressed as to how far Signor Marconi’s system would answer here. One objection is that the message can be read by others than those for whom it was intended, which if true, would, of course, more than defeat the object of the signalling commander. But this difficulty, it appears, can be got over by the aid of syntonizing devices, so that

| only the instrument which was accuiately and particularly tuned to the same tone as another could receive messages from that instrument. The fact that hills and houses and similar obstructions stand between the instruments is no drawback at all. The message pierces through the thickest fog that England, mother of fogs, can produce ; and, if it can do that, what are hills or even the curvature of the earth that they should be regarded ? A great deal depends upon the " coherer, r the receiving instrument. If that be properly made aud kept properly tuned, there can be little trouble. Then there is the vertical conductor, the long pole to which wires from the apparatus are attached. Signor Marconi is busily experimenting on this, and he hopes to be able to reduce its height. The principle is that the distances across which messages can be sent vary according to the square of the length of the conductor, and with improved instruments the height will gradually be reduced. There can be no doubt that the new system is deservedly attracting the attention of scientific men. Signor Marconi has definite successes to point to. Besides his exchange of signals between Poole and Bournemouth, for instance, a distance of 18 miles, he has sent signals between Bath and Salisbury, a distance of 34 miles, and he has signalled the results of a regatta at Kingstown, in which lie accompanied the competing yachts, to a Dublin newspaper. Then there are these successful experiments with regard to the connection of lightships with the shore and the BoulogneDover connection. It is reasonable to anticipate great results—results in the shape ot vessels communicating with the shore in time of storm or fog or danger of any sort. Signor Marconi is still young, and the success which crowns but seldom the lifelong labours of less fortunate men seems to be his already. The system which he is so carefully and practically advocating must of necessity add to the well being of the world, besides constituting one of its marvels. Well might Professor Oliver Lodge say lately in the course of a lecture before the Royal Institute “ At the end of the eighteenth century the wonder was that you should be able to signal with wires. At the end ot the nineteenth the wonder is that you should be able to signal without them.