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PART II
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See also:PART II .—WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
The See also:early attempts to achieve electric telegraphy involved the use of a See also:complete metallic See also:circuit, but K. A. Steinheil of See also:Munich, however, acting on a See also:suggestion given by See also:Gauss, made in 1838 the important See also:discovery that See also:half of the circuit might be formed of the conducting See also:earth, and so discovered the use of the earth return, since then an essential feature of nearly every telegraphic circuit. Encouraged by this success, he even made the further suggestion that the remaining metallic portion of the circuit might perhaps some See also:day be abolished and a See also:system of wireless telegraphy established.'
See also:Morse showed, by experiments made in 1842 on a See also:canal at See also:Washington, that it was possible to interrupt the metallic electric circuit in two places and yet retain See also:power of electric communication (see Fahie, loc. cit., p. so). His See also:plan, which has been imitated by numerous other experimentalists, was as follows:—On each See also:side of the' canal, at a considerable distance apart, See also:metal plates e e (fig. 35) were sunk in the See also:water; the pair on one side were connected by a See also:battery B, and the pair on the other by a See also:galvanometer or telegraphic See also:receiver R. Under these circumstances a small
portion of the current from the
battery is shunted through the gal-
vanometer circuit, and can be used
to make electric signals. Morse and Canal See also:Gale, who assisted him, found, how-ever, that the distance of the plates up and down the canal must be at least three or four times the width of the canal to obtain successful results. Numerous investigators followed in Morse's footsteps. See also: See also:Wilkins in 1849, and H. Highton in experiments described in 1872, also revived the same suggestion for wireless telegraphy.
The invention of the magneto-See also:telephone put into the hands of electricians a new See also:instrument of extraordinary sensitiveness for
the detection of feeble interrupted, or alternating, cur- Treat-
rents, and by its aid J. See also:Trowbridge in 188o, in the See also:bridge. See also:United States, made a very elaborate investigation of the See also:propagation of electric currents through the earth, either See also:soil or water (see " The Earth as a Conductor of See also:Electricity," Amer. Acad. Arts and Sei., 188o). He found, as others have done, that if a battery, See also:dynamo or See also:induction coil has its terminals connected to the earth at two distant places, a system of electric currents flows between these points through the crust of the earth. If the current is interrupted or alternating, and if a telephone receiver has its terminals connected to a See also:separate metallic circuit joined by earth plates at two other places to the earth, not on the same equipotential See also:surface of the first circuit, sounds will be heard in the telephone due to a current passing through it. Hence, by inserting a break-and-make See also: He and others also suggested the applicability of the method to the inter-communication of See also:ships at See also:sea. He proposed that one See also:ship should be provided with the means of making an interrupted current in a circuit formed partly of an insulated metallic See also:wire connected with the sea at both ends by plates, and partly of the unlimited ocean. Such an arrangement would distribute a
' For a See also:history of the discovery of the earth return, see Fahie, History of Electric Telegraphy to the See also:Year 1837, pp. 343-348.
Morse.
B
IIIIIIIIII
duction Method.
system of flow lines of current through the sea, and these might he detected by any other ships furnished with two plates dipping into the sea at See also:stem and stern, and connected by a wire having a telephone in its circuit, provided that the two plates were not placed on the same equipotential surface of the See also:original current flow lines. Experiments of this See also:kind were actually tried by See also:Graham See also:Bell in 1882, with boats on the See also:Potomac river, and signals were detected at a distance of a mile and a half.
At a later date, 1891, Trowbridge discussed another method of effecting communication at a distance, viz., by means of magnetic induction between two separate and completely insulated circuits. If a See also:primary circuit, consisting of a large coil of wire P (fig. 36), has in circuit a battery B and an interrupter I, and at some distance and parallel to this primary circuit is placed a secondary circuit S, having a telephone T included in it, the interruptions or reversals of the current in the primary circuit will give rise to a varying magnetic See also: By the use of a key in the battery circuit as well as an interrupter or current reverser, signals can be given by breaking up the continuous hum in the telephone into long and short periods. This method of communication by magnetic induction through space establishes, therefore, a second method of wireless telegraphy which is quite See also:independent of and different from that due to conduction through earth or water. See also:Sir W. H. Preece, who took up the subject about the same See also:time as Prof. Trowbridge, obtained improved See also:practical results Preece. by combining together methods of induction and See also:con- duction. His first publication of results was in 1882 (Be t..4ssoc. See also:Report), when he See also:drew See also:attention to the considerable distance over which inductive effects occurred between parallel wires forming portions of telephonic and telegraphic circuits. Following on this he made an interesting experiment, using Morse's method, to connect the Isle of See also:Wight telegraphically with the mainland, by conduction across the See also:Solent in two places, during a temporary failure of the submarine See also:cable in x882 in that channel. In subsequent years numerous experiments were carried out by him in various parts of See also:Great See also:Britain, in some cases with circuits earthed at both ends, and in other cases with completely insulated circuits, which showed that conductive effects could be detected at distances of many See also:miles, and also that inductive effects could take See also:place even between circuits separated by solid earth and by considerable distances. A. W. Heaviside in 1887 succeeded in communicating by telephonic speech between the surface of the earth and the subterranean galleries of the Broomhill collieries, 350 feet deep, by laying above and below ground two complete metallic circuits, each about 21 M. in length and parallel to each other. At a later date other experimentalists found, however, that an equal thickness of sea-water interposed between a primary and secondary circuit completely prevented similar inductive inter-communication. In 1885 Preece and Heaviside proved by experiments made at See also:Newcastle that if two completely insulated circuits of square See also:form, each side being 440 yds., were placed a See also:quarter of a mile apart, telephonic speech was conveyed from one to the other by induction, and signals could be perceived even when they were separated by l000 yds. The method of induction between insulated primary and secondary circuits laid out See also:flat on the surface of the earth proves to be of limited application, and in his later experiments Preece returned to amethod which unites both conduction and induction as the means of affecting one circuit-by a current in another. In 1892, on the See also:Bristol Channel, he established communication between Lavernock Point and an See also:island called Flat Holme in that channel by placing at these positions insulated single-wire circuits, earthed at both ends and laid as far as possible parallel to each other, the distance between them being 3.3 M. The See also:shore wire was 1267 yds. long, and that on the island 600 yds. An interrupted current having a frequency of about 400 was used in the primary circuit, and a telephone was employed as a receiver in the secondary circuit. Other experiments in inductive telegraphy were made by Preece, aided by the officials of the See also:British Postal See also:Telegraph Service, in See also:Glamorganshire in 1887; at See also:Loch Ness in See also:Scotland in 1892; on See also:Conway Sands in 1893i and at Frodsham, on the See also:Dee, in 1894. (See Jour. Inst. Elec. Eng., 27, p. 869.) In 1899 experiments were made atMenai Straits to put the lighthouse at the Skerries into communication with the See also:coastguard station at Cemlyn. A wire 750 yds. in length was erected along the Skerries, and on the mainland one of 31 m. long, starting from a point opposite the Skerries, to Cemlyn. Each See also:line terminated in an earth See also:plate placed in the sea. The See also:average perpendicular distance between the two lines, which are roughly parallel, is 2.8 m. Telephonic speech between these two circuits was found possible and See also:good, the communication between the circuits taking place partly by induction, and no doubt partly by conduction. On the question of how far the effects are due to conduction between the earth plates, and how far to true electromagnetic induction, authorities differ, some being of See also:opinion that the two effects are in operation together. A similar See also:installation of inductive telephony, in which telephone currents in one line were made to create others in a nearly parallel and distant line, was established in 1899 between Rathlin Island on the See also:north See also:coast of See also:Ireland and the mainland. The shortest distance between the two places is 4 M. By stretching on the island and mainland parallel wire circuits earthed at each end, good telephonic communication over an average distance of 62 m. was established between these independent circuits. The difficulty of connecting lightships and isolated lighthouses to the mainland by submarine cables, owing to the destructive See also:action of the tides and waves on rocky coasts on the wit-shore ends, led many inventors to look for a way out of ioughby the difficulty by the See also:adoption of some form of inductive smith. or conductive telegraphy not necessitating a continuous cable. Willoughby S. Smith and W. P. See also:Granville put into practice between See also:Alum See also:Bay in the Isle of Wight and the Needles See also:light-See also:house a method which depends upon conduction through sea water. (See Jour. Inst. Elec. Eng., 27, p. 938.) It may be explained as follows:—Suppose a battery on shore to have ane See also:pole earthed and the other connected to an insulated submarine cable, the distant end of which was also earthed; if now a galvanometer is inserted anywhere in the cable, a current will be found flowing through the cable and returning by various paths through .the sea. If we suppose the cable interrupted at any place, and both sides of the See also:gap earthed by connexion to plates, then the same conditions will still hold. Communication was established by this method in the year 1895 with the light-house on the Fastnet.' A cable is carried out from the mainland at Crookhaven for 7 m., and the See also:outer end earthed by connexion with a See also:copper See also:mushroom See also:anchor. Another earthed cable starts from a similar anchor about too ft. away near the shore line of the Fastnet See also:rock, crosses the rock, and is again earthed in the sea at the distant end. If a battery on the See also:main-See also:land is connected through a key with the shore end of the main cable, and a speaking galvanometer is in circuit with the short cable See also:crossing the Fastnet rock, then closing or opening the battery connexion will create a deflection of the galvanometer. A very ingenious See also:call-bell arrangement was devised, capable of responding only to regularly reversed battery currents, but not 1 See Fahie, History of Wireless Telegraphy, p. 170; also 5th Report (1897) of the Royal See also:Commission on See also:Electrical Communication with Lightships and lighthouses. to stray " earth currents," and very good signalling was estab lished between the mainland and the rock. Owing to the rough seas sweeping over the Fastnet, the conditions are such that any See also:ordinary submarine cable would be broken by the wearing action of the waves at the rock boundary in a very short time. Another worker in this See also:department of See also:research was C. A. See also:Stevenson, who in 1892 advocated the use of the inductive system pure and See also:simple for communication between the main-land and isolated lighthouses or islands. He proposed to employ two large flat coils of wire laid horizontally on the ground, that on the mainland having in circuit a battery, interrupter and key, and that on the island a telephone. His proposals had See also:special reference to the See also:necessity for connecting a lighthouse on Muckle Flugga, in the Shetlands, and the main-land, but were not carried into effect. See also:Professor E. Rathenau of See also:Berlin made many experiments in 1894 in which, by means of a conductive system of wireless telegraphy, he signalled through 3 M. of water. Sir See also:Oliver See also:Lodge in 1898 theoretically examined the inductive system of space telegraphy. (See Jour. Inst. Elec. Eng., 27, p. 799•) He advocated and put in practice experimentally Lodge. a system by which the primary and secondary circuits were " turned " or syntonized by including condensers in the circuits. He proved that when so syntonized the circuits are inductively See also:respondent to each other with a much less power See also:expenditure in the primary circuit than without the syntony. He also devised a " call " or arrangement for actuating an ordinary electric bell by the accumulated effect of the properly tuned inductive impulses falling on the secondary circuit. A very ingenious call-bell or annunciator for use with inductive or conductive systems of wireless telegraphy was invented and described in 1898 by S. Evershed, and has been practically adopted at Lavernock and Flat Holme. (Id., 27, p. 852.) In addition to the systems of wireless or space telegraphy de-pending upon conduction through earth or water, and the in- ductive system based upon the power of a magnetic See also:Edison. field created round one circuit to induce, when varied, a secondary current in another circuit, there have been certain attempts to utilize what may best be described as electrostatic induction. In 1885 Edison, in See also:conjunction with Gilliland, See also:Phelps, and W. Smith, worked out a system of communicating between railway stations and moving trains. At each signalling station was erected an insulated metallic surface facing and near to the ordinary telegraph wires. On one or more of the carriages of the trains were placed also insulated metallic sheets, which were in connexion through a telephone and the secondary circuit of an induction coil with the earth or rails. In the primary circuit of the induction coil was an arrangement for rapidly intermitting the current and a key for short-circuiting this primary circuit. The telephone used was Edison's See also:chalk See also:cylinder or electromotograph type of telephone. Hence, when the coil at one fixed station was in action it generated high frequency alternating currents, which were propagated across the See also:air gap between the ordinary telegraph wires and the metallic surfaces attached to one secondary terminal of the induction coil, and conveyed along the ordinary telegraph wires between station and moving See also:train. Thus, in the See also:case of one station.and one moving railway See also:carriage, there is a circuit consisting partly of the earth, partly of the ordinary telegraph wires at the side of the track, and partly of the circuits of the telephone receiver at one place and the secondary of the induction coil at the other, two air gaps existing in this circuit. The electromotive force of the con is, however, great enough to create in these air gaps displacement currents which are of magnitude sufficient to be See also:equivalent to the conduction current required to actuate a telephone. This current may be taken to be of the See also:order of two or three micro-amperes. The signals were sent by cutting up the continuous hum in the telephone into long and short periods in accordance with the Morse See also:code by manipulating the key in the primary circuit. The system was put into practical operation in 1887 on the Lehigh Valley railroad in the United States, and worked well,but was abandoned because it apparently fulfilled no real public want. Edison also patented (U.S.A. Pat. Spec., No. 465971, 14th May 1885) a plan for establishing at distant places two insulated elevated plates. One of these was to be connected to the earth through a telephone receiver, and the other through the secondary circuit of an induction coil in the primary circuit of which was a key. The See also:idea was that See also:variations of the primary current would create electromotive force in the secondary circuit which would See also:act through the air See also:condenser formed by the two plates. It has sometimes been claimed that Edison's proposed elevated plates anticipated the subsequent invention by Marconi of the aerial wire or antenna, but it is particularly to be noticed that Edison employed no spark gap or means for creating electrical high frequency oscillations in these wires. There is no See also:evidence that this plan of Edison's was practically operative as a system of telegraphy. A very similar system of wireless telegraphy was patented by Professor A. E. Dolbear in 1886 (U.S.A. Pat. Spec., No. 350299), in which he proposed to employ two batteries at two places to affect the potential of the earth at those places. At the sending station one battery was to have its See also:positive pole connected to the earth and its negative pole to an insulated condenser. In circuit with this battery was placed the secondary circuit of an induction coil, the primary circuit of which contained a telephone transmitter or microphone interrupter. At the receiving station a telephone receiver was placed in See also:series with another insulated battery, the negative terminal of which was to be in connexion with the earth. There is no evidence, however, that the method proposed could or did effect the transmission of speech or signals between stations separated by any distance. Many other more or less imperfect devices-such as those of Mahlon Loomis, put forward in 1872 and 1877, and Kitsee in 1895—for wireless telegraphy were not within the region of practically realizable schemes.
Space or Radio-Telegraphy by Hertzian Waves.—Up to 1895 or 1896 the suggestions for wireless telegraphy which had been publicly announced or tried can thus be classified under three or four divisions, based respectively upon electrical conduction through the soil or sea, magnetic induction through space, combinations of the two foregoing, and lastly, electrostatic induction. All these older methods have, however, been thrown into the background and rendered antiquated by inventions which have grown out of He: tz's scientific investigations on the See also:production of electric waves. Before the classical researches of See also:Hertz in 1886 and 1887, many observers had noticed curious effects due to electric See also:sparks produced at a distance which were commonly ascribed to ordinary electrostatic or electro-magnetic induction. Thus See also:Joseph See also: See also:Thompson, E. J. See also:Houston and others' D. E See also:Hughes made some remarkable observations and experiments in or between the years 1879 and 1886 though he did not describe them till some twenty years afterwards. He discovered a fact subsequently rediscovered by others, that a See also:tube of metallic filings, loosely packed, was sensitive to electric sparks made in its vicinity, its electrical resistance being reduced, and he was able to detect effects on such a tube connected to a battery and telephone at a distance of 50o yds.2 These distance effects were not understood at the time, or else were referred simply to ordinary induction. Hertz, however, made known in 1887 the experimental proofs that the See also:discharge ' See Telegraphic See also:Journal of See also:London, vol. iv. pp. 29, 46, 61; Proc. Phis. See also:Soc. Lond., vol. ii. p. 503. 2 See See also:Fable, History of Wireless Telegraphy, p. 289; also an important See also:letter by D. E. Hughes in The Electrician, London, 1899, 43, 40. of a condenser produces an electric spark which under proper conditions creates an effect propagated out into space as an electric See also:wave. He employed as a detector of this wave a simple, nearly closed circuit of wire called a Hertz resonator, but it was subsequently discovered that the metallic microphone of D. E. Hughes was a far more sensitive detector. The See also:peculiar action of electric sparks and waves in reducing the resistance of discontinuous conductors was rediscovered and investigated by Calzecchi Onesti,l by Branly,2 See also:Dawson See also:Turner,3 Minchin, Lodge," and many others. Branly was the first to investigate and describe in 1890 the fact that an electric spark at a distance had the power of changing loose aggregations of metallic powders from poor to good electric conductors, and he also found that in some cases the See also:reverse action was produced. Lodge particularly studied the action of electric waves in reducing the resistance of the contact between two metallic surfaces such as a plate and a point, or two balls, and named the See also:device a " coherer." He constructed one form of his coherer of a See also:glass tube a few inches long filled with See also:iron borings or See also:brass filings, having contact plates or pins at the end. When such a tube is inserted in series with a single voltaic See also:cell and galvanometer it is found that the resistance of the tube is nearly See also:infinite, provided the filings are not too tightly squeezed. On creating an electric spark or wave in the neighbourhood of the tube the resistance suddenly falls to a few ohms and the cell sends a current through it. By shaking or tapping the tube the original high resistance is restored. In 1894 he exhibited apparatus of this kind in which the tapping back of the tube of filings was effected automatically. He ascribed the reduction of resistance of the See also:mass to a See also:welding or cohering action taking place between the metallic particles, hence the name coherer." But, as Branly showed, it is not universally true that the action of an electric wave is to reduce the resistance of a tube of powdered metal or cause the particles to cohere. In some cases, such as that of peroxide of See also:lead, an increase of resistance takes place. Between 1894 and 1896 G. Marconi gave great attention to the improvement of devices for the detection of electric waves. Marvonl. He made his sensitive tube, or improved coherer, as follows: —A glass tube having an See also:internal See also:diameter of about 4 millimetres has sealed into it two See also:silver plugs PP by means of See also:platinum wires WW (fig. 37); the opposed faces of these plugs are perfectly smooth, and are placed within a millimetre of each other. The interspace is filled with a very small quantity of See also:nickel and silver filings, about 95 per cent. nickel and 5 per cent. silver, sufficient to fill loosely about half the cavity between the plugs, which See also:fit tightly into the tube.5 The tube is then exhausted of its air, and attached to a See also:bone or glass See also:rod as a holder. This form of electric wave detector proved itself to be far more certain in operation and sensitive than anything previously invented. The See also:object which Marconi had in view was not merely the detection of electric waves, but their utilization in practical wireless telegraphy. Sir See also: Marconi, Brit. Pat. Spec., 12039 of 1896.made, but no one had overcome the practical difficulties or actually shown how to do it. G. Marconi, however, made the important discovery that if his sensitive tube or coherer had one terminal attached to a metal plate lying on the earth, or buried in it, and the other to an insulated plate elevated at a height above the ground, it could detect the presence of very feeble electric waves of a certain kind originating at a great distance. In conjunction with the above receiver he employed a transmitter, which consisted of a large induction or spark coil S having its spark balls placed a few millimetres apart; one of these balls was connected to an earth plate E and the other to a plate or wire insulated at the upper end and elevated above the surface of the earth. In the primary circuit of the induction coil I he placed an ordinary signalling key K, and when this was pressed for a longer or shorter time a torrent of electric sparks passed between the balls, alternately charging and discharging the elevated conductor A, and creating electrical oscillations (see See also:ELECTROKINETICS) in the wire. This elevated conductor is now called the antenna, aerial wire, or air wire. At the receiving station Marconi connected a single voltaic cell B, and a sensitive telegraphic relay R in series with his tube of metallic filings C, and interposed certain little coils called choking coils. The relay was employed to actuate through a See also:local battery B2 an ordinary Morse See also:printing telegraphic instrument M. One end of the sensitive tube was then connected to the earth and the other end to an antenna or insulated elevated conductor See also:A2. Assuming the transmitting and receiving apparatus to be set up at distant stations (see fig. 386), the insulated wires or plates being upheld by masts, its operation is as follows:—When the key in the primary circuit of the induction coil is pressed the transmitting antenna wire is alternately charged to a high potential and discharged with the production of high frequency oscillations in it. This See also:process creates in the space around electric waves or periodic changes in electric and magnetic force round the antenna wire. The antenna wire, connected to one spark See also:ball of the induction coil, must be considered to form with the earth, connected to the other spark ball, a condenser. Before the spark happens lines of electrostatic force stretch from one to the other in curved lines. When the discharge takes place the ends of the lines of electric force abutting on the wire run down it and are detached in the form of semi-loops of electric force which move outwards with their ends on the surface of the earth. As they travel they are accompanied by lines of magnetic force, which expand outwards in ever-widening circles? The magnetic and electric forces are directed alternately in one direction and the other, and at distances which are called multiples of a wave length the force is in the same direction at the same time, but in the case of damped waves has not quite the same intensity. The force at any one point also varies cyclically, that is, is varying at any one point 6 Figures 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49 are See also:drawn from Professor J. A. See also:Fleming's Electric Wave Telegraphy, by per-See also:mission of See also:Longmans, See also:Green & Co. For a more complete See also:account of the nature of an electric wave the reader is referred to Hertz's Electric Waves, and to the See also:article ELECTRIC WAVE. See also The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy, by J. A. Fleming. w W and varying from point to point. This periodic See also:distribution in time and space constitutes an electric wave proceeding out-wards in all directions from the sending antenna. If we consider the lines of magnetic force in the neighbourhood of the receiving antenna wire we shall see that they move across it, and thus create in it an electromotive force which acts upon the coherer or other sensitive device associated with it. Marconi's System of Wireless Telegraphy.—Marconi's system of electric wave telegraphy consists therefore in setting up at the transmitting station the devices just described for sending out See also:groups of damped electric waves of the above kind in long or short trains corresponding to the dash or dot signals of the Morse alphabet. These trains are produced by pressing the key in the primary circuit of the induction coil for a longer or shorter time and generating a long or short series of oscillatory electric sparks between the spark balls with a corresponding creation of trains of electric waves. At the receiving station he connected, as stated, one end of the sensitive tube to earth and the other to the antenna, and improved and applied a device of Popoff for automatically tapping the tube after each electric impact had rendered it conductive. He caused the relay in series with the sensitive tube to set in action not only a telegraphic instrument but also the electromagnetic tapper, which was arranged so as to administer light blows on the under side of the sensitive tube when the latter passed into the conductive See also:condition. The effect was to See also:print a dash or dot on a See also:strip of telegraphic See also:paper, according as the incident electric wave train lasted a longer or shorter time. In addition he added certain spark-generating coils across the contacts of the relay and tapper. He thus produced in 1896 for the first time an operative apparatus of electric wave telegraphy. Its simplicity and compactness recommended it immediately for communication between ship and shore and for intermarine communication generally. Marconi's earliest experiments with this apparatus were made in See also:Italy. In 1896 he came to See also:England and gave demonstrations to the British postal telegraph department and other officials. Some of these experiments were made on See also:Salisbury See also:Plain and others in the Bristol Channel between Lavernock and Flat Holm and See also:Bream Down in 1897. Early in 1898 permanent stations were established between Alum Bay and See also:Bournemouth, a distance of 144 m., where successful results were obtained. Later the Bournemouth station was removed to See also:Poole See also:Harbour, and the Alum Bay station to Niton in the Isle of Wight, the distance being thus increased to 30 m. In See also:December 1898 communication was established by the Marconi method between the See also:East See also:Goodwin lightship and the See also:South See also:Foreland light-house; and this installation was maintained for upwards of a year, during which it was the means of saving both See also:life and See also:property. In See also: Elec. Eng., 1899, 28, p. 273. About this time he introduced various improvements into the receiving apparatus. Instead of inserting the sensitive tube between the receiving antenna and the earth, he inserted the primary coil of a peculiar form of oscillation transformer and connected the terminals of the tube to the secondary circuit of the transformer. Lodge had previously suggested the use of transformed oscillations for acting on the coherer (see British Patent Spec., No. 11575 of 1897), but it is not every form of oscillation transformer which is suitable for this purpose. Marconi's successes and the demonstrations he had given of the thoroughly practical See also:character of this system of electric wave telegraphy stimulated other inventors to enter the same field of labour, whilst theorists began to study carefully the nature of the See also:physical operations involved. It was seen that the effect of the impact of the incident electric waves upon the See also:vertical receiving wire was to create in it electrical oscillations, or in other words, high frequency alternating electric currents, such that whilst the potential variations were a maximum at the See also:top or insulated end of the antenna the current at that point was zero and at the See also:base the potential variation was zero and the current See also:amplitude a maxi-mum. Hence devices for detecting the oscillations in the antenna-are merely very sensitive forms of ammeter and See also:voltmeter. It was also recognized that what is required at the transmitting end is the See also:establishment of powerful electric oscillations in the sending antenna, which create and radiate their See also:energy in the form of electric waves having their magnetic force component parallel to the earth's surface and their electric component perpendicular to it. Transmitting A pparatus.—We now consider the more See also:recent appliances for electric wave telegraphy under the two divisions of transmitting and receiving apparatus. First as regards thetransmitting part, one essential See also:element is the antenna, aerial, or air wire, which may take a variety of forms. It may consist of a single plain or stranded copper wire upheld at the top by an insulator from a See also:mast, See also:chimney or See also:building. The wire may have at the upper end a plate called a " capacity See also:area," electrically equivalent to an See also:extension of the wire, er part of the wire may be See also:bent over and carried horizontally. In many cases multiple antennae are used consisting of many wires arranged in See also:cone or See also:umbrella-See also:rib See also:fashion, or a metal roof or metallic chimney may be employed (see fig. 39). In any case the antenna serves as one surface of a condenser, the other surface of which is the earth. This condenser is charged electrically and then suddenly discharged and violent electrical oscillations are set up in it, that is to say, electricity rashes to and fro between the antenna and the earth. This creates rapid variations in electric and magnetic force round the antenna and detaches energy from it in the form of an electric wave. The antenna has at one moment a static electrical See also:charge distributed upon it, and lines of electric force stretch from it to the surrounding earth. At the next instant it is the seat of an electric current and is surrounded by closed lines of magnetic force. These static and kinetic conditions succeed each other rapidly, and the result is to detach or throw off from the antenna semi-loops of electric force, which move outwards in all directions and are accompanied by expanding circular lines of magnetic force. The whole process is exactly analogous to the operation by which a See also:violin See also:string or See also:organ See also:pipe creates an air or See also:sound wave. The violin string is first drawn on one side. This See also:strain corresponds to the electrical charging of the antenna. The string is then suddenly released. This corresponds to the electrical discharge of the antenna, and the subsequent string vibrations to the electrical vibrations. These communicate their energy to the surrounding air, and this energy is conveyed away in the form of air waves. There are three ways in which the antenna may be charged:- . (i) It may be separated from the earth by a pair of spark balls which are connected respectively to the terminals of an induction coil or transformer, or other high tension generator. If these spark balls are set at the right distance, then when the potential difference accumulates the antenna will be charged and at some See also:stage suddenly discharged by the discharge leaping across the spark gap. This was Marconi's original method, and the plan is still used under the name of the See also:direct method of excitation or the plain antenna. (ii) The antenna may have oscillations excited in it inductively. F. Braun suggested in 1898 that the oscillatory discharge of a See also:Leyden See also:jar should be sent through the primary coil of a transformer and the secondary coil should be interposed between the antenna and an earth connexion' Marconi 2 imparted practical utility to this idea by tuning the two circuits together, and the arrangement now employed is as follows:— A suitable condenser C, or battery of Leyden jars, has one coating connected to one spark ball and the other through a coil of one turn with the other spark ball of a discharger S. These spark balls are connected either to the secondary circuit of an induction coil I, or to that of an alternating current transformer having a secondary voltage of 20,000 to 100,000 volts. Over the coil of one turn is See also:wound a secondary circuit of 5 or to turns, of which one end is connected to the earth through a variable inductance and the other end to an antenna or radiating wire A (see fig. 40). These two circuits are so adjusted that the closed oscillation circuit, consisting of the condenser, primary coil 1 See See also:German Patent of F. Braun, No. 111578 of 1898, or British See also:Specification, No. 1862 of 1899. ' See British Pat. Spec., G. Marconi, No. 7777 of 1900. B D and spark gap, has the same natural time See also:period of oscillation as the open circuit consisting of the antenna, secondary coil and adjustable inductance. When this is the case, if discharges are made across the spark gap oscillations are excited in the closed circuit, and these induce other syntonic oscillations in the antenna circuit. J. A. Fleming devised an arrangement in which a multiple transformation takes place, two oscillation circuits being inter-linked inductively, and the last one acting inductively on the open or antenna circuit. J. S. See also: FIG. 40. wave See also:motion the wave-length X is connected with the frequency n and the velocity of propagation v by the relation v=nX, it follows that from such an inductively coupled tuned antenna electric waves of two wave-lengths are sent out having lengths xi and a2 such that a1= Xs/ (I —k) and X2 = X l (1+k), where Xis the natural wave-length. It is seen that as the coupling k becomes small these two wave-lengths coalesce into one single wave length. Hence there are advantages in employing a very loose coupling. (iii) The antenna may be direct-coupled to the closed oscillatory circuit in the manner suggested by F. Braun, A. Slaby and O. Lodge. In this case a closed condenser circuit is formed with a battery of Leyden jars, an inductance coil and a spark gap, and oscillations are excited in it by discharges created across the spark gap by an induction coil or transformer. One end of the inductance coil is connected to the earth, and some other point on the closed con-denser circuit to an antenna of appropriate length. When oscillations are created in the closed circuit syntonic oscillations are created in the antenna and electric waves radiated from it (fig. 41). In many cases additional condensers or inductance coils are inserted in various places so that the arrangement is somewhat disguised, but by far the larger part of the electric wave wireless telegraphy in 1907 was effected by transmitters having antennae either inductively or directly coupled to a closed condenser circuit containing a spark gap. In practical wireless telegraphy the antenna is generally a collection of wires in See also:fan shape upheld from one or more masts or wooden towers. Sometimes the prolongations of these wires are carried horizontally or dipped down so as to form an umbrella antenna (fig. 42). The See also:lower ends of these wires are connected through the secondary coil of an oscillation transformer to an earth plate, or to a large conductor placed on or near the earth called a " balancing capacity." If the direct coupling is adopted then the lower end of the antenna is connected directly to the condenser circuit. The main capacity in this last circuit consists of a battery of Leyden ' See J. S. Stone, U.S.A. Pat. Spec., Nos. 714756 and 714831.jars or of Leyden panes immersed in oil or some form of air con-denser, and the inductance coil or primary circuit of the oscillation transformer consists of a few turns of highly insulated wire wound on a See also:frame and immersed in oil. The oscillations are controlled either by a key inserted in the primary circuit of the exciting induction coil or transformer, or by a key cutting in and out of the primary condensers or throwing inductance in and out of the closed oscillation circuit. In one of these ways the oscillations can be created or stopped at See also:pleasure in the radiating antenna, and hence groups of electric waves thrown off at will. Production of Electric Waves of Large Amplitude.—In creating powerful electric waves for communication over long distances, it is necessary to employ an alternating current transformer (see See also:TRANSFORMERS) supplied with alternating currents from a See also:low frequency alternator D driven by an See also:engine to charge the condenser (fig. 43). The transformer T1 has its secondary or high-pressure terminals connected to spark balls S1, which are also connected by a circuit consisting of a large glass plate condenser C1 and the primary circuit of an air-core trans-former T2, called an oscillation transformer. The secondary circuit of this last is either connected between an aerial A and the earth E, or it may be again in turn connected to a second pair of spark balls S2, and these again to a second con-denser C2, oscillation transformer T2, and the aerial A. In order to produce electric oscillations in the system, the first or alternating current transformer must charge the condenser connected to its secondary terminals, but must not produce a permanent electric arc between the balls. Various devices have been suggested for extinguishing the arc and yet allowing the condenser oscillatory discharge to take place. Tesla effected this purpose by placing the spark balls transversely in a powerful magnetic field. Elihu See also:Thomson blows on the spark balls with a powerful See also:jet of air. Marconi causes the spark balls to move rapidly past each other or causes a studded disk to move between the spark balls. J. A. Fleming devised a method which has practical advantages in both preventing the arc and permitting the oscillatory currents to be controlled so as to make electric wave signals. He inserts in the primary circuit of the alternating current transformers one or more choking or impedance coils R1, See also:R2 (fig. 43), called " chokers," which are capable, one or all, of being short-circuited by keys K1, K2. The impedance of the primary or alternator circuit is so adjusted that when both the chokers are in circuit the current flowing is not sufficient to charge the condensers; but when one choker is short-circuited the impedance is reduced so that the condenser is charged, but the alternating arc is not formed. In addition it is necessary to a adjust the frequency so that it has the value of the normal time period of the circuit formed of the condenser and trans-former secondary circuit, and thus it is possible to obtain condenser oscillatory discharges See also:free from any admixture with alternating current arc. In this manner the condenser discharge can be started or stopped at pleasure, and long and short discharges made in accordance with the signals of the Morse A K, K? alphabet by manipulating the short-circuiting key of one of the choking coils (see British Patent Specs., Nos. 18865, 20596 and 22126 of 1900, and 3481 of 1901). In the case of transmitters constructed as above described, in which the effective See also:agent in producing the electric waves radiated is the sudden discharge of a condenser, it should be noticed that what is really sent out is a train of damped or decadent electric waves. When electric oscillations are set up in an open or closed electric circuit having capacity and inductance, and See also:left to them-selves, they See also:die away in amplitude, either because they dissipate their energy as See also:heat in overcoming the resistance of the circuit, or because they radiate it by imparting wave motion to the surrounding See also:ether. In both cases the amplitude of the oscillations decreases more or less rapidly. Such a sequence of decreasing electric oscillations and corresponding set of waves is called a damped train. In the case of the plain or directly excited antenna the oscillations are highly damped, and each train probably only consists at most of half a dozen oscillations. The See also:reason for this is that the capacity of a simple antenna is very small—it may be something of the order of 0.0002 of a microfarad—and hence the energy stored up in it even under a high voltage is also small. Accordingly this energy is rapidly dissipated and but few oscillations can take place. If, however, the antenna is inductively or directly coupled to a con-denser circuit of large capacity then the amount of energy which can be stored up before discharge takes place is very much greater, and hence can be drawn upon to create prolonged or slightly damped trains of waves. Allusion is made below to recent See also:work on the production of undamped trains of electric waves. Receiving Arrangements.—Before explaining the advantages of such small damping it will be necessary to consider the usual forms of the receiving appliance. This consists of a receiving antenna similar to the sending antenna, and in any wireless telegraph station it is usual to make the one and the same antenna do See also:duty as a receiver or sender by switching it over from one apparatus to the other. The electric waves coming through space from the sending station strike against the receiving antenna and set up in it high frequency alternating electromotive forces. To detect these currents some device has to be inserted in the antenna circuit or else inductively connected with it which is sensitive to high frequency currents. These wave-detecting devices may be divided into two classes: (i) potential operated detectors, and (ii) current operated detectors. The See also:oldest of the class (i) is that generically known as a coherer, the construction of which we have already described. The ordinary forms of metallic filings coherer of the Branly type require tapping to bring them back to the high resistance or sensitive condition. Lodge arranged a See also:mechanical tapper for the purpose which continually administered the small See also:blow to the tube sufficient to keep the filings in a sensitive condition. Popoff employed an electromagnetic tapper, in fact the mechanism of an electric bell with the See also:gong removed, for this purpose. Marconi, by giving great attention to details, improved the electromagnetic tapper, and, combining it with his improved form of sensitive tube, made a telegraphic instrument as follows: the small glass tube, containing nickel and silver filings between two silver plugs, was attached to a boneholder, and under this was arranged a small electromagnet having a vibrating See also:armature like an electric bell carrying on it a stem and See also:hammer. This hammer is arranged so that when the armature vibrates it gives little blows to the underside of the tube and shakes up the filings. By means of several adjusting screws the force and frequency of these blows can be exactly regulated. In series with the tube is placed a single voltaic cell and a telegraphic relay, and Marconi added certain coils placed across the spark contacts of the relay to prevent the local sparks affecting the coherer. The relay itself served to actuate a Morse printing telegraph by means of a local battery. This receiving apparatus, with the exception of the Morse printer, was contained in a See also:sheet-iron See also:box, so as to exclude it from the action of the sparks of the neighbouring transmitter. In the early experiments Marconi connected the sensitive tube in between the receiving antenna and the earth plate, but, as already mentioned, in subsequent forms of apparatus he introduced the primary coil of a peculiar form of oscillation transformer into the antenna circuit and connected the ends of the sensitive tube to the terminals of the secondary circuit of this " jigger " (fig. 44). In later improvements the secondary circuit of this jigger was interrupted by a small condenser, and the terminals of the relay and local cell were connected to the plates of this condenser, whilst the sensitive tube was attached to the outer ends of the secondary circuit. Also another condenser was added in parallel with the sensitive tube. With this apparatus some of Marconi's earliest successes, such as telegraphing across the See also:English Channel, were achieved, and telegraphic communication at the rate of fifteen words or so a minute established between the East Goodwin lightship and the South Foreland lighthouse, also between the Isle of Wight and the Lizard in Cornwall. It was found to be peculiarly adapted for communication between ships at sea and between ship and shore, and a system of See also:regular supermarine communication was put into operation by two limited companies, Marconi's Wire-less Telegraph See also:Company and the Marconi See also:International Marine Communication Company. Stations were established on various coast positions and ships supplied with the above-described apparatus to communicate with each other and with these stations. By the end of 19o1 this radio-telegraphy had been established by Marconi and his associates on a secure See also:industrial basis. Various Forms of Wave Detectors or Receivers.—The numerous adjustments required by the tapper and the inertia of the apparatus prompted inventorsto seek for a self-restoring coherer which should not need tapping. See also:Castelli, a See also:petty officer in the See also:Italian See also:navy, found that, if a small drop of See also:mercury was contained in a glass tube between a plug of iron and See also:carbon, with certain adjustments, the arrangement was non-conductive to the current from a single cell but became conductive when electric oscillations passed through it.' Hence the following appliance was worked out by See also:Lieutenant Solari and See also:officers in the Italian navy? The tube provided with certain See also:screw adjustments had a single cell and a telephone placed in series with it, and one end of the tube was connected to the earth and the other end to a receiving antenna. It was then found that when electric waves See also:fell on the antenna a sound was heard in the telephone as each wave train passed over it, so that if the wave trains endured for a longer or shorter time the sound in the telephone was of corresponding duration. In this manner it was possible to hear a Morse code dash or dot in the telephone. This method of receiving soon came to be known as the telephonic method. Lodge, Muirhead and See also:Robinson also devised a self-restoring coherer as follows :,—A small steel See also:wheel with a See also:sharp edge was kept rotating by clockwork so that its edge continually cut through a globule of mercury covered with See also:paraffin oil. The oil film prevented i See Electrical Review, 1902, 51, p. 968. 2 See " A Royal Institution Discourse," by G. Marconi, The Electrician, 1902, 49, p. 490; also British Pat. Spec., No. 18105 of 1901. a See British Pat. Spec., Lodge and others, No. 13521 of 1902. T, perfect electrical contact between the steel and mercury for low voltage currents, but when electric oscillations were passed through the junction it was pierced and good electrical contact established as long as the oscillations continued. This device was converted into an electric wave detector as follows: The mercury-steel junction was acted upon by the electromotive force of a shunted single cell and a See also:siphon See also:recorder was inserted in series. The wheel was connected to a receiving antenna and the mercury to earth or to an equivalent balancing capacity. When electric waves fell on the antenna they caused the mercury-steel junction to become conductive during the time they endured, and the siphon recorder therefore to write signals consisting of short or long deflexions of its See also:pen and therefore notches of various length on the See also:ink line drawn on the strip of telegraphic tape.
An innumerable number of forms of coherer or wave detector depending upon the See also:change in resistance produced at a loose or imperfect contact have been devised. A. Popoff' E. Branly,' A. See also:Blondel,' O. Lodge' and J. A. Fleming' invented special forms of the metallic contact or metallic filings sensitive tube. See also: Jervis-Smith7 and T. Tommasina8 tried carbon in various forms. The theory of the action of the coherer has occupied the attention of T. Sundorp,9 T. Tommasina,' K. E. Guthe,io J. C. Bose," W. H. See also:Eccles," and Schafer." For details see J. A. Fleming, The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy and Telephony, p. 416, 2nd ed. 1910. The next class of wave or oscillation detector is the magnetic detector depending upon the power of electric oscillations to affect the magnetic See also:state of iron. It had long been known that the discharges from a Leyden jar could magnetize or demagnetize steel needles. J. Henry in the United States in 1842 and 185o investigated the effect. In 1895 E. See also:Rutherford examined it very care-fully, and produced a magnetic detector for electric waves depending upon the power of electric oscillations in a coil to demagnetize a saturated bundle of steel wires placed in it (see Phil. Trans., 1897, 189 A, p. I). Rutherford used this detector to make evident the passage of an electric or Hertzian wave for half a mile across See also:Cambridge, England. In 1897 E. See also: Owing to See also:hysteresis the part of the band magnetized is not symmetrically placed with regard to the magnetic poles, but advanced in the direction of motion of the band. When the oscillations pass through the coil they annul the hysteresis and cause a change of See also:magnetism within the coil connected to the telephone. This creates a short sound in the telephone. Hence according as the trains of oscillations are long or short so is the sound heard in the telephone, and these sounds can be arranged on the Morse code into alphabetic audible signals. When used as a receiver for wireless telegraphy Marconi inserted the oscillation coil of this detector in between the earth and a receiving antenna, and this produced one of the most sensitive receivers yet made for wireless telegraphy. Other forms of magnetic detector have been devised by J. A. Fleming,' L. H. See also:Walter and J. A. See also:Ewing," H. T. See also:Simon and M. Reich,'6 R. A. See also:Fessenden 17 and others. A. Popoff, The Electrician, 1897, 40, p. 235. Y E. Branly, Comptes rendus, 1890, III, p. 785, and The Electrician, 1891, 27, p. 221. ' A. Blondel, The Electrician, 1899, 43, p. 277. O. Lodge, The Electrician, 1897, 40, p. 90. s J. A. Fleming, Journ. Inst. Elec. Eng. Lond., 1899, 28, p. 292. s Brown and Neilson, Brit. Patent Spec., No. 28958, 1896. 7 F. J. Jervis-Smith, The Electrician, 1897, 40, p. 85. e T. Tommasina, Comptes rendus, 1899, 128, p. 666. ' T. Sundorp, Wied. See also:Ann., 1899, 6o, p. 594. to K. E. Guthe, The Electrician, 1904, 54, p. 92. J. C. Bose, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., 1900, 66, p. 450. i' W. H. Eccles, The Electrician, 1901, 47, p. 682. " Schafer, See also:Science Abstracts, 1901, 4, p. 471. " See J. A. Fleming, " A See also:Note on a Form of Magnetic Detector for Hertzian Waves adapted for Quantitative Work," Proc. Roy. Soc., 1903, 74, p. 398. " L. H. Walter and J. A. Ewing, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1904, 73, p. 120. 16 Simon and Reich, Elektrotech. Zeits., 1904, 22, p. 180. " R. A. Fessenden, U.S.A. Pat. Spec., No. 715043 of 1902. A third class of electric wave detector depends upon the power of electric oscillations to annul the electrolytic polarization of electrodes of small surface immersed in an electrolyte. If in a See also:vessel of nitric See also:acid are placed a large platinum plate and a platinum electrode of very small surface such as that produced when an extremely See also:fine platinum wire is slightly immersed in the liquid, and if a current from a single voltaic cell is passed through the electrolytic cell so that the fine wire is the anode or positive pole, then the small surface will be polarized or covered with a film of See also:gas due to See also:electrolysis (fig. 46). This increases the resistance of the electrolytic cell. If, however, one electrode of this cell is connected to the earth and the other to a receiving antenna and electric waves allowed to fall on the antenna, the oscillations passing through the electrolytic cell will remove the polarization and t. temporarily decrease the resistance of the cell. This may be detected by putting a telephone in series with the electrolytic cell, and then on the impact of the electric waves a sound is heard in the telephone due to the sudden increase in the current through it. Such receivers were devised by R. A. Fessenden,"B FIG. 46. W. Schloemilch" and others, and are known as electrolytic detectors. Discussions have taken place as to the theory of the operations in them, in which some have advocated a thermal explanation and others a chemical ex-planation (see V. Rothmund and A. See also:Lessing, Ann. der Physik, 1904, 15, p. 193, and J. E. Ives, Electrical See also:World of New See also:York, December 1904). A See also:fourth class of electric wave detector comprises the thermal detectors which operate in virtue of the fact that electric oscillations create heat in a fine wire through which they pass. One form such a detector takes is the bolometer. If a See also:loop of very fine platinum wire, prepared by the See also:Wollaston process, is included in an exhausted glass bulb like an incandescent See also:lamp, then when electric oscillations are sent through it its resistance is increased. This increase may be made evident by making the loop of wire one See also:arm of a See also:Wheatstone's bridge and so arranging the circuits that the oscillations pass through the fine wire. H. See also:Rubens and See also:Ritter in 1890 (Wied. Ann., 1890, 40, p. 56) employed an arrangement as follows: Four fine platinum or iron wires were joined in See also:lozenge shape, and two sets of these R and S were connected up with two resistances P and Q to form a bridge with a galvanometer G and battery B. To one of these sets of fine wires an antenna A and earth connexion E is added (fig. 47) and when electric waves fall on A they excite oscillations in the fine wire resistance R and increase the resistance, and so upset the See also:balance of the bridge and cause the galvanometer to deflect. Such a bolometer receiver has been used by C. See also:Tissot (Comptes rendus, 1904, 137, p. 846) and others as a receiver in electric wave telegraphy. Fessenden employed a simple fine loop of Wollaston platinum wire in series with a telephone and shunted voltaic cell, so that when electric oscillations passed through the fine wire its resistance was increased and the current through the telephone suddenly diminished (R. A. Fessenden, U.S.A. Pat. Spec., No. 706742 and No. 706744 of 1902). I. Klemenci9 devised a form of thermal receiver depending on See also:thermoelectricity. A pair of fine wires of iron and constantan are See also:twisted together in the See also:middle, and one pair of unlike ends are connected to a galvanometer. If then oscillations are sent through the other pair heat is produced at the junction and the galvanometer indicates a thermoelectric current (Wied. Ann., 1892, 45, p. 78). This thermoelectric receiver was made vastly more sensitive by W. Duddell (Phil. Meg., 1904, 8, p. 91). He passed the oscillations to be detected through a fine wire or strip of See also:gold See also:leaf, and over this, but just not touching, suspended a loop of See also:bismuth-See also:antimony wire by a See also:quartz fibre. This loop hung in a very strong magnetic field, and when one junction was heated by See also:radiation and convection from the See also:heating wire the loop was 19 See R. A. Fessenden, U.S.A. Pat. Spec., No. 931029, and re-issue No. 12115 of 1903. " W. Schloemilch, Elektrotech. Zeits., 1903, 24, p. 959, or The Electrician, 1903, 52, p. 250. traversed by a current and deflected in the field. Its deflexion was observed by an attached See also:mirror in the usual way. Another form of thermoelectric receiver has been devised by J. A. Fleming (Phil. Mag., December 1906) as follows:-It consists of two glass vessels like test tubes one inside the other, the space between the two being exhausted. Down the inner test tube pass four copper strips having platinum wires at their ends sealed through the glass. In the inner space between the test tubes one pair of these platinum wires are connected by a fine constantan wire about •02 mm. in diameter. The other pair of platinum wires are connected by a See also:tellurium-bismuth thermo-couple, the junction of which just makes contact with the centre of the fine wire. The outer terminals of this junction are connected to a galvanometer, and when electric oscillations are sent through the fine wire they cause a deflexion of this galvanometer (fig. 48). The thermal G G detectors are especially useful for the purpose of quantitative measurements, because they indicate the true effective or square See also:root of mean square value of the current or train of oscillations passing through the hot wire On the other See also:hand, the coherer or loose contact detectors are chiefly affected by the initial value of the electromotive force acting on the junction during the train of oscillations, and the magnetic detectors by the initial value of the current and also to a considerable extent by the number of oscillations during the train. terminals. The fifth type of wave detector de- pends upon the peculiar property of rarefied gases or vapours which under some circumstances possess a unilateral conductivity. Thus J. A. Fleming invented in 1904 a detector called an oscillation See also:valve or glow lamp detector made as follows:1 A small carbon filament incandescent lamp has a platinum plate or cylinder placed in it surrounding or See also:close to the filament. This plate is supported by a platinum wire sealed through the glass. Fleming discovered that rf the filament is made incandescent by the current from an insulated battery there is a unilateral conductivity of the rarefied gas between the hot filament and the metal plate, such that if the negative terminal of the filament is connected outside the lamp through a coil in which electric oscillations are created with the platinum plate, only one half of the oscillations are permitted to pass, viz., those which carry negative electricity from the hot filament to the cooled plate through the vacuous space. This phenomenon is connected with the fact that incandescent bodies, especially in rarefied gases, throw. off or emit electrons or gaseous negative ions. Such an oscillation valve was first used by Fleming as a receiver for wireless telegraph purposes in 1904 as follows:—In between the receiving antenna and the earth is placed the primary coil of an oscillation transformer; the secondary circuit of this trans-former contains a galvanometer in series with it, and the two together are joined between the See also:external negative terminal of the carbon filament of the above-described lamp and the insulated platinum plate. When this is the case oscillations set up in the antenna will cause a continuous current to flow through the galvanometer, the lamp acting as a valve to stop all those electric oscillations in one direction and only permit the opposite ones to pass (fig. 49). Wehnelt discovered that the same effect could be produced by using instead of a carbon filament a platinum wire covered with the oxides of See also:calcium or See also:barium, which when incandescent have the property of copiously emitting negative ions. Another form of receiver can be made depending on the properties of mercury vapour. A highly insulated tube contains a little mercury, which is used as a negative electrode, and the tube also has sealed through the glass a platinum wire carrying an iron plate as an anode. A battery with a sufficient number of cells is connected to these two electrodes so as to pass a current through the mercury vapour, negative electricity proceeding from the mercury See also:cathode to the iron anode. The mercury vapour then possesses a unilateral conductivity, and can be used to See also:filter off all those oscillations in a train which pass in one direction and make them readable on an ordinary galvanometer. In addition to the above gaseous rectifiers of oscillations it has been found that several crystals, such as See also:carborundum (See also:carbide of See also:silicon), hessite, anastase and many others possess a unilateral conductivity and enable us to rectify trains of oscillations into continuous currents which can affect a telephone. Also several contacts, such as that of See also:galena (sulphide of lead) and See J. A. Fleming, Proc. Roy. Soc., 19o5, 74, p. 746. Also British Pat. .Spec., No. 21580 of i904.See also:plumbago, and See also:molybdenite and copper possess similar See also:powers, and can be used as detectors in radio-telegraphy. See G. W. See also:Pierce, The Physical Review, See also:July 1907, March 1909, on crystal rectifiers for electric oscillations. Syntonic Electric Wave Telegraphy.—If a simple receiving antenna as above described is set up with an oscillation-detecting device attached to it, we find that it responds to incident electric waves of almost any frequency or damping provided that the magnetic force of the wave is perpendicular to the antenna, and of sufficient intensity. This arrangement is called a non-syntonic receiver. On the other hand, if a closed oscillation circuit is constructed having capacity and considerable inductance, then oscillations can be set up in it by very small periodic electromotive forces provided these have a frequency exactly agreeing with that of the condenser circuit. This last circuit has a natural frequency of its own which is numerically measured by 1/27ral(CL), where C is the capacity of the con-denser and L is the inductance of the circuit. The problem of syntonic electric wave telegraphy is then to construct a transmitter and a receiver of such kind that the receiver will be affected by the waves emitted by the corresponding or syntonic transmitter, but not by waves of any other wave-length or by irregular electric impulses due to atmospheric electricity. It was found that to achieve this result the transmitter must be so constructed as to send out prolonged trains of slightly damped waves. Electric-radiative circuits like thermal radiators are divided into two broad classes, good radiators and See also:bad radiators. The good electric radiators may be compared with good thermal radiators, such as a vessel coated with lamp See also:black on the outside, and the bad electric radiators to poor thermal radiators, such as a silver vessel highly polished on its exterior. When electric oscillations are set up in these two classes of electric radiators, the first class send out a highly damped wave train and the second a feeble damped wave train provided that they have sufficient capacity or energy storage and low resistance. A radiator of this last class can be constructed by connecting inductively or directly T an antenna of suitable capacity and inductance to a nearly closed electric circuit consisting of a condenser of large capacity, a spark gap and an inductance of low resistance. When oscillations are excited in this last circuit they communicate them to the antenna provided this last circuit is tuned or syntonized to the closed circuit, and the radiating antenna has thus a large See also:store of energy to draw upon and can therefore radiate prolonged trains of electric waves. The above statements, though correct as far as they go, are an imperfect account of the nature of the radiation from a coupled antenna, but a mathematical treatment is required for a See also:fuller explanation The success so far achieved in isolating electric wave telegraphic stations has been based upon the principles of electric resonance and the fact that electric oscillations can be set up in a circuit having capacity and considerable inductance by feeble electromotive impulses, provided they are of exactly the natural frequency of the said circuit. We may illustrate the See also:matter as follows: A heavy pendulum possesses inertia and the property of being displaced from a position of See also:rest but tending to return to it. These mechanical qualities correspond to inductance and capacity in electric circuits. Such a pendulum can be set in vigorous vibration even by feeble puffs of air directed against it, provided these are administered exactly in time with the natural period of vibration of the pendulum. Although inventors had more or less clearly grasped these principles they were first embodied in practice in 1900 by G. Marconi in an operative system of syntonic wireless telegraphy. His transmitter consists of a nearly closed oscillating circuit comprising a condenser or battery of Leyden jars, a spark gap, and the primary coil of an oscillation transformer consisting of one turn of thick wire wound on a wooden frame.' Over this primary is wound a secondary circuit of five to ten turns which has one end connected to the earth through a variable inductance coil and the other end to an antenna. These two circuits are syntonized so that the closed or condenser circuit and the open or antenna circuit are adjusted to have, when separate, the same natural electrical time of vibration. The receiving arrangement consists of an antenna which is connected to earth through the primary coil of an oscillation transformer and a variable inductance. The secondary circuit of this transformer is cut in the middle and has a condenser inserted in it, and its ends are connected to the sensitive metallic filings tube or coherer as shown in fig. 50. This receiver therefore, like the transmitter, consists of an open and a closed electric oscillation circuit inductively connected together; also the two circuits of the receiver must be syntonized or tuned both to each other and to those of the transmitter.' When this is done we have a syntonic system which is not easily affected by electric waves of other than the right period or approximating thereto. Marconi exhibited in See also:October 1900 this apparatus in action, and showed that two or more receivers of different tunes could be connected to the same antenna and made to See also:respond separately and simultaneously to the action of separate but tuned transmitters. A. Slaby in Berlin shortly afterwards made a similar See also:exhibition of syntonic electric wave telegraphy' O. Lodge had previously described in 1897 a syntonic system of electric wave telegraphy, but it had not been publicly seen in operation See also:prior to the exhibitions of Marconi and Slaby.' Lodge was, however, fully aware that it was necessary for syntonic telegraphy to provide a radiator capable of emitting sustained trains of waves. His proposed radiator and absorber consisted of two See also:wind-shaped plates of copper, the transmitter plates being interrupted in the centre by a spark gap, and the receiver plates by an inductance coil from the ends of which connexions were made to a coherer. At a later date a syntonic system comprising, as above stated, an antenna directly coupled to a resonant closed circuit was put into operation by Lodge and Muirhead, and much the same methods have been followed in the system known as the Telefunken system employed in See also:Germany. A method of syntonic telegraphy proposed by A. Blondel (Comptes rendus, 1900, 130, p. 1383) consisted in creating a syntony not between the frequency of the oscillations in the sender and receiver circuits but between the groups of oscillations constituting the ' See G. Marconi, Brit. Pat. Spec., No. 7777 of 1900; also Journ. Soc. Arts, 1901, 49, p. 505. 2 See A. Slaby, The Electrician, 1901, 46, p. 475. ' Sec O. Lodge, Brit. Pat. Spec., No. 11575 of 1897.wave trains; but, although other patentees have suggested the same plan, the author is not aware that any success has attended its use in practice. The only other suggested See also:solution of the problem of See also:isolation in connexion with wireless telegraph stations was given by Anders See also:Bull (Electrician, 1901, 46, p. 573). Very briefly stated, his method consists in sending out a See also:group of wave trains at certain irregular but assigned intervals of time to constitute the simplest signal equivalent to a dot in the Morse code, and a sequence of such trains, say three following one another, to constitute the dash on the Morse code. The apparatus is exceedingly complicated and can only be understood by reference to very detailed diagrams. (See Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy, by A. Fleming, 1906, See also:sect. 13, See also:chap. viii.) By means of the Anders Bull apparatus several messages can be sent out simultaneously from different transmitters and received independently and simultaneously upon corresponding receivers, while no ordinary nonsyntonic or other receiver is able either to obscure the messages being sent to the Anders Bull receivers or to interpret those that may be picked up. Although complicated the apparatus seems to work fairly well. Practical Electric Wave Telegraphy.—At this stage it may be convenient to outline the progress of electric wave telegraphy since 1899. Marconi's success in bridging the English Channel at See also:Easter in 1899 with electric waves and establishing practical wireless telegraphy between ships and the shore by this means drew public attention to the value of the new means of communication. Many investigators were thus attracted into this field of research and invention. In Germany A. Slaby and F. Braun were the most active. Slaby paid considerable attention to the study of the phenomena connected with the production of the oscillations in the antenna. He showed that in a simple Marconi antenna the variations of potential are a maximum at the insulated top and a minimum at the base, whilst the current amplitudes are a maximum at the top earthed end and zero at the top end. He therefore saw that it was a See also:mistake to insert a potential-affected detector such as a coherer in between the base of the antenna and the earth because it was then subject to very small variations of potential between its ends. He overcame the difficulty by erecting a vertical earthed receiving antenna like a See also:lightning rod and attached a lateral extension to it at a yard or two above the earthed end. To the outer end of this lateral wire a condenser was attached and the coherer inserted between the condenser and the earth. The oscillations set up in the vertical antenna excited sympathetic ones in the lateral circuit provided this was of the proper length; and the coherer was acted upon by the maximum potential variations possible. Passing over numerous inter-mediate stages of development we find that in 1898 Professor F. Braun showed that oscillations suitable for the purposes of electric wave creation in wireless telegraphy could be set up in a circuit consisting of a Leyden jar or jars, a spark gap and an inductive circuit, and communicated to an antenna either by inductive or direct coupling (Brit. Pat. Spec., No. 1862 of 1899. When the methods for effecting this had been worked out practically it finally led to the inventions of Slaby, Braun and others being united into a system called the Telefunken system, which, as regards the transmitter, consisted in forming a closed oscillation circuit comprising a condenser, spark gap and inductance which at one point was attached either directly or through a condenser to the earth or to an equivalent balancing capacity, and at some other point to a suitably tuned antenna. The receiving arrangements comprised also an open or antenna circuit connected directly with a closed condenser-inductance circuit, but in place of the spark gap in the transmitter an electrolytic receiver was inserted, having in connexion with it as See also:indicator a voltaic cell and telephone. In this manner the signals are read by See also:ear. In the same way the arrangements finally elaborated by Lodge and Muirhead consisted of a direct coupled antenna and nearly closed condenser circuit, and a similar receiving circuit containing as a detector the steel wheel revolving on oily mercury which actuated a siphon recorder See also:writing signals on paper tape. Arrangements not very different in See also:general principle were put into practice in the United States by Fessenden, de See also:Forest and others. Hence it will be seen that the difference between various forms of the so-called spark systems of wireless telegraphy is not very great. All of them make use of Marconi's antenna in some form both at the transmitting and at the receiving end, all of them make use of an earth connexion, or its equivalent in the form of a balancing capacity or large surface having capacity with respect to the earth, which merely means that they insert a condenser of large capacity in the earth connexion. All of them couple the transmitting antenna directly or inductively to a capacity-inductive circuit serving as a storage of energy, and all of them create thereby electric waves of the same type moving over the earth's surface with the magnetic force of the wave parallel to it. At the receiving station the See also:differences in these systems depend chiefly upon variations in the actual form of the oscillation detector used, whether it be a loose contact or a thermal, electrolytic or magnetic detector. In July and See also:August 1899 the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy was tried for the first time during British See also:naval manoeuvres, and the two cruisers, " See also:Juno " and " See also:Europa," were fitted with the new means of communication. The important results obtained showed that a weapon of great power had been provided for assisting naval warfare. From and after that time the British See also:Admiralty and the navies of other countries began to give great attention to the development of electric wave telegraphy. Transatlantic Wireless Telegraphy.—Having found that the principles of resonance could he successfully applied so as to isolate wireless telegraph receivers, Marconi turned his attention to the accomplishment of his great ambition, viz. Transatlantic wireless telegraphy. In January 1901 he telegraphed without difficulty by electric waves from the Isle of Wight to the Lizard, viz. 200 m., and he considered that the time had come for a serious See also:attempt to be made to communicate across the Atlantic. A site for a first Transatlantic electric wave power station was secured at Poldhu, near See also:Mullion in south Cornwall, by the Marconi Company, and plans arranged for an installation. Up to that time an induction coil known as a 10-inch coil had sufficed for spark production, but it was evident that much more power would be required to send electric waves across the Atlantic. Transformers were therefore employed taking alternating electric current from an alternator driven by an oil or See also:steam engine, and these high tension transformers were used to charge condensers and set up powerful oscillations in a multiple antenna. The special electrical See also:engineering arrangements employed at the outset for this first electric wave power station required to create the oscillations of the desired power were designed for Marconi by J. A. Fleming, but the arrangements were subsequently altered and improved by Marconi, one of the most important additions being a form of high-See also:speed rotating disk discharger devised by Marconi by which he was able to immensely increase the speed of signalling. The first antenna employed consisted of 50 See also:bare copper wires 200 ft. long, arranged in fan-shape and upheld between two masts. Subsequently this antenna was enlarged, and fonr wooden lattice towers were built, 215 ft. high and 200 ft. apart, sustaining a conical antenna comprised of 400 wires (see G. Marconi, Proc. Roy. Inst., 1902, 17, p. 208). This transmitting plant was completed in December 19br, and Marconi then crossed the Atlantic to See also:Newfoundland and began to make experiments to ascertain if he could detect the waves emitted by it. At St See also: The appliances in the Poldhu station were subsequently enlarged and improved by Marconi, and corresponding power stations erected at Cape See also:Cod, See also:Massachusetts, U.S.A., and at Cape See also:Breton in Nova See also:Scotia. In 1902 Marconi was able to transmit a large number of messages across the Atlantic, receiving them by means of his magnetic detector. In the same year numerous experiments were tried with the assistance of an Italian battleship, the " Carlo Alberto," See also:lent by the Italian See also:government, and messages were transmitted from Poldhu to See also:Kronstadt, to See also:Spezia, and also to See also:Sydney in Nova Scotia. Doubts having been raised whether the powerful electric waves sent out from these stations would not interfere with the ordinary ship to shore communication, special demonstrations were made by Marconi before the writer, and later before British naval officers, to demonstrate that this was not the case.' In 1904 a regular system of communication of See also:press See also:news and private messages from the Poldhu and Cape Breton stations to Atlantic liners in See also:mid-Atlantic was inaugurated, and daily See also:newspapers were thenceforth printed on board these vessels, news being supplied to them daily by electric wave telegraphy. By the middle of 1905 a very large number of vessels had been equipped with the Marconi short distance and long distance wireless telegraph apparatus for intercommunication and reception of messages from power stations on both sides of the Atlantic, and the See also:chief na ies of the world had adopted the apparatus. In 1904, during the Russo-See also:Japanese See also:war, war news was transmitted for The Times by wireless telegraphy, the enormous importance of which in naval See also:strategy was abundantly demonstrated. As the power station at Poldhu was then fully occupied with the business of long distance transmission to ships, the Marconi Company began to erect another large power station to Marconi's designs at Clifden in See also:Connemara on the See also:west coast of Ireland. This station was intended for the Transatlantic service in See also:correspondence with a similar station at Glace Bay in Nova Scotia. It was completed in the summer of 1907, and on the 17th of October 1907 press messages and private messages were sent across the Atlantic in both directions. The station was opened shortly afterwards for public service, the rates being greatly below that then current for the cable service. The service was, however, interrupted in August 19o9 by a See also:fire, which destroyed part of the Glace Bay station, but was re-established in See also:April x910. Meanwhile other competitors were not idle. The inventions of Slaby, Braun and others were put into practice by a German wireless telegraph company; and very much work done in erecting land stations and equipping ships. In France the scientific study of the subject was advanced b' the work of Blondel, Tissot, Ducretet and others, and systems called t,.e Ducretet and See also:Rochefort set in operation. In the United States the most active workers and
yatentees at this period were R. A. Fessenden, See also: What is required is some means for localizing and directing a See also:beam of radiation. The first attempts involved the use of mirrors. Hertz had shown that the electric radiation from an oscillator ' See J. A. Fleming, The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy (London, 1906), chap. vii.; also Cantor Lectures on Hertzian wave telegraphy, Lecture iv., Journ. Soc. Arts, 1903, or letter to The Times, April 14,' 1903. 540 could be reflected and converged by cylindrical parabolic mirrors. He operated with electric waves two or three feet in wave-length. Experiments precisely analogous, to See also:optical ones can be performed with somewhat shorter waves. Marconi in his first British patent (No. 12039 of 1896) brought forward the idea of focusing a beam of electric radiation for telegraphic purposes on a distant station by means of parabolic mirrors, and tried this method successfully on Salisbury Plain up to a distance of about a couple of miles. As, however, the wave-length necessary to See also:cover any considerable distance must be at least 200 or 300 ft., it becomes impracticable to employ mirrors for reflection. The process of reflection in the case of a wave motion involves the condition that the wave-length shall be small compared with the dimensions of the mirror, and hence the attempt to reflect and converge electric waves loon ft. in length by any mirrors which can be practically constructed would be like attempting optical experiments with mirrors one-See also:hundred-thousandth of an inch in diameter. Another closely connected problem is that of locating or ascertaining the direction of the sending station. To See also:deal with the latter question first, one of the earliest suggestions was that of J. S. Stone (U.S.A. Pat. Spec., Nos. 716134 and 716135, also reissue No. 12148), who proposed to place two receiving antennae at a distance of half a wave-length apart. If these two were See also:broadside on to the direction of the sending station oscillations in the same phase would be produced in them both, but if they were in line with it then the oscillations would be in opposite phases. It was then proposed to arrange a detector so that it was affected by the algebraic sum of the two oscillations, and by swivelling round the See also:double receiving antennae to locate the direction of the sending station by finding out when the detector gave the best signal. Even if the proposal had been practicable with waves l000 or 2000 ft. in length, which it is not, it is essentially based upon the supposition that the damping of the waves is negligible. A proposal was made by L. de Forest (U.S.A. Pat. Spec., No. 771818) to employ a receiving antenna consisting of vertical wires held in a frame which could be swivelled round into various positions and used to locate the position of the sending station by ascertaining the position in which the frame must be placed to create in it the maximum oscillatory current. Other inventors had professed to find a solution of the problem by the use of looped receiving antennae or antennae inclined in various directions. G. Marconi, however, gave in 1906 the first really practical solution of the problem by the use of bent transmitting and receiving antennae. He showed that if an antenna were constructed with a short part of its length vertical and the greater part See also:horizontal, the lower end of the vertical part being earthed, and if oscillations were created in it, electric waves were sent out most powerfully in the See also:plane of the antenna and in the direction opposite to that in which the free end pointed. Also he showed that if such an antenna had its horizontal part swivelled round into various directions the current created in a distant receiver antenna varied with the See also:azimuth, and when plotted out in the form of a polar See also:curve gave a curve of a peculiar figure-of-8 shape.' The mathematical theory of this antenna was given by J. A. Fleming (Proc. Roy. Soc., May 1906, also Phil. Mag., December 1906). Marconi also showed that if such a bent receiving antenna was used the greatest oscillations were created in it when its insulated end pointed directly away from the sending station. In this manner he was able to provide means for locating an invisible sending station. F. Braun also gave an interesting solution of the problem of directive telegraphy? In his method three vertical antennae are employed, placed at equidistant distances, and oscillations are created in the three with a certain relative difference of phase. The radiations interfere in an optical sense of the word, and in some directions reinforce each other and in other directions neutralize each other, so making the resultant radiation greater in some directions than others. Very valuable work in devising forms of antennae for directive radio-telegraphy has been done by MM. See also:Bellini and Tosi, who have devised See also:instruments, called radiogonimeters, for projecting radiation in required directions and locating the azimuth of a transmitting station. Improvements in the Production of Continuous Trains of Elec- tric Waves.—All the above-described apparatus employed in ' See G. Marconi, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1906, A 77, p. 413. ' F. Braun, The Electrician, May 25 and June 1, 1906. [WIRELESS connexion with wireless telegraph transmitters, in which the oscillatory discharge of a condenser is used to create oscillations in an antenna, labours under the disadvantage that the time occupied by the oscillations is a very small fraction of the See also:total time of actuation. Thus, for instance, when using an induction coil or transformer to charge a condenser, it is not generally convenient to make more than 5o discharges per second, but each of these may create a train of oscillations consisting of, say, 20 to 50 waves. Supposing, then, that these waves are moo ft. in wave-length, the frequency of the oscillations would by 1,000,000 per second, and accordingly 50 of these waves would be emitted in 1/2o,000th part of a second; and if there are 50 groups of waves per second, the total time occupied by the oscillations in a second would only be 1/400th part of a second. in other words, the intervals of silence are nearly 40o times as long as the intervals of activity. It very soon, therefore, be-came clear to inventors that a very great See also:advantage would be gained if some means could be discovered of creating high frequency oscillations which were not intermittent but continuous. The condenser method of making oscillations is analogous to the production of air vibrations by twanging a See also:harp string at short intervals. What is required, however,' is something analogous to an organ pipe which produces a continuous sound. A method of producing these oscillations devised by Valdemar Poulsen is based upon the employment of what is called a musical arc. W. Duddell discovered in 1900 that if a continuous current carbong arc had its carbon electrodes connected by a condenser in series with an inductance, then under certain conditions oscillations were excited in this condenser circuit which appeared to be continuous. See also:Paulsen immensely improved this process by placing the arc in an See also:atmosphere of See also:hydrogen, See also:coal-gas or some other non-oxidizing gas, and at the same time arranging it in a strong magnetic field.' In this way he was able to produce an apparatus which created continuous trains of oscillations suitable for the purposes of wireless telegraphy. The so-called musical arc of Duddell has been the subject of considerable investigation, and physicists are not entirely in accordance as to the true explanation of the mode of production of the oscillations. It appears, however, to depend upon the fact that an electric arc is not like a solid conductor. Increase in the voltage acting upon a solid conductor increases the current through it, but in the case of the electric arc an increase in current is accompanied by a fall in the difference of potential of the carbons, within certain limits, and the arc has therefore been said to possess a negative resistance.' Poulsen's method of producing continuous or undamped electrical waves has been applied by him in radio-telegraphy. The electric arc is formed between cooled copper (positive) and carbon (negative) electrodes in an atmosphere of hydrogen or coal-gas. In recent apparatus, to enable it to he used on board ship, a hydrogeneous spirit is used which is fed drop by drop into the chamber in which the arc is worked. Across the arc is a transverse or radial magnetic field, and the electrodes are connected by an oscillatory circuit consisting of a condenser and inductance. The antenna is connected either directively or inductively with the circuit. At the receiving end are a similar antenna and resonant circuit, and a telephone is connected across one part of the latter through an automatic interrupting device called by Poulsen a " ticker." To send signals the continuous or nearly continuous train of waves must be cut up into Morse signals by a key, and these are then heard as audible signals in the telephone. An important modification of this method enables not only audible signals but articulated words to be transmitted, and gives thus a system of wireless telephony. This has been achieved by employing a microphone transmitter at the sending end to vary the amplitude but not the wave-length of the emitted waves, and at the receiving end using an electrolytic receiver, which proves to be not merely a qualitative but also a quantitative instrument, to make these variations audible on a telephone. The system has already been put into practice in Germany by the Gesellschafi See also:fur drahtlose Telegraphic, and in the United States by R. A. Fessenden. This last-named inventor has ' See V. Poulsen, Brit. Pat. Spec., No. 15599 of 1903; also a lecture given in London, See also:November 27, 1906, " On a Method of producing undamped Electrical Oscillations and their employment in Wireless Telegraphy," Electrician, 1906, 58, p. 166. Reference .may be made to W. Duddell, " On Rapid Variations in the Current through the Direct Current Arc," Journ. Inst. Elec. Eng., 1900, 30, p. 232; P. See also:Janet, On Duddell's Musical Arc." Comptes rendus, 1902, 134, p. 821; S. Maisel, Physik. Zeits., See also:September t, 1904, and January 15, 1905, or L'Eclairage ilectrique, 1904, 41, p. 186; J. A. Fleming, The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy, 1906, p. 73. employed tor me production of the continuous trains of waves a high frequency alternator of his own invention (see The Electrician, 1907, 58, pp. 675, 701). Much work has been done on this matter by E. Ruhmer, for which the reader must be referred to his work, Drahtlose Telephonic, Berlin, 19o7. There is no doubt that the transmission of articulate sounds and speech over long distances without wires by means of electric waves is not only possible as an experimental feat but may perhaps come to be commercially employed. In connexion with this part of the subject a brief reference should also be made to M. Wien's method of impact excitation by employing a form of spark gap which quenches the primary discharge instantly and excites the free oscillations in the antenna by impact or See also:shock. Instruments and Appliances for making Measurements in Connexion with Wireless Telegraphy.—The scientific study of electric wave telegraphy has necessitated the introduction of many new processes and methods of electrical measurement. One important measurement is that of the wave-length emitted from an antenna. In all cases of wave motion the wave-length is connected with the velocity of propagation of the radiation by the relation v=nX, where n is the frequency of the oscillations and 1. is the wave-length. The velocity of propagation of electric waves is the same as that of light, viz., about r000 million feet, or 300 million metres, per second. If therefore we can measure the frequency of the oscillations in an antenna we are able to tell the wave-length emitted. Instruments for doing this are called wave meters and are of two kinds, open circuit and closed circuit. Forms of open circuit wave See also:meter have been devised by Slaby and by Fleming. Slaby's wave meter consists of a See also:helix of non-insulated wire wound on a glass tube. This helix is presented or held near to the antenna, and the length of it shortened until oscillations of the greatest intensity are produced in the helix as indicated by the use of an indicator of fluorescent paper. Closed circuit wave meters have been also devised by J. Donitz1 and by Fleming.' In Donitz's wave meter a condenser of variable capacity is associated with inductance coils of various sizes, and the wave meter is placed near the antenna so that its inductance coils have induced currents created in them.. The capacity of the condenser is then altered until the maximum current, as indicated by a hot wire ammeter, is produced in the circuit. From the known value of the capacity in that position and the inductance the frequency can be calculated. The Fleming closed circuit wave meter, called by him a cymometer, consists of a sliding tube con-denser and a long• helix of wire forming an inductance; these are connected together and to a copper See also:bar in such a manner that by one See also:movement of a handle the capacity of the tubular condenser is altered in the same proportion as the amount of the See also:spiral inductance which is included in the circuit. If, then, a long copper bar which forms part of this circuit is placed in proximity to the transmitting antenna and the handle moved, some position can be found in which the natural time period of the cymometer circuit is made equal to the actual time period of the telegraphic antenna. When this is the case the amplitude of the potential difference of the surfaces of the tubular condenser becomes a maximum, and this is indicated by connecting a vacuum tube filled with neon to the surfaces of the condenser. The neon tube glows with a See also:bright See also:orange light when the adjustments of the cymometer circuit are such that it is in resonance with the wireless telegraph antenna. The See also:scale on the cymometer then shows directly the wave-length and frequency of the oscillations.' An immense mass of See also:information has been gathered on the scientific processes which are involved in electric wave telegraphy. Even on fundamental questions such as the See also:function of the earth interconnexion with it physicists differ in opinion to a considerable extent. Starting from an observation of Marconi's, a number of interesting. facts have been accumulated on the absorbing effect of sunlight on the propagation of long Hertzian waves through space, and on the disturbing effects of atmospheric electricity as well as upon the See also:influence of earth curvature and obstacles of various kinds interposed in the line between the sending and transmitting stations.' Electric wave telegraphy has revolutionized our means of communication from place to place on the surface of the earth, making it possible to communicate instantly and certainly between places separated by several thousand miles, whilst 1 The Electrician, 1904, 52, D. 407, or German Pat. Spec., No. 149350. ' Brit Pat. Spec., No. 27683 of 1904. J. A. Fleming, Phil. Meg., 1905 [6], 9, p. 758. See See also:Admiral Sir H. B. See also:Jackson, F.R.S., Proc. Roy. Soc., 1902, 70, p. 254: G. Marconi, ib., 1902, 70, p. 344.at the same time it has taken a position of the greatest importance in connexion with naval strategy and communication between ships and ships and the shore in time of See also:peace. It is now generally recognized that Hertzian wave telegraphy, or radio-telegraphy, as it is sometimes called, has a special field of operations of its own, and that the anticipations which were at one time excited by uninformed persons that it would speedily annihilate all telegraphy conducted with wires have been dispersed by experience. Nevertheless, transoceanic wireless telegraphy over long distances, such as those across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is a matter to be reckoned with in the future, but it remains to be seen whether the See also:present means are sufficient to See also:tender possible communication to the See also:antipodes. The fact that it has become necessary to introduce regulations for its See also:control by See also:national legislation and international conferences shows the supremely important position which it has taken in the short See also:interval of one See also:decade as a means of communicating human intelligence from place to place over the surface of the globe. An important International See also:Conference on radio-telegraphy was held in Berlin in igo6, and as a result of its de-liberations international regulations have been adopted by the chief Powers of the world. The decisions of the Conference were ratified for Great Britain by the British government on July 1, 1908. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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