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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1903)
- -- f tt miMmmm'mimm The Commoner! 6 VOLUME 3, NUMBER J, f ' jSSBRr - - 3g WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IS ATTRACTING very general attention In theso days and thoro appears In the American Monthly Review of Roviows an articlo written by A. Frederick Col lins relating to this subject. Mr. Collins1 articlo Btaould bo read by overy one. Ho points out that thoro are now nino companies prepared to build and install cableless telegraph apparatus and that theso companies havo equipped six stations in tho United States, Including tho most powerful ono in tho world, at South Wcllfleet, Mass. Other sta tions are at Tablo Head, Glaco Bay, Nova Scotia; three stations are in course of construction in Alaska, five stations aro in operation in Hawaii, twenty aro in Great Britain; in Germany there Is an equipment on Borcum island with its comple mentary apparatus on Borcum lightship; in Bel gium there is ono; in Franco thoro is another. MR. COLLINS SAYS THAT THERE ARE eighteen vessels carrying tho Marconi ap paratus. The English admiralty, for instance, havo land stations at Malta, Gibraltar, Tientsin, Hong Kong, and Bermuda, while thirty-two men-of-war havo Marconi installations. Tho Italian navy has flvo land stations and twenty ships aro equipped with tho samo system. Tho great prog ress of tho wireless telegraphy during the year 1002 is shown by Mr. Collins in a very striking way and ho points out that theso systems are cap ablo of holding communication with vessels at sea to distances ranging from fifty to three hun drod miles. In somo instances experiments In long distance wireless telegraphy over land havo boon mado and theso experiments havo been very encouraging. Mr. Collins does not. however, hold out great promise that there is anything to justi fy tho impression that tho network of wires spreading over every civilized land will bo imme diately eliininate'il. TN THE FIELD OF TELEGRAPHY BETWEEN 1 ships or between ships and the shore Mr. CollinB says that tho cableless telegraphy has, or course, an absoluto monopoly. This is clearly shown in tho case of telegraphing across inter vening bodies of wator, such as tho English Channol, where this form of telegraphy is now a successful competitor of tho cable system, not only In cost of operation, but in tho efficacy of services rondored. Mr. Collins oven goes so far as to make the prediction that from this time onward wireless telegraphy will ontlroly supplant cables for dis tances up to three hundred miles. In the matter of tho cost of tho two systems, somo interesting comparisons aro made. Tho cost of a sub-marine cable is estimated to bo about a thousand dollars per mile, added to which is the enormous expense of keeping tho cables .in repair. This ropalr item is a comparatively light ono in cable loss stations as the only expense in that direc SS i8 m an occasIonal mast damaged by storms. Iho initial expense of a trans-Atlantic cableless tcegraphy outfit would aggregate about half a AtianUc cable8 aEalnst two mIllion dollars for a if 5? O OMB COMPARISON IS MADE BY THIS SAME fL a"thrity as to tho difference in speed be tween the two systems, but as it must be remem bered that tho wireless telegraphy is compaS ttvoly a new institution and tho cable system hJs been in operation for fifty years, much data on this subject is not yet obtainable.' An interesting fact however, Is brought out when it is shown that when Queen Victoria sent her first message which consisted of ninety words, by cable it Si quired sixty-seven minutes to get It through whereas tho first complete message without cV bles sent by Lord Minto of Canada to ran? Ed ward contained thirty-two words and was trans! m tted in sixty-four seconds. Tho cost of Sant SlStooto SCah?oSld0rCd and lt Is Panted on,t AttanUo In MfiR 1? TBSQ Was Sent ttcross the will be flashed cJt$ the rato of ten cents per word to tho public and five cents per word to tho press. Th prese rato for cablo messages B e Pese ATTEMPTS TO SEND MESSAGES OVER great distances without the use of wires havo been interesting inventors since 1896, accord ing to Mr. Collins' article. The system as It is developed today involves a source of electricity for operating an induction coil, this coil in turn being employed to transform the low-pressure cur rent into an alternating current having a very high pressure, and this action causes tho anten na, or wire, suspended ffom a mast and its com plementary wire which leads to the earth, to cause the opposite charges of electricity to rush to gether causing a spark or disruptive discharge through a small air-gap. As a result of this meet ing of tho electric currents the high currents surge to and fro through antenna and earth connected wire hundreds of thousands of times per second. This phenomenon causes electric waves which radiate exactly as light waves do, and as a matter of fact there is a close analogy in the emission of light and the process of trans mitting and receiving cableless messages. ACCORDING TO THIS AUTHORITY THE reception of these electric waves is effected in somewhat a similar method as that employed in their transmission, "the only specific difference being in connecting the antenna and grounded wires with some metal filings inclosed in a small glass tube or coherer, instead of the spark-gap. When the electric waves impinge upon the anten na they are converted into electric oscillations, and these, acting on tho filings, cause them to draw together, or cohere; lessening the resistance they nominally offer to current electricity derived from a battery, the latter flows through the filings and an auxiliary circuit and registers the impulses on a ribbon of paper in readable Morse dots and dashes." jf sf THE DISTANCE TO WHICH TRANSMISSION of theso electric waves may be made ef fectual depends largely upon the medium over and through which the waves travel, according to this samo writer, and this contention he proves by taking an example of the difference in radiation over the sea or other bodies of water and the land. The waves have been known to travel near ly ten times the distance over the sea than they do over land and this is attributed to the fact that the land offers many intervening obstacles which intercept and in some instances annihilate these waves. SO FAR AS CONCERNS THE POSSIBILITY OF nr r,W,weles telegraphy being made practical, Mr. Collins has no doubts, and he declares that now the problem rests more with the electrical engineer in devising the most feasible method of transforming a large quantity of electricity at ordinary pressure into electric oscillations of enormous power and high frequency. For a dis tance of eighty to one hundred miles, this enorgy Tt 0onqUiVaJeni to one hrse-power at least, it is said that Marconi used only twenty-five te5$!Z at Ule P.;ldhil 8tation 8lng his ChL JH Mross ,the Atlantic a year a&o; at S w.nnLf8tavrl0n a f0rty h-power is used and at Wellfleet, Mass., one hundred horse-power is at o0nHonVi?ee f th IUVentr- An0t1 VTOhlL for Itonfl " nad by Mr. Collins as syntoni 5?no n? VhiS ,may, be bettQr understood by a SSrSi 5r.Inclp G3 involved in th0 caso- It is asserted by this writer that the radiator sending out the waves and the Tesonator receiv nc them sonance S if e 8,arae "SSf or re sonance will not bo possible, and this is the Snfrta? thfi C,VlnS ,8ays "wi" & seated 2 ft by tb most patient investigation and over come by the most persistent experimentation." if jf TT SEEMS THAT MUCH OF THE DIFFICUI TV that r0lefS icly comS from tKt that ground wires must be employed in order to secure long-distance transmission and the earth tnuiy. uwing to the influenco of meterowinni Sendearritas80ir!La8 by COnditions Pmnfin tne earth itself, this process renders it extremn v difficult as yet to obtain the best results u? Collins is confident, however, that before the year is out communications will be flashed by means of wireless telegraphy not only across the Atlantic ocean, but also across the Pacific, jind . all this without tho least fear of any conflict confusion. jf af EVERY ONE IS FAMILIAR WITH THE TUNE of "Yankee Doodle" and yet a deep mys tery surrounds the origin of this air. A writer in the Philadelphia Press says: "How, when or where the tune first came into use nobody knows. It is a good deal like Topsy 'It was never born, but growed.' The words adapted to the music and commonly used in the revolutionary war were the product of those stirring times, but to attempt to write tho history of the tuno would bo nothing less than bewildering. There is as much obscurity surrounding the origin of 'Yankee Doodle' as there is uncertainty connected with the airs to which we sing 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee,' and 'John Brown's Body Lies a-Moulder-ing in the Grave.' The story of 'Yankee Doodle from the time it was brought to this country is definite and absorbingly interesting. It has a great mission." If J? v THIS TUNE HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF considerable derision and the Press writer says that "with all the derision that has been heaped upon it, it is none tne less a great tune. When one hears the once ridiculed and rollick some strains of 'Yankee Doodle' let him cogitate the fact that it has been the marching tune of all the victorious armies of American patriots and has such a universal sentiment and universal nationality that it will measure the tread of the coming millions. It is one of the indestructible institutions of America. It has a character of its own comical, rampant, 'rattle-brainish, but with all its oddities it has somehow entwined itself so closely about the national neart that one might as well try to rob the people of Bunker Hil as this 'clattering, right-about-face, defiant battle march.' THIS FAMOUS TUNE WAS BROUGHT TO this country in 1755 when the British were engaged in a war with the French and the Ind ians. The writer in the Press says that "tho story goes that the militia which were called to aid the British regular army were strangely clad in many colors, some wearing long coats, some short ones and many having none of any kind to wear. The British army surgeon was one Dr. Klchard Shackburg, who not only mended shat tered limbs, but was somewhat of a musician. i?tda? ue thought to play a joko upon tho militia because of their grotesque figure and awk ward manner, and with much mock solemnity ho presented them the. words and music of 'Yankee noodle commending the tune as one of the most 5!: , hed in, martial music. The joke greatly Pleased the well-dressed British officers, but as a Hi u P"ved a stupendous failure, for tho tuno ThpBrtf??8 ?e battl marcl1 o tiie reyolution. ifpr P sh oncers would raise shouts of laughter mimin I l?e Inn0CQnt and simple-minded bands wnaf i Yank? , Doodle'' and the British bands would repeat it in derision. This con- ontii3 USG 0fihe 8ong by the English army the batti, $T ,tbn twenty yeara; "ion came fate thn PniniUgt0n' and by a stran8e ony of tune of YliniSt3nmf;?G,the Brltie,h danc to tho to th? m n i D0.0dle The gIvinS of the tuno their unLtZm8tanced militIa In mockery of Piece of ?nn ?tQ ?PPearan was a prophetic CorawnifiIqfU' fr twenty-flve years later Lord 'YaXe Dnmfwf0r,Ced to march to the tune of same coli n ntering the line of thG 22? ESa -ord and bis WStatod1?. lm has men writer in London i a year of supreme Peace a tlea are wM?n2n. An8We,rs says that in 1903, bat war L abToad Lnl TTly a dozen countries and adds that "til T? GVery continent This writer the wars now in nvage reader' if aske to name uncenainWte? HF88.' W0Uld VGry likely stP Britain and naHvman,tl0nJng tho "truggle between not the only S SomaHland. But this is is a little . lfn ? th day' by any means- Here a little list of the places whereat battles havo .'wy ' jja-W-iA j iftkalyufe