- -- 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
