OCR Text |
Show Wireless Telegraphy It is quite impossiple to describe the details of wireless station so that a novice will understand, but the princi-I princi-I pie of the thing is easily.comprehended. As in known, light and heat move in ! waves whose lengths can be measured. Thus, the sun gives out in every direc- 1 tion light in a series of undulating waves, which may not only be meas ured, but can be deflected, polarized, and so on. Some idea of this may be gained from the well-known fact that when a stone is thrown into a snioo.h pool of water a series of circular waves extend in all directions. If any floating objects come within these waves they are oscillated. i It was the lamented Professor Hertz who discovered that electricity, like light and heat, also moves in waves which may be measured. Just precisely precise-ly how these waves pass through the atmosphere is not wholly understood, but it is believed that thev have some relation to ether, which is omnipresent and which is believed to constitute all matter under different negative electrical condi ions. In wireless telegraphy a series of Hertzian waves is set up by powerful electrical dynamos dyna-mos or batteries, and these are discharged dis-charged from the top of a high mast or pole. These waves extend in all directions, direc-tions, and, unless their force is expended expend-ed by distance they excite certain effects ef-fects in the receivers of wireless telegraphy teleg-raphy instruments within the zone, just as the waves distribute chips on a pool. Messages are sent and received somewhat on the plan of the ordinary Morse code bv wires, in that electrical impulses are regulated so as to spel ords according to a code. In recent years many kinds of receivers re-ceivers have been used and the process is no simpler than formerly, but any successful transmission of waves depends de-pends a good deal on the state of atmosphere, at-mosphere, electrical storms being disadvantageous. dis-advantageous. Also when many wireless wire-less outfits are working in the same zone much confusion results and often messages are transmitted with great difficulty and sometimes not at all. This may account for some of the delays de-lays and confusion of the last few weeks. To Marconi belongs the credit of making a practical success of the discoveries dis-coveries of others, but to Hertz belongs ! the credit of making the system possible. |