Part 12

“Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good-will to men.”

A few weeks later the cable ceased to act, but a new cable was prepared and the “Great Eastern” was sent out with it, only, however, to lose it also when 1,200 miles from Ireland.

It seemed a hopeless dream to bind the two worlds by electric wire, but Mr. Field did not despair. A better cable was once more made; another company was formed with a capital of £600,000.

In 1866 the “Great Eastern” again sailed, and this time carried the thin thread triumphantly from shore to shore, not only so, but fished up the broken cable from the abysses of the ocean, united it and joined England and America by two telegraphic wires.

The moving spirit throughout was Mr. Field, who spent some thirteen years of his life and made forty trips across the Atlantic, imperilling his health and means in pursuit of this great enterprise before his efforts were crowned with success.

He died on the 12th day of July, 1892.

_Michael Farady._

The pupil of Sir Humphrey Davy, and himself the greatest philosophical chemist of his time, was born on the 22nd of September, 1791. The son of a smith, who was unable to give him any better education than that afforded by a common day-school in the neighborhood, reading, writing and arithmetic embraced all his training for life, so far as schools were concerned; but he had that within him which from these poor beginnings made a magnificent end. A fondness for reading filled his mind with miscellaneous knowledge and paved the way for all that followed.

At thirteen he was apprenticed to a bookseller and binder, but his heart was even thus early in science rather than trade, and he paid more attention to rude experiments than to his immediate calling. A gentleman having taken him to hear some of Sir Humphrey Davy’s last lectures at the Royal Institution, Faraday wrote out the notes he had taken in a quarto volume, and sent them to Sir Humphrey Davy, with a letter asking that, if he could, would he give him a chance of escaping from trade to philosophy. The result was his employment as an assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution in 1813, at the age of 22, after he had been a bookseller for nine years.

From this time Faraday’s progress was rapid. In 1820 his name was first made prominent for chemical discoveries, and from that date every year recorded some new research and new triumph, till in 1832 his eminence was so thoroughly felt that the University of Oxford made him a D. C. L., and in 1835 Lord Melbourne’s Government gave him a pension of £300 a year. Honours meanwhile were showered upon him; he became one of eight foreign associates of the Imperial Academy of Science at Paris, a commander of the Legion of Honour, a knight of the Prussian Order of Merit and member of numerous scientific bodies in Europe and America.

The secret of his success, apart from his genius, lay in his wonderful industry and calm and careful attention to every detail of what he essayed.

In electricity and magnetism his researches made him one of the foremost; his language in lecturing was always simple; his experiments convincing, and his enthusiasms so catching, that every one felt engrossed by subjects which so absorbed the lecturer.

He was a true philosopher, taking nothing for granted, and thinking nothing too insignificant to follow out to the utmost. Many books have been written on his discoveries, and several on his life and character, but it is felt that no one who did not know him could realize the man as he was.

With a European fame his was modest as a child. The greatest authority in his day on natural science, he was a humble Christian.

Faraday never married. When he died in 1867 his pension was continued to his maiden sister, who survived him.

In Faraday, as in others, genius seemed largely to be what Carlyle calls it, only a faculty of infinite labor.

_Lord Kelvin._

Born at Belfast, Ireland, 26th June, 1824, his father being then teacher of mathematics in the Royal Academical Institution. In 1832 James Thomson accepted the chair of mathematics at Glasgow and migrated there with his two sons, James and William, who in 1834 matriculated in that University, William being little more than ten years of age, and having acquired all his education through his father’s instruction.

In 1841 William Thomson entered Cambridge; in 1845 took his degrees, second wrangler, to which honour he added that of the first Smith’s prize.

At that time there was few facilities for the study of experimental science in Great Britain. At the Royal Institution Faraday held a unique position, and was feeling his way almost alone.

In Cambridge science had progressed little since the days of Newton. Thomson, therefore had recourse to Paris and for a year worked in the laboratory of Regnault, who was engaged in his classical researches on the thermal properties of steam; but his stay in Paris was comparatively short, for in 1846, when only twenty-two years of age, he accepted the chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, which he filled for fifty-three years, attaining universal recognition as one of the greatest physicists of his time.

The Glasgow chair was a source of inspiration to scientific men for half a century, and many of the most advanced researches grew out of the suggestions which Thomson scattered as sparks from the anvil.

Although his contributions to thermo-dynamics may properly be regarded as his most scientific work, it is in the field of electricity, especially in its application to submarine telegraphy, that Lord Kelvin is best known.

From 1854 he is most prominent among telegraphists. The stranded form of the conductor was due to his suggestion, but it was in the letters which he addressed in November and December of that year to Prof. Stokes, and which were published in the proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855 that he discussed the mathematical theory of signalling through submarine cables, and enunciated the conclusion that in long cables retardation due to capacity must render the speed of signalling inversely proportional to the square of the cable’s length.

Some held that if this were true ocean telegraphy would be impossible, and sought in consequence to disprove Thomson’s conclusions. Thomson on the other hand set to work to overcome the difficulty by improvement in the manufacture of the cables, and first of all the production of copper of high conductivity, and the construction of apparatus which would readily respond to the slightest variation of the current in the cable.

The mirror galvanometer and the siphon recorder, which was patented in 1867, were the outcome of these researches, but the scientific value of the mirror galvanometer is independent of its use in telegraphy, and the siphon recorder is the direct precursor of one form of galvanometer (d’arsnovals), now commonly used in electric laboratories.

Thomson’s work in connection with telegraphy led to the production in rapid succession of instruments adapted to the requirements of the time, for measurements of every electrical quantity, and when electric lighting came to the front, a new set of instruments was produced to meet the needs of the electrical engineer.

His industry is universal, and he seems to take rest by turning from one difficulty to another, difficulties that would appal most men, and be taken as an enjoyment by no one else.

This life of unwearied industry and of universal honour has left Lord Kelvin with a lovable nature, and charms all with whom he comes in contact.

In 1866 he received the honour of knighthood in acknowledgment of his services to transatlantic telegraphy, and in 1892 he was raised to the peerage, with the title of Baron Kelvin of Largs.

_John Watkins Brett._

Telegraph engineer, was the son of a cabinet-maker, William Brett, of Bristol, England, and was born in that city in 1805.

Brett has been styled, and with apparent justice, the founder of submarine telegraphy.

The idea of sending electricity through submerged cables originated with him and his brother; after some years in perfecting his plans, he sought and obtained permission from Louis Phillipe in 1847 to establish telegraphic communication with France and England, but the project did not receive public attention, being regarded as too hazardous for general support.

The attempt was, however, made in 1850, and met with success, and the construction of numerous other submarine lines followed.

Brett always expressed confidence in the ultimate union of England and America by means of electricity, but did not live to see its final success.

He died on 3rd December, 1863, at the age of 58.

Brett published a book of 104 pages on the origin and progress of oceanic telegraphy. He also contributed several papers on the same subject to the Institute of Civil Engineers, of which he was a member.

A list of these contributions will be found in the index of the Proceedings of the Society.

_Signor Guiglielmo Marconi._

Born at Marzabotta, near Bologna, Italy, in April, 1875. His father was a native of Italy and a man of substance, his mother was a Miss Jamieson, born in Ireland, but of Scottish lineage.

Young Marconi early turned his attention to the wonders of electricity and began his experiments in wireless telegraphy in 1891. While yet a mere lad he came to England in 1896, and in co-operation with Sir William Preece, then the head of the telegraph department in England, began further experiments.

On March 27, 1899, he succeeded in sending messages across the British channel from Boulogne to the south foreland.

The next and greatest achievement of all, on December 12, 1901, he received a signal at St. John’s, Nfld., from Poldhu, Cornwall, nearly 2,000 miles distant.

On February 26, 1902, he received messages aboardship on the Atlantic ocean from Poldhu, 2,099 miles away.

He is now engaged in further experiments and hopes to establish permanent communication between England and America within a very short time, and later extend the system over the entire globe.

At the present time all the leading steamship lines crossing the Atlantic, and many ships of the British navy, are equipped with wireless telegraph apparatus, by means of which vessels at sea are in constant touch with Europe and America; thus each ship has become a floating telegraph office.

The inventor is somewhat above medium height and of a highly strung temperament. He is quiet and deliberate in his movements; he talks little; is straightforward, unassuming, and has accepted his success with calmness, almost with unconcern.

He is undoubtedly the most prominent man of the day and the wonder of the age.

_Genesis of Wireless Telegraphy._

Professor McBride, M.A., D.Sc., of McGill University, in his inaugural address as President of the Natural History Society of Montreal in October, 1901, referred to wireless telegraphy as follows:--

“Take a discovery that is exciting the greatest interest at the present time, and promises results of the most far-reaching importance, namely, wireless telegraphy. Let us trace the apostolical succession, to borrow a term from theology, of the idea which underlies the discovery.

“Thirty or forty years ago the great Cambridge physicist, Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest and most penetrative of the geniuses who have filled the chairs of that ancient university, was engaged in determining the value of the electric unit. As many of my hearers are aware, there are two ways of doing this: we can estimate either the push that an electric charge exerts on another similar charge, or else the pull that an electric current effects on a magnetic needle. In this way two different values for the unit are arrived at, and the relation between them, or to put it more simply, the number obtained by dividing the one by the other, gives the velocity of light in centimeters per second. This remarkable result suggested to Clerk Maxwell that, that mysterious thing called electricity had something to do with the ether which fills all space and transmits the vibrations which we call light, and he thereupon constructed this famous electro-magnetic theory of light which conceives light to consist of vibrations not on a comparatively gross material like ordinary matter, but of electricity itself. This theory received at first little support from the German physicists, who are inclined to scoff at every idea that is not of German origin.

“Amongst a crowd of scoffers, however, one open-minded enquirer was found who said to himself ‘If Clerk Maxwell is right, I ought to find that if I start artificial electric vibrations they will propagate themselves like light waves.’ This man’s name was Hertz, and he promptly set about producing electric waves purely with a view of testing Clerk Maxwell’s theory.

“He had many difficulties to overcome before he succeeded in producing them in sufficiently rapid succession, but this was at last accomplished and Maxwell’s theory triumphantly vindicated.

“The electric vibrations comported themselves like light. It is true that a stone wall was as transparent for them as a sheet of glass is for ordinary light, but they were reflected by a metal plate and could be brought to a focus, etc., etc. Now this invisible light, as we may call it, is what Marconi and others have employed in their so-called wireless telegraphy, but, without Maxwell or Hertz, it would have remained undiscovered to this day.”

_Historical._

Wireless telegraphy, or the transmission of signals through space by means of electric waves, is of a comparatively recent origin, although the idea of the existence of electric waves dates back some forty years ago.

In 1868 Clerk Maxwell, then Professor of Physics in Cambridge University, first published a theory showing that an intimate relation between electricity and light existed. This theory, which has received most conclusive substantiation since then by eminent physicists, is known as the electro-magnetic theory. It tells us that electric waves and light waves are similar; that they represent a transfer of energy by means of the all-pervading universal ether; that they differ radically in their effects on the physical senses in wave length and period of vibration, and that both possess the same velocity, 186,000 miles per second.

Many of the exponents of the electro-magnetic theory discussed the properties of electric waves long before they were experimentally demonstrated.

Our experimental knowledge of the existence of electric waves dates from about 1880.

Hertz, a German physicist, while working under the illustrious Helmholtz, discovered that small sparks could be made to pass between the two conductors when held near a circuit in which electric oscillations were set up. He soon discovered that this was due to the action of electric waves, and, realizing how fundamental in importance this was to the thorough knowledge of the electro-magnetic theory, he commenced a series of experimental researches which were of such a brilliant and productive nature as to mark them as amongst the most important investigations in the whole domain of science.

A number of experimenters then followed, amongst them Signor Marconi, who has since become closely identified with its practical application.

In 1890 the coherer was discovered by Branly, and simultaneously by Oliver Lodge.

Lodge’s coherer was a very delicate instrument, and by its means the electric waves could be detected at a much greater distance than was possible with the conductors used by Hertz.

In 1895, in Cambridge, Mr. Rutherford (now Professor of Physics in McGill University), first showed that the waves could be observed by a magnetic detector.

He discovered that a weakly magnetized steel wire becomes instantaneously demagnetized under the influence of electrical oscillations, such as electric waves. With his detector he succeeded in establishing communication at half a mile.

In 1896 Marconi came from Italy to England, and, with the help of a Government grant, obtained through the instigation of Sir William Preece, head of the British telegraph department, commenced a series of experiments in wireless telegraphy. Very rapid strides were made, and the distance to which signals could be sent was very much increased.

An important development soon followed in regard to the use of a vertical wire for transmitting the waves, instead of a horizontal one, which increased the distance still more.

Although Marconi has come to be chiefly associated with the development of wireless telegraphy, other systems have been established in various countries which involve slight modifications in the apparatus employed.

In Germany the Arco Slaby system is used with success, and in the United States the De Forest is being installed in many places.

Then there is the Armstrong, Orling and the Muirhead Lodge system. In England a wireless telegraph company was organized in 1902.

This company, having secured the Marconi patents, aimed to monopolize that business in Great Britain, but, as the Government there controls the telegraphs, this was not permitted.

The company complained as to the attitude of the British Government in retarding instead of encouraging the enterprise. When the subject was brought up in the House of Commons on June 8, 1903, Mr. Chamberlain, the then Postmaster-General, explained that he had no desire to hamper a new invention, but the Post-Office did not intend to throw away its right to the monopoly in public communication as it had done in the early days of the telephone.

He had not been dealing with Mr. Marconi, but with the company owning Marconi’s invention. The company asked for a permanent exclusive right to use wireless telegraphy in Great Britain.

This was refused, on the ground that it was not business. When the company was prepared to talk business, he was prepared to deal with it. When the company asked for a private wire to Poldhu he (Mr. Chamberlain) had granted the request immediately.

At the time President Roosevelt sent his wireless message to King Edward, and the latter replied by cable, the Post-Office had arranged to convey the message from the nearest office to Poldhu at any hour, although there was no difference whatever in telegraphing from London to Poldhu.

The company next asked the Post-Office to act as its agent in collecting messages in Great Britain for transatlantic marconigraphing, but he had submitted certain conditions with the view of preventing interference with the admiralty and for strategic reasons, adding that when the conditions were accepted and the company satisfied the Post-Office experts of its ability to send messages across the Atlantic, the Post-Office would appoint the company as its agent, as it already had done in the case of the cable companies.

That letter had been sent to the company on March 31, but no reply had been received.

Mr. Chamberlain contended that the Post-Office was in no way to be blamed for the delay, but it refused to take the public money for messages until the company was willing to allow the Post-Office experts to go to Poldhu and satisfy themselves that the wireless system is workable. All this shows the company was not at that time in a position to transact public business, otherwise the Post-Office experts would have had access to its station at Poldhu. The subsequent failure showed the contention of the Post-Office was correct.

In the early part of 1903 a transatlantic communication was established for a short time and then collapsed; the system not having been fully perfected, the company should hesitate to again make the attempt until its plans are fully matured. As to the future of the system there is not the shadow of a doubt of its ultimate success. Meanwhile the Marconi Company has arranged with the British Government Telegraph System and also with the leading Telegraph companies in the United States and Canada to interchange traffic. Now nearly all passenger steamers crossing the Atlantic are equipped with the Marconi apparatus and are in a position while at sea to send and receive messages to and from all parts of the world, and the company are doing a profitable business even now with its limited area of operations; what must it be when they shall have established communication over every sea and continent in the world. This will be accomplished in no very long lapse of time. The medium of communication provided by nature is ready and waiting like a willing steed to be harnessed for the uses of man.

The man singled out by providence to perform this superhuman task is Signor Guiglielmo Marconi.

_Wireless Telegraphy Apparatus._

Electric waves have long been harnessed by the use of wires for sending communications to a distance, but the ether exists outside of the wire as well as within; therefore, having the ether everywhere, it must be possible to produce waves in it which will pass anywhere on the earth’s surface, and if these waves can be controlled, messages can be transmitted as easily and certainly as the ether within the guiding wire. The problem lay in producing suitable instruments to effect this result. Marconi adopted a device invented by an Italian named Calzecchi, and improved by a Frenchman, Mr. Branley, called the coherer, which he greatly improved. This instrument is merely a small tube of glass about as big around as a lead pencil and two inches in length; this is plugged at each end with silver. The plugs almost touching within the tube, the narrow space between is filled with finely powdered particles of nickel and silver, which possess the property of being alternately good and very bad conductors of an electric current or waves. The waves that come from the transmitter, perhaps a thousand or two thousand miles away, are received, but are so weak that they could not of themselves actuate any ordinary telegraph instrument; they do, however, possess strength enough to draw the little fragments of silver and nickel in the coherer together in a continuous path; in other words, they make these metal filings cohere, and the moment they cohere they become a good conductor for electricity, and a current from a local battery operates the Morse instruments. Then a little tapper actuated by the same current strikes against the coherer, the particles of metal are separated or decohered, becoming instantly a poor conductor and thus stopping the current from the home battery; another wave comes through space into the coherer there drawing the particles again together and another dot or dash is printed. All these processes are continued rapidly until a complete message is received.

The sending instrument, or transmitter, is called the oscillator, a device somewhat similar to the familiar Morse telegraph key.

Marconi is now employed in perfecting an instrument by which the station only with which communication is desired can hear the signal, and receive the message. Thus the required secrecy will be preserved.

Marconi has patented over a hundred devices in connection with wireless telegraphy, but the nature and application of these has not been given to the public as yet.

_Thomas A. Edison’s Opinion of Wireless Telegraphy._

“There is absolutely no reason why Marconi may not develop a speed of 500 words a minute in the transmission of translantic messages,” said Thomas A. Edison in course of an interview; “on the other hand,” continued the inventor, “there are technical, scientific and mechanical obstacles which make it absolutely impossible to increase the speed of transmission of ocean cables.