Chapter IV: Part 4

The telephone which Bell had invented, and on which he received a patent on his twenty-ninth birthday, consisted of two instruments similar in principle to what we would now call receivers. If you will experiment with the receiver of a modern telephone you will find that it will transmit as well as receive sound. The heart of the transmitter was an electro-magnet in front of which was a drum-like membrane with a piece of iron cemented to its center opposite the magnet. A mouthpiece was arranged to throw the sounds of the voice against the diaphragm, and as the membrane vibrated the bit of iron upon it--acting as an armature--induced currents corresponding to the sound-waves, in the coils of the electro-magnet.

Passing over the line the current entered the coils of the tubular electro-magnet in the receiver. A thin disk of soft iron was fastened at the end of this. When the current-waves passed through the coils of the magnet the iron disk was thrown into vibration, thus producing sound. As it vibrated with the current produced by the iron on the vibrating membrane in the transmitter acting as an armature, transmitter and receiver vibrated in unison and so the same sound was given off by the receiver and made audible to the human ear as was thrown against the membrane of the transmitter by the voice.

The patent issued to Bell has been described as "the most valuable single patent ever issued." Certainly it was destined to be of tremendous service to civilization. It was so entirely new and original that Bell found difficulty in finding terms in which to describe his invention to the patent officials. He called it "an improvement on the telegraph," in order that it might be identified as an improvement in transmitting intelligence by electricity. In reality the telephone was very far from being a telegraph or anything in the nature of a telegraph.

As Bell himself stated, his success was in large part due to the fact that he had approached the problem from the viewpoint of an expert in sound rather than as an electrician. "Had I known more about electricity and less about sound," he said, "I would never have invented the telephone." As we have seen, those electricians who worked from the viewpoint of the telegraph never got beyond the limitations of the instrument and found that with it they could transmit signals but not sounds. Bell, with his knowledge of the laws of speech and sound, started with the principles of the transmission of sound as a basis and set electricity to carrying the sound-vibrations.

XIII

THE TELEPHONE AT THE CENTENNIAL

Boll's Impromptu Trip to the Exposition--The Table Under the
Stairs--Indifference of the Judges--Enter Don Pedro, Emperor of
Brazil--Attention and Amazement--Skepticism of the Public--The Aid
of Gardiner Hubbard--Publicity Campaign.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition--America's first great exposition--opened within a month after the completion of the first telephone. The public knew nothing of the telephone, and before it could be made a commercial success and placed in general service the interest of investors and possible users had to be aroused. The Centennial seemed to offer an unusual opportunity to place the telephone before the public. But Bell, like Morse, had no money with which to push his invention. Hubbard was one of the commissioners of the exposition, and exerted his influence sufficiently so that a small table was placed in an odd corner in the Department of Education for the exhibition of the apparatus. The space assigned was a narrow strip between the stairway and the wall.

But no provision was made to allow Bell himself to be present. The young inventor was almost entirely without funds. Sanders and Hubbard had paid nothing but his room rent and the cost of his experiments. He had devoted himself to his inventions so entirely that he had lost all of his professional income. So it was that he was forced to face the prospect of staying in Boston and allowing this opportunity of opportunities to pass unimproved. His fiancée, Miss Hubbard, expected to attend the exposition, and had heard nothing of Bell's inability to go. He went with her to the station, and as the train was leaving she learned for the first time that he was not to accompany her. She burst into tears at the disappointment. Seeing this, Bell dashed madly after the train and succeeded in boarding it. Without money or baggage, he nevertheless succeeded in arriving in Philadelphia.

Bell arrived at the exposition but a few days before the judges were to make their tour of inspection. With considerable difficulty Hubbard had secured their promise that they would stop and examine the telephone. They seemed to regard it as a toy not worth their attention, and the public generally had displayed no interest in the device. When the day for the inspection arrived Bell waited eagerly. As the day passed his hope began to fall, as there seemed little possibility that the judges would reach his exhibit. The Western Union's exhibit of recording telegraphs, the self-binding harvester, the first electric light, Gray's musical telegraph, and other prominently displayed wonders had occupied the attention of the scientists. It was well past supper-time when they came to Bell's table behind the stairs, and most of the judges were tired out and loudly announced their intention of quitting then and there.

At this critical moment, while they were fingering Bell's apparatus indifferently and preparing for their departure, a strange and fortunate thing occurred. Followed by a group of brilliantly attired courtiers, the Emperor of Brazil appeared. He rushed up to Bell and greeted him with a warmth of affection that electrified the indifferent judges. They watched the scene in astonishment, wondering who this young Bell was that he could attract the attention and the friendship of the Emperor. The Emperor had attended Bell's school for deaf mutes in Boston when it was at the height of its success, and had conceived a warm admiration for the young man and taken a deep interest in his work. The Emperor was ready to examine Bell's invention, though the judges were not. Bell showed him how to place his ear to the receiver, and he then went to the transmitter which had been placed at the other end of the wire strung along the room. The Emperor waited expectantly, the judges watched curiously. Bell, at a distance, spoke into the transmitter. In utter wonderment the Emperor raised his head from the receiver. "My God," he cried, "it talks!"

Skepticism and indifference were at an end among the judges, and they eagerly followed the example of the Emperor. Joseph Henry, the most venerable savant of them all, took his place at the receiver. Though his previous talk with Bell, when the telephone was no more than an idea, should perhaps have prepared him, he showed equal astonishment, and instantly expressed his admiration. Next followed Sir William Thomson, the hero of the cable and England's greatest scientist. After his return to England Thomson described his sensations.

"I heard," he said, "'To be or not to be ... there's the rub,' through an electric wire; but, scorning monosyllables, the electric articulation rose to higher flights, and gave me passages from the New York newspapers. All this my own ears heard spoken to me with unmistakable distinctness by the then circular-disk armature of just such another little electro-magnet as this I hold in my hand."

Thomson pronounced Bell's telephone "the most wonderful thing he had seen in America." The judges had forgotten that they were hungry and tired, and remained grouped about the telephone, talking and listening in turn until far into the evening. With the coming of the next morning Bell's exhibit was moved from its obscure corner and given the most prominent place that could be found. From that time forward it was the wonder of the Centennial.

Boys were employed as operators at first, but they were not adapted to the work so well as girls.]

Yet but a small part of the public could attend the exposition and actually test the telephone for themselves. Many of these believed that it was a hoax, and general skepticism still prevailed. Business men, though they were convinced that the telephone would carry spoken messages, nevertheless insisted that it presented no business possibilities. Hubbard, however, had faith in the invention, and as Bell was not a business man, he took upon himself the work of promotion--the necessary, valuable work which must be accomplished before any big idea or invention may be put at the service of the public. Hubbard's first move was to plan a publicity campaign which should bring the new invention favorably to the attention of all, prove its claims, and silence the skeptics. They were too poor to set up an experimental line of their own, and so telegraph lines were borrowed for short periods wherever possible, demonstrations were given and tests made. The assistance of the newspapers was invoked and news stories of the tests did much to popularize the new idea.

An opportunity then came to Bell to lecture and demonstrate the telephone before a scientific body in Essex. He secured the use of a telegraph line and connected the hall with the laboratory in Boston. The equipment consisted of old-fashioned box 'phones over a foot long and eight inches square, built about an immense horseshoe magnet. Watson was stationed in the Boston laboratory. Bell started his lecture, with Watson constantly listening over the telephone. Bell would stop from time to time and ask that the ability of the telephone to transmit certain kinds of sounds be illustrated. Musical instruments were played in Boston and heard in Essex; then Watson talked, and finally he was instructed to sing. He insisted that he was not a singer, but the voices of others less experienced in speaking over the crude instruments often failed to carry sufficiently well for demonstration purposes. So Watson sang, as best he could, "Yankee Doodle," "Auld Lang Syne," and other favorites. After the lecture had been completed members of the audience were invited to talk over the telephone. A few of them mustered confidence to talk with Watson in Boston, and the newspaper reporters carefully noted down all the details of the conversation.

The lecture aroused so much interest that others were arranged. The first one had been free, but admission was charged for the later lectures and this income was the first revenue Bell had received for his invention. The arrangements were generally the same for each of the lectures about Boston. The names of Longfellow, of Holmes, and of other famous American men of letters are found among the patrons of some of the lectures in Boston. Bell desired to give lectures in New York City, but was not certain that his apparatus would operate at that distance over the lines available. The laboratory was on the third floor of a rooming-house, and Watson shouted so loud in his efforts to make his voice carry that the roomers complained. So he took blankets and erected a sort of tent over the instruments to muffle the sound. When the signal came from Bell that he was ready for the test, Watson crawled into the tent and began his shoutings. The day was a hot one, and by the time that the test had been completed Watson was completely wilted. But the complaints of the roomers had been avoided. For one of the New York demonstrations the services of a negro singer with a rich barytone voice had been secured. Watson had no little difficulty in rehearsing him for the part, as he objected to placing his lips close to the transmitter. When the time for the test arrived he persisted in backing away from the mouthpiece when he sang, and, though Watson endeavored to hold the transmitter closer to him, his efforts were of no avail. Finally Bell told Watson that as the negro could not be heard he would have to sing himself. The girl operator in the laboratory had assembled a number of her girl friends to watch the test, and Watson, who did not consider himself a vocalist, did not fancy the prospect. But there was no one else to sing, the demonstration must proceed, and finally Watson struck up "Yankee Doodle" in a quavering voice.

The negro looked on in disgust. "Is that what you wanted me to do, boss?"

"Yes," replied the embarrassed Watson.

"Well, boss, I couldn't sing like that."

The telegraph wires which were borrowed to demonstrate the utility of the telephone proved far from perfect for the work at hand. Many of the wires were rusted and the insulation was poor. The stations along the line were likely to cut in their relays when the test was in progress, and Bell's instruments were not arranged to overcome this retardation. However, the lectures were a success from the popular viewpoint. The public flocked to them and the fame of the telephone grew. So many cities desired the lecture that it finally became necessary for Bell to employ an assistant to give the lecture for him. Frederick Gower, a Providence newspaper man, was selected for this task, and soon mastered Bell's lecture. It was then possible to give two lectures on the same evening, Bell delivering one, Gower the other, and Watson handling the laboratory end for both.

Gower secured a contract for the exclusive use of the telephone in New England, but failed to demonstrate much ability in establishing the new device on a business basis. How little the possibilities of the telephone were then appreciated we may understand from the fact that Gower exchanged his immensely valuable New England rights for the exclusive right to lecture on the telephone throughout the country.

The success of these lectures made it possible for Bell to marry, and he started for England on a wedding-trip. The lectures also aroused the necessary interest and made it possible to secure capital for the establishment of telephone lines. It also determined Hubbard in his plan of leasing the telephones instead of selling them. This was especially important, as it made possible the uniformity of the efficient Bell system of the present day.

XIV

IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION

The First Telephone Exchange--The Bell Telephone
Association--Theodore N. Vail--The Fight with the Western
Union--Edison and Blake Invent Transmitters--Last Effort of the
Western Union--Mushroom Companies and Would-be Inventors--The
Controversy with Gray--Dolbear's Claims--The Drawbaugh Case--On a
Firm Footing.

Through public interest had been aroused in the telephone, it was still very far from being at the service of the nation. The telephone increases in usefulness just in proportion to the number of your acquaintances and business associates who have telephones in their homes or offices. Instruments had to be manufactured on a commercial scale, telephone systems had to be built up. While the struggles of the inventor who seeks to apply a new idea are often romantic, the efforts of the business executives who place the invention, once it is achieved, at the service of people everywhere, are not less praiseworthy and interesting.

A very few telephones had been leased to those who desired to establish private lines, but it was not until May of 1877 that the first telephone system was established with an exchange by means of which those having telephones might talk with one another. There was a burglar-alarm system in Boston which had wires running from six banks to a central station. The owner of this suggested that telephones be installed in the banks using the burglar-alarm wires. Hubbard gladly loaned the instruments for the purpose. Instruments were installed in the banks without saying anything to the bankers, or making any charge for the service. One banker demanded that his telephone be removed, insisting that it was a foolish toy. But even with the crude little exchange the first system proved its worth. Others were established in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities on a commercial basis. A man from Michigan appeared and secured the perpetual rights for his State, and for his foresight and enterprise he was later to be rewarded by the sale of these rights for a quarter of a million dollars. The free service to the Boston bankers was withdrawn and a commercial system installed there.

But these exchanges served but a few people, and were poorly equipped. There was, of course, no provision for communication between cities. With the telephone over a year old, less than a thousand instruments were in use. But Hubbard, who was directing the destinies of the enterprise during Bell's absence in Europe, decided that the time had come to organize. Accordingly the Bell Telephone Association was formed, with Bell, Hubbard, Sanders, and Watson as the shareholders. Sanders was the only one of the four with any considerable sum of money, and his resources were limited. He staked his entire credit in the enterprise, and managed to furnish funds with which the fight for existence could be carried on. But a business depression was upon the land and it was not easy to secure support for the telephone.

The entrance of the Western Union Telegraph Company into the telephone field brought the affairs of the Bell company to a crisis. As we have seen, the telegraph company had developed into a great and powerful corporation with wires stretching across the length and breadth of the land and agents and offices established in every city and town of importance. Once the telephone began to be used as a substitute for the telegraph in conveying messages, the telegraph officials awoke to the fact that here, possibly, was a dangerous rival, and dropped the viewpoint that Bell's telephone was a mere plaything. They acquired the inventions of Edison, Gray, and Dolbear, and entered the telephone field, announcing that they were prepared to furnish the very best in telephonic communication. This sudden assault by the most powerful corporation in America, while it served to arouse public confidence in the telephone, made it necessary for Hubbard to reorganize his forces and find a general capable of doing battle against such a foe.

Hubbard's political activities had brought to him a Presidential appointment as head of a commission on mail transportation. In the course of the work for the Government he had come much in contact with a young man named Theodore N. Vail, who was head of the Government mail service. He had been impressed by Vail's ability and had in turn introduced Vail to the telephone and aroused his enthusiasm in its possibilities. This Vail was a cousin of the Alfred Vail who was Morse's co-worker, and who played so prominent a part in the development of the telegraph. His experience in the Post-office Department had given him an understanding of the problems of communication in the United States, and had developed his executive ability. Realizing the possibilities of the telephone, he relinquished his governmental post and cast his fortunes with the telephone pioneers, becoming general manager of the Bell company.

The Western Union strengthened its position by the introduction of a new and improved transmitter. This was the work of Thomas Edison, and was so much better than Bell's transmitter that it enabled the Western Union to offer much better telephonic equipment. As we have seen, Bell's transmitter and receiver were very similar, being about the same as the receiver now in common use. In his transmitter Edison placed tiny bits of carbon in contact with the diaphragm. As the diaphragm vibrated under the sound-impulses the pressure upon the carbon granules was varied. An electric current was passed through the carbon particles, whose electrical resistance was varied by the changing pressure from the diaphragm. Thus the current was thrown into undulations corresponding to the sound-waves, and passed over the line and produced corresponding sounds in the receiver. Much stronger currents could be utilized than those generated by Bell's instrument, and thus the transmitter was much more effective for longer distances.

Bell returned from Europe to find the affairs of his company in a sorry plight. Only the courage and generalship of Vail kept it in the field at all. Bell was penniless, having failed to establish the telephone abroad, even as Morse before him had failed to secure foreign revenue from his invention. Bell's health failed him, and as he lay helpless in the hospital his affairs were indeed at a low ebb. At this juncture Francis Blake, of Boston, came forward with an improved transmitter which he offered to the Bell company in exchange for stock. The instrument proved a success and was gladly adopted, proving just what was needed to make possible successful competition with the Western Union.

Prolonged patent litigation followed, and after a bitter legal struggle the Western Union officials became convinced of two things: one, that the Bell company, under Vail's leadership, would not surrender; second, that Bell was the original inventor of the telephone and that his patent was valid. The Western Union, however, seemed to have strong basis for its claim that the new transmitter of the Bell people was an infringement of Edison's patent. A compromise was arranged between the contestants by which the two companies divided the business of furnishing communication by wire in the United States. This agreement proved of the greatest benefit to both organizations, and did much to make possible the present development and universal service of both the telephone and telegraph. By the terms of the agreement the Western Union recognized Bell's patent and agreed to withdraw from the telephone business. The Bell company agreed not to engage in the telegraph business and to take over the Western Union telephone system and apparatus, paying a royalty on all telephone rentals. Experience has demonstrated that the two businesses are not competitive, but supplement each other. It is therefore proper that they should work side by side with mutual understanding.

Success had come at last to the telephone pioneers. Other battles were still to be fought before their position was to be made secure, but from the moment when the Western Union admitted defeat the Bell company was the leader. The stock of the company advanced to a point where Bell, Hubbard, Sanders, and Watson found themselves in the possession of wealth as a reward for their pioneering.

The Western Union had no sooner withdrawn as a competitor of the Bell organization than scores of small, local companies sprang up, all ready to pirate the Bell patent and push the claims of some rival inventor. A very few of them really tried to establish telephone systems, but the majority were organized simply to sell stock to a gullible public. They stirred up a continuous turmoil, and made much trouble for the larger company, though their patent claims were persistently defeated in the courts.

Most of the rival claimants who sprang up, once the telephone had become an established fact and had proved its value, were men of neither prominence nor scientific attainments. Of a very different type was Elisha Gray, whose work we have before noticed, and who now came forward with the claim that he had invented a telephone in advance of Bell. Gray was a practical man of real scientific attainments, but, as we have noticed, his efforts in search of a telephone were from the viewpoint of a musical telegraph and so destined to failure. It has frequently been stated that Gray filed his application for a patent on a telephone of his invention but a few minutes after Bell, and so Bell wrested the honor from him by the scantiest of margins. A careful reading of the testimony brought out in Gray's suit against Bell does not support such a statement. While Bell filed an application for a patent on a completed, invention, Gray filed, a few moments later, a caveat. This was a document, stating that he hoped to invent a telephone of a certain kind therein stated, and would serve to protect his rights until he should have time to perfect it. Thus Gray did not have a completed invention, and he later failed to perfect a telephone along the lines described in his caveat. The decision of the court supported Bell's claims in full.

Another of the Western Union's telephone experts, Professor Dolbear, of Tufts College, also sought to make capital of his knowledge of the telephone. He based his claims upon an improvement of the Reis musical telegraph, which had formed the starting-point for so many experimenters. The case fell flat, however, for when the apparatus was brought into court no one could make it talk.

None of the attacks upon Bell's claim to be the original inventor of the telephone aroused more popular interest at the time than the famous Drawbaugh case. Daniel Drawbaugh was a country mechanic with a habit of reading of the new inventions in the scientific journals. He would work out models of many of these for himself, and, showing them very proudly, often claim them as his own devices. Drawbaugh was now put forward by the opponents of the Bell organization as having invented a telephone before Bell. It was claimed that he had been too poor to secure a patent or to bring his invention to popular notice. Much sympathy was thus aroused for him and the legal battle was waged to interminable length, with the usual result. Bell's patent was again sustained, and Drawbaugh's claims were pronounced without merit.

Many other legal battles followed, but the dominance of the Bell organization, resting upon the indisputable fact that Bell was the first man to conceive and execute a practical telephone, could not be shaken. The telephone business was on a firm footing: it had demonstrated its real service to the public; it had become a necessity; and, under the able leadership of Vail, was fast extending its field of usefulness.

XV

TELEGRAPHING WITHOUT WIRES

The First Suggestion--Morse Sends Messages Through the
Water--Trowbridge Telegraphs Through the Earth--Experiments of
Preece and Heaviside in England--Edison Telegraphs from Moving
Trains--Researches of Hertz Disclose the Hertzian Waves.

Great as are the possibilities of the telegraph and the telephone in the service of man, these instruments are still limited to the wires over which they must operate. Communication was not possible until wires had been strung; where wires could not be strung communication was impossible. Much yet remained to be done before perfection in communication was attained, and, though the public generally considered the telegraph, and the telephone the final achievement, men of science were already searching for an even better way.

The first suggestion that electric currents carrying messages might some day travel without wires seems to have come from K.A. Steinheil, of Munich. In 1838 he discovered that if the two ends of a single wire carrying the electric current be connected with the ground a complete circuit is formed, the earth acting as the return. Thus he was able to dispense with one wire, and he suggested that some day it might be possible to eliminate the wire altogether. The fact that the current bearing messages could be sent through the water was demonstrated by Morse as early as 1842. He placed plates at the termini of a circuit and submerged them in water some distance apart on one side of a canal. Other plates were placed on the opposite side of the waterway and were connected by a wire with a sensitive galvanometer in series to act as a receiver. Currents sent from the opposite side were recorded by the galvanometer and the possibility of communication through the water was established. Others carried these experiments further, it being even suggested that messages might be sent across the Atlantic by this method.

But Bell's greatest contribution to the search for wireless telegraphy was not his direct work in this field, but the telephone itself. His telephone receiver provided the wireless experimenters with an instrument of extreme sensitiveness by which they were able to detect currents which the mirror galvanometer could not receive. While experimenting with a telephone along a telegraph line a curious phenomenon was noticed. The telephone experimenters heard music very clearly. They investigated and found that another telegraph wire, strung along the same poles, but at the usual distance and with the usual insulation, was being used for a test of Edison's musical telephone. Many other similar tests were made and the effect was always noted. In some way the message on one line had been conveyed across the air-gap and had been recorded by the telephones on the other line. It was decided that this had been caused by induction.

Prof. John Trowbridge, of Harvard University, might well be termed the grandfather of wireless telegraphy. He made the first extensive investigation of the subject, and his experiments in sending messages without wires and his discoveries furnished information and inspiration for those who were to follow. His early experiments tested the possibility of using the earth as a conductor. He demonstrated that when an electric current is sent into the earth it spreads from that point in waves in all directions, just as when a stone is cast into a pond the ripples widen out from that point, becoming fainter and fainter until they reach the shore. He further found that these currents could be detected by grounding the terminals of a telephone circuit. Telegraphy through the earth was thus possible. However, the farther the receiving station was from the sending station the wider must be the distance between the telephone terminals and the smaller the current received. Professor Trowbridge did not find it possible to operate his system at a sufficient distance to make it of value, but he did demonstrate that the currents do travel through the earth and that they can be set to carrying messages.

Professor Trowbridge also revived the idea of telegraphing across the Atlantic by utilizing the conductivity of the sea-water to carry the currents. In working out the plan theoretically he discovered that the terminals on the American side would have to be widely separated--one in Nova Scotia and the other in Florida--and that they would have to be connected by an insulated cable. Two widely separated points on the coast of France were suggested for the other terminals. He also calculated that very high voltages would be necessary, and the practical difficulties involved made it seem certain that such a system would cost far too much to construct and to operate to be profitable.

Trowbridge suggested the possibility of using such a system for establishing communication between ships at sea. Ship could communicate with ship, over short distances, during a fog. A trailing wire was to be used to increase the sending and receiving power, and Trowbridge believed that with a dynamo capable of supplying current for a hundred lights, communication could be established at a distance of half a mile.

Not satisfied with the earth or the sea as a medium for carrying the current, Trowbridge essayed to use the air. He believed that this was possible, and that it would be accomplished at no distant date. He believed, however, that such a system could not be operated over considerable distances because of the curvature of the earth. He endeavored to establish communication through the air by induction. He demonstrated that if one coil of wire be set up and a current sent through it, a similar coil facing it will have like currents induced within it, which may be detected with a telephone receiver. He also determined that the currents were strongest in the receiving coil when it was placed in a plane parallel with the sending coil. By turning the receiving coil about until the sound was strongest in the telephone receiver, it was thus possible to determine the direction from which the messages were coming. Trowbridge recognized the great value of this feature to a ship at sea.

But these induced currents could only be detected at a distance by the use of enormous coils. To receive at a half-mile a coil of eight hundred feet radius would have been necessary, and this was obviously impossible for use on shipboard. So these experiments also developed no practical improvement in the existing means of communication. But Professor Trowbridge had demonstrated new possibilities, and had set men thinking along new lines. He was the pioneer who pointed the way to a great invention, though he himself failed to attain it.

Bell followed up Trowbridge's suggestions of using the water as a medium of communication, and in a series of experiments conducted on the Potomac River established communication between moving ships.

Professor Dolbear also turned from telephone experimentation to the search for the wireless. He grounded his wires and sent high currents into the earth, but improved his system and took another step toward the final achievement by adding a large induction coil to his sending equipment. He suggested that the spoken word might be sent as well as dots and dashes, and so sought the wireless telephone as well as the wireless telegraph. Like his predecessors, his experiments were successful only at short distances.

The next application of the induction telegraph was to establish communication with moving trains. Several experimenters had suggested it, but it remained for Thomas A. Edison to actually accomplish it. He set up a plate of tin-foil on the engine or cars, opposite the telegraph wires. Currents could be induced across the gap, no matter what the speed of the train, and, traveling along the wires to the station, communication was thus established. Had Edison continued his investigation further, instead of turning to other pursuits, he might have achieved the means of communicating through the air at considerable distances.

These experiments by Americans in the early 'eighties seemed to promise that America was to produce the wireless telegraph, as it had produced the telegraph and the telephone. But the greatest activity now shifted to Europe and the American men of science failed to push their researches to a successful conclusion. Sir W.H. Preece, an Englishman, brought himself to public notice by establishing communication with the Isle of Wight by Morse's method. Messages were sent and received during a period when the cable to the island was out of commission, and thus telegraphing without wires was put to practical use.

Preece carried his experiments much further. In 1885 he laid out two great squares of insulated wire, a quarter of a mile to the side, and at a distance of a quarter of a mile from each other. Telephonic communication was established between them, and thus he had attained wireless telephony by induction. In 1887, another Englishman, A.W. Heaviside, laid circuits over two miles long on the surface and other circuits in the galleries of a coal-mine three hundred and fifty feet below, and established communication between the circuits. Working together, Preece and Heaviside extended the distances over which they could communicate. Preece finally decided that a combination of conduction and induction was the best means of wireless communication. He grounded the wire of his circuit at two points and raised it to a considerable height between these points. Preece's work was to put the theories of Professor Trowbridge to practical use and thus bring the final achievement a step nearer.

But conduction and induction combined would not carry messages to a distance that would enable extensive communication. A new medium had yet to be found, and this was the work of Heinrich Hertz, a young German scientist. He was experimenting with two flat coils of wire, as had many others before him, but one of the coils had a small gap in it. Passing the discharge from a condenser into this coil, Hertz discovered that the spark caused when the current jumped the gap set up electrical vibrations that excited powerful currents in the other coil. These currents were noticeable, though the coils were a very considerable distance apart. Thus Hertz had found out how to send out electrical waves that would travel to a considerable distance.

What was the medium that carried these waves? This was the question that Hertz asked himself, and the answer was, the ether. We know that light will pass through a vacuum, and these electric waves would do likewise. It was evident that they did not pass through the air. The answer, as evolved by Hertz and approved by other scientists, is that they travel through the ether, a strange substance which pervades all space. Hertz discovered that light and his electrical waves traveled at the same speed, and so deduced that light consists of electrical vibrations in the ether.

With the knowledge that this all-pervading ether would carry electric waves at the speed of light, that the waves could be set up by the discharge of a spark across a spark-gap in a coil, and that they could be received in another coil in resonance with the first, the establishment of a practical wireless telegraph was not far away.

XVI

AN ITALIAN BOY'S WORK

The Italian Youth who Dreamed Wonderful Dreams--His Studies--Early
Detectors--Marconi Seeks an Efficient Detector--Devises New Sending
Methods--The Wireless Telegraph Takes Form--Experimental Success.

With the nineteenth century approaching its close, man had discovered that the electric waves would travel through the ether; he had learned something of how to propagate those waves, and something of how to receive them. But no one had yet been able to combine these discoveries in practical form, to apply them to the task of carrying messages, to make the improvements necessary to make them available for use at considerable distances. Though many mature scientists had devoted themselves to the problem, it remained for a youth to solve it. The youth was Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian.

We have noticed that the telegraph, the cable, and the telephone were the work of those of the Anglo-Saxon race--Englishmen or Americans--so it came as a distinct surprise that an Italian youth should make the next great application of electricity to communication. But Anglo-Saxon blood flows in Marconi's veins. Though his father was an Italian, his mother was an Irishwoman. He was born at Villa Griffone near Bologna, Italy, on April 25, 1874. He studied in the schools of Bologna and of Florence, and early showed his interest in scientific affairs. From his mother he learned English, which he speaks as fluently as he does his native tongue. As a boy he was allowed to attend English schools for short periods, spending some time at Bedford and at Rugby.

One of his Italian teachers was Professor Righi, who had made a close study of the Hertzian waves, and who was himself making no small contributions to the advancement of the science. From him young Marconi learned of the work which had been accomplished, and of the apparatus which was then available. Marconi was a quiet boy--almost shy.

He did not display the aggressive energy so common with many promising youths. But though he was quiet, he was not slothful. He entered into his studies with a determination and an application that brought to him great results. He was a student and a thinker. Any scientific book or paper which came before him was eagerly devoured. It was this habit of careful and persistent study that made it possible for Marconi to accomplish such wonderful things at an early age.

Marconi had learned of the Hertzian waves. It occurred to him that by their aid wireless telegraphy might be accomplished. The boy saw the wonderful possibilities; he dreamed dreams of how these waves might carry messages from city to city, from ship to shore, and from continent to continent without wires. He realized his own youth and inexperience, and it seemed certain to him that many able scientists had had the same vision and must be struggling toward its attainment. For a year Marconi dreamed those dreams, studying the books and papers which would tell him more of these wonderful waves. Each week he expected the news that wireless telegraphy had been established, but the news never came. Finally he concluded that others, despite their greater opportunities, had not been so far-seeing as he had thought.

Marconi attacked the problem himself with the dogged persistence and the studious care so characteristic of him. He began his experiments upon his father's farm, the elder Marconi encouraging the youth and providing him with funds with which to purchase apparatus. He set up poles at the opposite sides of the garden and on them mounted the simple sending and receiving instruments which were then available, using plates of tin for his aerials. He set up a simple spark-gap, as had Hertz, and used a receiving device little more elaborate. A Morse telegraph-key was placed in circuit with the spark-gap. When the key was held down for a longer period a long spark passed between the brass knobs of the spark-gap and a dash was thus transmitted. When the key was depressed for a shorter period a dot in the Morse code was sent forth. After much work and adjustment Marconi was able to send a message across the garden. Others had accomplished this for similar distances, but they lacked Marconi's imagination and persistence, and failed to carry their experiments further. To the young Irish-Italian this was but a starting-point.

Photographed in the uniform of an officer in the Italian army]

Marconi quickly found that the receiver was the least effective part of the existing apparatus. The waves spread in all directions from the sending station and become feebler and feebler as the distance increases. To make wireless telegraphy effective over any considerable distance a highly efficient and extremely sensitive receiving device is necessary. Some special means of detecting the feeble currents was necessary. The coherer was the solution. As early as 1870 a Mr. S.A. Varley, an Englishman, had discovered that when he endeavored to send a current through a mass of carbon granules the tiny particles arranged themselves in order under the influence of the electric current, and offered a free path for the passage of the current. When shaken apart they again resisted the flow of current until it became powerful enough to cause them to again arrange themselves into a sort of bridge for its passage. Thus was the principle of the coherer discovered.

An Italian scientist, Professor Calzecchi-Onesti, carried these experiments still further. He used various substances in place of the carbon granules and showed that some of them will arrange themselves so as to allow the passage of a current under the influence of the spark setting up the Hertzian waves. Professor E. Branly, of the Catholic University of Paris, took up this work in 1890. He arranged metal filings in a small glass tube six inches long and arranged a tapper to disarrange the filings after they had been brought together under the influence of the spark.

With the Branly coherer as the basis Marconi sought to make improvements which would result in the detector he was seeking. For his powder he used nickel, mixed with a small proportion of fine silver filings. This he placed between silver plugs in a small glass tube. Platinum wires were connected to the silver plugs and brought out at the opposite ends of the tube. It required long study to determine just how to adjust the plugs between which the powder was loosely arranged. If the particles were pressed together too tightly they would not fall apart readily enough under the influence of the tapper. If too much space was allowed they would not cohere readily enough. Marconi also discovered that a larger proportion of silver in the powder and a smaller amount between the plugs increased the sensitiveness of the receiver. Yet he found it well not to have it too sensitive lest it cohere for every stray current and so give false signals.

Under the influence of the electric waves set up from the spark-gap those tiny particles so arranged themselves that they would readily carry a current between the plugs. By placing these plugs with their platinum terminals in circuit with a local battery the current from this local battery was given a passage through the coherer by the action of the electric waves coming through the ether. While these waves themselves were too feeble to operate a receiving mechanism, they were strong enough to arrange the particles of the sensitive metal in the tube in order, so that the current from the local battery could pass through them. This current operated a telegraph relay which in turn operated a Morse receiving instrument. An electrical tapper was also arranged in this circuit so that it would strike the tube a light blow after each long or short wave representing a dot or a dash had been received. Thus the particles were disarranged, ready to array themselves when the next wave came through the ether and so form the bridge over which the stronger local circuit could convey the signal.

Marconi further discovered that the most effective arrangement was to run a wire from one terminal of the coherer into the ground, and from the other to an elevated metal plate or wire. The waves coming through the ether were received by the elevated wire and were conducted down to the coherer. Experimenting with his apparatus on the posts in the garden, he discovered that an increase in the height of the wire greatly increased the receiving distance.

At his sending station he used the exciter of his teacher, Professor Righi. This, too, he modified and perfected for his practical purpose. As he used the device it consisted of two brass spheres a millimeter apart. An envelope was provided so that the sides of the spheres toward each other and the space between was occupied by vaseline oil which served to keep the faces of the spheres clean and produce a more uniform spark. Outside the two spheres, but in line with them, were placed two smaller spheres at a distance of about two-fifths of a centimeter. The terminals of the sending circuit were attached to these. The secondary coil of a large induction coil was placed in series with them, and batteries were wired in series with the primary of the coil with a sending key to make and break the circuit. When the key was closed a series of sparks sprang across the spark-gap, and the waves were thus set up in the ether and carried the message to the receiving station.

As in the case of his receiving station, Marconi found that results were much improved when he wired his sending apparatus so that one terminal was grounded and the other connected with an elevated wire or aerial, which is now called the antenna. By 1896 Marconi had brought this apparatus to a state of perfection where he could transmit messages to a distance of several miles. This Irish-Italian youth of twenty-two had mastered the problem which had baffled veteran scientists and was ready to place a new wonder at the service of the world.

The devices which Marconi thus assembled and put to practical use had been, in the hands of others, little more than scientific toys. Others had studied the Hertzian waves and the methods of sending and detecting them from a purely scientific viewpoint. Marconi had the vision to realize the practical possibilities, and, though little more than a boy, had assembled the whole into a workable system of communication. He richly deserves the laurels and the rewards as the inventor of the wireless telegraph.

XVII

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ESTABLISHED

Marconi Goes to England--he Confounds the Skeptics--A Message to
France Without Wires--The Attempt to Span the Ocean--Marconi in
America Receives the First Message from Europe--Fame and Recognition
Achieved.

The time had now come for Marconi to introduce himself and his discoveries to the attention of the world. He went to England, and on June 2, 1896, applied for a patent on his system of wireless telegraphy. Soon afterward his plans were submitted to the postal-telegraph authorities. Fortunately for Marconi and for the world, W.H. Preece was then in authority in this department. He himself had experimented with some little success with wireless messages. He was able enough to see the merit in Marconi's discoveries and generous enough to give him full recognition and every encouragement.

The apparatus was first set up in the General Post-office in London, another station being located on the roof but a hundred yards away. Though several walls intervened, the Hertzian waves traversed them without difficulty, and messages were sent and received. Stations were then set up on Salisbury Plain, some two miles apart, and communication was established between them.

Though the postal-telegraph authorities received Marconi's statements of his discoveries with open mind and put his apparatus to fair tests, the public at large was much less tolerant. The skepticism which met Morse and Bell faced Marconi. Men of science doubted his statements and scoffed at his claims. The Hertzian waves might be all right to operate scientific playthings, they thought, but they were far too uncertain to furnish a medium for carrying messages in any practical way. Then, as progress was made and Marconi began to prove his system, the inevitable jealousies arose. Experimenters who might have invented the wireless telegraph, but who did not, came forward to contest Marconi's claims and to seek to snatch his laurels from him.

The young inventor forged steadily ahead, studying and experimenting, devising improved apparatus, meeting the difficulties one by one as they arose. In most of his early experiments he had used a modification of the little tin boxes which had been set up in his father's garden as his original aerials. Having discovered that the height of the aerials increased the range of the stations, he covered a large kite with tin-foil and, sending it up with a wire, used this as an aerial. Balloons were similarly employed. He soon recognized, however, that a practical commercial system, which should be capable of sending and receiving messages day and night, regardless of the weather, could not be operated with kites or balloons. The height of masts was limited, so he sought to increase the range by increasing the electrical power of the current sending forth the sparks from the sending station. Here he was on the right path, and another long step forward had been taken.

In the fall of 1897 he set up a mast on the Isle of Wight, one hundred and twenty feet high. From the top of this was strung a single wire and a new series of experiments was begun. Marconi had spent the summer in Italy demonstrating his apparatus, and had established communication between a station on the shore and a war-ship of the Italian Navy equipped with his apparatus. He now secured a small steamer for his experiments from his station on the Isle of Wight and equipped it with a sixty-foot mast. Communication was maintained with the boat day after day, regardless of weather conditions. The distance at which communication could be maintained was steadily increased until communication was established with the mainland.

In July of 1898 the wireless demonstrated its utility as a conveyer of news. An enterprising Dublin newspaper desired to cover the Kingstown regatta with the aid of the wireless. In order to do this a land station was erected at Kingstown, and another on board a steamer which followed the yachts. A telephone wire connected the Kingstown station with the newspaper office, and as the messages came by wireless from the ship they were telephoned to Dublin and published in successive editions of the evening papers.

This feat attracted so much attention that Queen Victoria sought the aid of the wireless for her own necessities. Her son, the Prince of Wales, lay ill on his yacht, and the aged queen desired to keep in constant communication with him. Marconi accordingly placed one station on the prince's yacht and another at Osborne House, the queen's residence. Communication was readily maintained, and one hundred and fifty messages passed by wireless between the prince and the royal mother.

While the electric waves bearing the messages were found to pass through wood, stone, or earth, it was soon noticed in practical operation that when many buildings, or a hill, or any other solid object of size intervened between the stations the waves were greatly retarded and the messages seriously interfered with. When the apparatus was placed on board steel vessels it was found that any part of the vessel coming between the stations checked the communication. Marconi sought to avoid these difficulties by erecting high aerials at every point, so that the waves might pass through the clear air over solid obstructions.

Marconi's next effort was to connect France with England. He went to France to demonstrate his apparatus to the French Government and set up a station near Boulogne. The aerial was raised to a height of one hundred and fifty feet. Another station was erected near Folkestone on the English coast, across the Channel. A group of French officials gathered in the little station near Folkestone for the test, which was made on the 27th of March, 1899. Marconi sent the messages, which were received by the station on the French shore without difficulty. Other messages were received from France, and wireless communication between the nations was an accomplished fact.