Article September 19, 1901 Issue

Wireless Messages across the Oceans

The Chicago Record-Herald

THE public is never unprepared for announcements of new discoveries and inventions by Nikola Tesla, the wonder worker in electricity. It means much to the industrial and commercial progress of the world that this tireless wizard is concentrating his inventive skill and research upon the one great problem of evolving and perfecting a long-distance system of wireless telegraphy. Ever since Mr. Tesla conducted his remarkable experiments on Pike's Peak, Colorado, the public has been confidently looking to him for further developments in a form of electrical transmission that may revolutionize present methods of telegraphic communication.

Mr. Tesla was quick to see that the greatest field for the immediate utilization of wireless telegraphy was in the transmission of messages across the seas. His experiments have therefore been largely directed toward the solution of the problem of marine communication. The announcement from New York that the complicated apparatus by which he expects finally to establish wireless transatlantic communication is completed portends some remarkable feats in this direction. Three stations have been arranged for Tesla's experiments on the other side of the Atlantic—one in portugal, one in France, and one in Germany. By the end of this month it is expected that mechanism designed by Tesla for the transatlantic service will be in position.

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That great things are possible in this field of electrical invention is indicated by the recent successful establishment of communication between Nantucket lightship and the Lucania, over a distance of seventy-two miles. This is next to the longest distance covered by wireless sea telegraphy of which there is any record. Officers of the British navy have sent wireless messages from ship to ship in the Mediterranean over distances roughly estimated at over one hundred miles. On land this distance has been considerably exceeded, messages having been sent from Crookhaven, Ireland, to Poldhu, Cornwall, a distance of 223 miles. In the sea experiments the interesting fact has been noted that wireless messages may be sent through fogs and storms, and that they are not seriously interfered with by electrical disturbances in the atmosphere.

If wireless messages may be flashed from ship to ship in the Mediterranean over distances exceeding one hundred miles, there would appear to be no obstacles in the way of establishing a continuous patrol of the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool. But if the predictions of Tesla are fulfilled there will be no need of ship-to-ship stations. wireless messages may soon be flashed across the ocean without intervening stations as easily as messages are now sent by cable. In the light of the progress already made the predictions made by Tesla cannot be dismissed as the wild dream of an electrical enthusiast.

Editorial in The Chicago Record-Herald.

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