The first man to make a practical wireless installation seems to have been Marconi, in 1896. As is well known, the distances over which messages can be sent has been increasing rapidly ever since, and so has been the number and the importance of the organizations using it, of which the largest are the various national governments themselves. The vast influence of wireless (or radio) telegraphy on the history of the great World War is too recent to need detailing, but possibly it may be well to call to mind the fact that the ocean cables were virtually all under the control of the Allies, and that "the wireless" was almost the only means that Germany had for receiving information quickly and sending instructions quickly beyond her own coast line. It was used by the Allies, however, almost continually in the controlling of their multitudinous naval units on the sea, and among those units themselves; and it made possible that prompt and harmonious action among numerous widely separated groups, that distinguished this war from all preceding wars. It would be difficult to determine whether the wireless lengthened the war by the assistance it gave to Germany, or shortened it by the assistance it rendered the Allies. In the early part of the war, when Germany was directing ships that were far away, it helped Germany more than it helped the Allies; but in the last years, when the Allies were fighting the submarines in the Mediterranean and North Seas, it helped the Allies more. In the main, it probably shortened the war considerably, by accelerating the operations. This reminds us of the fact that the general effect of invention has been to make wars more terrible but more brief; and that the abbreviating effect is especially noticeable in inventions that increase the speed and safety of transportation and communication. Another effect of invention has been to make wars more widespread; for the reason that it links some nations together and creates antagonism between other nations, even if they are far apart. Larger and larger organizations are thus brought into being, not only as nations but as allies and confederates. In this way, Japan fought in Asia, in co-operation with her allies in France.