Inventions; Science; Technology -- Social aspects; Technology and civilization
When Hertz discovered that electric waves crossed space he unconsciously
became the father of the modern system of radio-telegraphy, and though
he did not live to put or see any practical results from his wonderful
discovery, to him in a large measure should be accorded the honor of
blazoning the way for many of the intellectual giants who came after
him. Of course those who went before him, who discovered the principles
of the electric telegraph made it possible for the Hertzian waves to
be utilized in wireless.
It is easy to understand the wonders of wireless telegraphy when we
consider that electric waves transverse space in exactly the same
manner as light waves. When energy is transmitted with finite velocity
we can think of its transference only in two ways: first by the actual
transference of matter as when a stone is hurled from one place to
another; second, by the propagation of energy from point to point
through a medium which fills the space between two bodies. The body
sending out energy disturbs the medium contiguous to it, which
disturbance is communicated to adjacent parts of the medium and so the
movement is propagated outward from the sending body through the medium
until some other body is affected.
A vibrating body sets up vibrations in another body, as for instance,
when one tuning fork responds to the vibrations of another when both
have the same note or are in tune.
The transmission of messages by wireless telegraphy is effected in a
similar way. The apparatus at the sending station sends out waves of
a certain period through the ether and these waves are detected at the
receiving station, by apparatus attuned to this wave length or period.
The term electric radiation was first employed by Hertz to designate
waves emitted by a Leyden jar or oscillator system of an induction
coil, but since that time these radiations have been known as Hertzian
waves. These waves are the underlying principles in wireless telegraphy.
It was found that certain metal filings offered great resistance to
the passage of an electric current through them but that this resistance
was very materially reduced when electric waves fell upon the filings
and remained so until the filings were shaken, thus giving time for
the fact to be observed in an ordinary telegraphic instrument.
The tube of filings through which the electric current is made to pass
in wireless telegraphy is called a coherer signifying that the filings
cohere or cling together under the influence of the electric waves.
Almost any metal will do for the filings but it is found that a
combination of ninety per cent. nickel and ten per cent. silver answers
the purpose best.
The tube of the coherer is generally of glass but any insulating
substance will do; a wire enters at each end and is attached to little
blocks of metal which are separated by a very small space. It is into
this space the filings are loosely filled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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