In the United States the great station at Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Mass., sends out the press matter each night from dispatches prepared in the main offices of the big American press associations. Ships as far as 1,600 miles distant frequently receive this news matter, and by the time the ocean-going editor is ready to get out his next day's edition he is in touch with the wireless press station on the other side, and is receiving the world's news from the English coast. As our young friend found out when he was gathering up all the information he could about aeroplanes, some success has been made in the equipment of the fliers with wireless. The project offers some serious difficulties, however, as on an aeroplane there is no place for long aerials. Experiments have been tried with long trailing wires, but these are dangerous to the aeroplane, and to use the wires of the machine for antennæ endangers the operator to electric shocks. One scheme tried by several aviators in the United States with some success has been the stringing of aerials in the rear framework. The problem of equipping balloons and airships with wireless is much simpler because it allows of long trailing wires to act as the antennæ. Most boys will remember the success of the wireless apparatus that was set up on the _America_ at the time Walter Wellman made his famous attempt to cross the Atlantic in his airship. That wireless will take its place as one of the great forces in civilization is the idea of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless telegraph, expressed when he was in New York in the spring of 1912. "I believe," he said, "that in the near future a wireless message will be sent from New York completely round the globe with no relaying, and will be received by an instrument located in the same office as the transmitter, in perhaps even less time than Shakespeare's forty minutes. "Most messages across the Atlantic will probably go by wireless at a comparatively early date. In time of war wireless connections will be invaluable. The enemy can cut cables and telegraph wires; but it is difficult seriously to damage the wireless service. The British Empire has realized this, and is already equipping many of its outposts with wireless stations." CHAPTER XII MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY, THE TUNGSTEN ELECTRIC LAMP, THE PULMOTOR, AND OTHER NEW INVENTIONS INVESTIGATED BY OUR BOY FRIEND