One of the recent features of wireless telegraphy of interest is
the success of various directional devices. As we have seen,
various schemes were tried by Marconi ranging from metallic
reflectors used by Hertz in his early experiments with the
electric waves to the more successful arrangement of aerial
conductors. In Europe Bellini and Tosi have developed a method for
obtaining directed aerial waves which promises to be of
considerable utility, enabling them to be projected in a single
direction just as a searchlight beam and thus restrict the number
of points at which the signals could be intercepted and read.
Likewise an arrangement was perfected which enabled a station to
determine the direction in which the waves were being projected
and consequently the bearing of another vessel or lighthouse or
other station. The fundamental principle was the arrangement of
the antennae, two triangular systems being provided on the same
mast, but in one the current is brought down in a perpendicular
direction. The action depends upon the difference of the current
in the two triangles.
Wireless telegraph apparatus is found installed in almost every
seagoing passenger vessel of large size engaged in regular
traffic, and as a means of safety as well as a convenience its
usefulness has been demonstrated. Thus on the North Atlantic the
largest liners are never out of touch with land on one side of the
ocean or the other, and news is supplied for daily papers which
are published on shipboard. Every ship in this part of the ocean
equipped with the Marconi system, for example, is in communication
on an average with four vessels supplied with instruments of the
same system every twenty-four hours. In case of danger or disaster
signals going out over the sea speedily can bring succour, as
clearly was demonstrated in the case of the collision between the
White Star steamship Republic and the steamship Florida on January
26, 1909. Here wireless danger messages were sent out as long as
the Republic was afloat and its wireless apparatus working. These
brought aid from various steamers in the vicinity and the
passengers were speedily transferred from the sinking Republic. On
April 15, 1912, the White Star liner Titanic, the largest ship
afloat, sank off Newfoundland, after colliding with an iceberg.
Wireless SOS calls for help brought several steamships to the
scene, and 703 persons from a total of 2,206, were rescued. On
October 9, 1913, the Uranium liner Volturno caught fire in mid-
ocean, and her wireless calls brought ten steamships to her aid,
which, despite a heavy sea, rescued 532 persons from a total of
657. Again, on November 14, 1913, the Spanish steamship Balmes
caught fire off Bermuda, and at her wireless call the Cunard liner
Pannonia saved all of her passengers--103. The Titanic horror led
the principal maritime nations to take immediate steps to perfect
their wireless systems, and the installation of apparatus and
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