Wireless PossibilitiesLow, A. M. (Archibald Montgomery)
Science
Wireless Possibilities
Low, A. M. (Archibald Montgomery)
Radio
The science of wireless is but a few years old. We know about it little
more than our schoolboy sons, and in many cases not so much; let us
therefore be open-minded if we are still ignorant.
Commercial invention trusts too far to mass thinking: an original
mistake is very closely related to an accomplishment.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND IN WIRELESS
A few lines of history are desirable here. I do not mean the history
controlled by the fact that William the Conqueror made many important
appointments in A.D. 1066 or that Stephen was particularly busy in
A.D. 1100. I mean the history of wireless, for, although Radio Science
is new, it has a history; all time is relative, and we ourselves are
functions of that phenomenon.
Only a few years ago the efforts of wireless experimenters were
entirely directed to the converting of the extremely delicate wireless
oscillation, still but little understood, into a mechanical movement,
in order that the motion of electrons in a problematical aether (which
may be nothing but a thought projection and which may exist in many
different forms) might be altered into something readable by a man with
a check waistcoat and a stock and share list in his hand.
That particular use, and the information that one army is about to kill
another could be transmitted to headquarters, naturally occurred to
everyone as the first valuable applications of Radio.
The many devices, the electro-magnetic receivers, tape machines,
coherers, syphon recorders and the thousand and one electrical machines
produced at the time for these purposes, have practically all gone.
Even when to-day we want to send messages quickly, we record them upon
a Dictaphone and rely almost entirely upon the sense of hearing.
Sound, the regular oscillation, and noise, the irregular oscillation,
of the air, are really the beginning and end of wireless as it is known
to the public to-day.
I would go further when thinking of the public. They do not want to sit
with a telephone upon their heads, even if their ears may be improved
thereby. They require to walk into a drawing-room, and having stood
for a moment upon the mat, they must be able to cross the room, touch
a button in a fretwork cabinet, and by the movement of a lever be
able to place themselves in touch with any part of the world. Paris,
Hong-Kong, London, all must be one to them if we are to get their money
for our art.
In other words, we are compelled to use what we now designate the “loud
speaker.” We have got to project a sound into the room before we can
sell our instruments, and therein lies one great difficulty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account