(From tne "Spzctator" or THe 2ist or Decewper.)
The scientific event of the week has ccrtainly been the announcement which the "Times" correspondent at St. John's made on Monday on the anthority of Mr. Marconi, to the cfiect that telegraphic communication without wires ha been established between Cornwall and Newfoundland. Those who are old enough to remember the first sage which flashed across the Atlantic cable will no doubt tell us that still more ent! asin was disnl-ved on that occasion, but the excitement which has been caused by Mr. Marconi's announcement slows that we also are capable of cing stirred by a striking achievement. At the time of writing, howerer, we see that a good deal of incredulity is mingled ith the interest displayed in this latest triumph of the remarkable system which the brilliant young Italian has founda? on the classic researches of Clerk Maxwell and Hertz. When the Atlantic cable transmitted its first message, there were many who refused to believe in the fact, and sited that the electricians were playing nowadays, and it is hard to say what marvel coming in the sacred name science would be too much for the layman to swrallox,—the ridiculous stories which are now and then set alloat by people who ought to know better are a "roof of that. The Réntgen rays are as wonderful as alchemy and the elixir vite. Wo can all sce that there is no inherent improbability in the assertion that a system of telegraphy which has already been operated with success over one or two hundred miles should be extended to bridge the suantic. Proof, of course, is rightly demanded. The state ment of Mr. Marconi is sufficient assurance that he believes in his remarkable achievement, but other men of equal scient.tio eminence warn us that he may be mistaken. It seems that the only message which has as yet been transmitted from Cornwall to Newfoundland consists of a single letter—"S." Why that partienlar letter was chosen is not clear; some one has suggested that it is the initial of "Success," but we must think it a pity that Mr.' Marconi did not put his instruments to a more crucial test. Sir William Preece and Mr. Edison—two.of the most distinguished practical telegraphists in the world—have independently pointed out that the letter" $" in the Morse code cons of three dots, or similar signals, in succession. Now it ix a well-ascer~ tained fact that atmospheric electricity is often strong enough to influence such cate receivers as those which Mr. Marconi uses in his experiments, and it rees no special knowledge of telegraphy '0 sce that it is very hard to discriminate between a series of random impressions so made and a series of like signals broken into groups of threes. As Sir William Preece says, it would have been much more factory if Mr. Marconi had ordered sistant in Cornwall to send a letter X," or a short word whose collocation of dots an'l dashes could hardly be hit upon by a fortuitous set of atmosphe As one of the Atlantic cable companies is Stated to have threatened Mr. Marconi with the terrors of the law if he continues his experiments, which are considered to infringe its monopoly, it seems. possible that the matter may not be definitely settled for a few days. We can hardly admire this company's method of encouraging research, but it has unwittingly given the world the best possible proof that, its electricians believe in the reality of Mr. Marconi's achievements. For the present, however, suspense of judgment. seems desirable.
It is rather amusing to notice that Mr, Tesla is among the wi favourable, critics of Mr. Marconi's announcement. When Mr. Tesla made the sensational statement about a year ago, that he had received some mysterious signals which ho believed to originate from consciousness outside our planet altogether, Mr. Marconi was careful to warn.the public that atmospheric electricity was quite able to produce all the effects on which Mr. Tesla was inclined to base a new theory of "other worlds than ours." Now Mr. Tesla suggests 2 meteorological explanation of Mr. Marconi's message! Mr. Tesla, by the way, was understood to be at work on a method of transmitting messages across the Atlantic without a cable which had more in common with the earth-current system of Messrs. Armstrong and Orling, described in our columns a few weeks ago, than with the ethereal radiations of Mr. Marconi. Last February he estimated that the installation of his apparatus would take about eight months; hut nothing has as yet been hear' of it. As to the general features of either his scheme or that of Mr. Marconi, we have the best scientific warrant for looking on both as simple, and oven trifling, in connection with the wirdest
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.