Marvels of Modern Science Part 2

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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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 s.p.a.ce. It is into this s.p.a.ce the filings are loosely filled.

Another form of coherer consists of a gla.s.s tube with small carbon blocks or plugs attached to the ends of the wires and instead of the metal filings there is a globule of mercury between the plugs. When electric waves fall upon this coherer, the mercury coheres to the carbon blocks, and thus forms a bridge for the battery current.

Marconi and several others have from time to time invented many other kinds of detectors for the electrical waves. Nearly all have to serve the same purpose, viz., to close a local battery circuit when the electric waves fall upon the detector.

There are other inventions on which the action is the reverse. These are called anti-coherers. One of the best known of these is a tube arranged in a somewhat similar manner to the filings tube but with two small blocks of tin, between which is placed a paste made up of alcohol, tin filings and lead oxide. In its normal state the paste allows the battery current to get across from one block to another, but when electric waves touch it a chemical action is produced which immediately breaks down the bridge and stops the electric waves, the paste resumes its normal condition and allows the battery current to pa.s.s again.

Therefore by this arrangement the signals are made by a sudden breaking and making of the battery circuit.

Then there is the magnetic detector. This is not so easy of explanation.

When we take a piece of soft iron and continuously revolve it in front of a permanent magnet, the magnetic poles of the soft iron piece will keep changing their position at each half revolution. It requires a little time to effect this magnetic change which makes it appear as if a certain amount of resistance was being made against it. (If electric waves are allowed to fall upon the iron, resistance is completely eliminated, and the magnetic poles can change places instantly as it revolves.)

From this we see that if we have a quickly changing magnetic field it will induce or set up an electric current in a neighboring coil of wire. In this way we can detect the changes in the magnetic field, for we can place a telephone receiver in connection with the coil of wire.

In a modern wireless receiver of this kind it is found more convenient to replace the revolving iron piece by an endless band of soft iron wire. This band is kept pa.s.sing in front of a permanent magnet, the magnetism of the wire tending to change as it pa.s.ses from one pole to the other. This change takes place suddenly when the electric waves form the transmitting station, fall upon the receiving aerial conductor and are conducted round the moving wire, and as the band is pa.s.sing through a coil of insulated wire attached to a telephone receiver, this sudden change in the magnetic field induces an electric current in the surrounding coil and the operator hears a sound in the telephone at his ear. The Morse code may thus be signalled from the distant transmitter.

There are various systems of wireless telegraphy for the most part called after the scientists who developed or perfected them. Probably the foremost as well as the best known is that which bears the name of Marconi. A popular fallacy makes Marconi the discoverer of the wireless method. Marconi was the first to put the system on a commercial footing or business basis and to lead the way for its coming to the front as a mighty factor in modern progress. Of course, also, the honor of several useful inventions and additions to wireless apparatus must be given him. He started experimenting as far back as 1895 when but a mere boy. In the beginning he employed the induction coil, Morse telegraph key, batteries, and vertical wire for the transmission of signals, and for their reception the usual filings coherer of nickel with a very small percentage of silver, a telegraph relay, batteries and a vertical wire. In the Marconi system of the present time there are many forms of coherers, also the magnetic detector and other variations of the original apparatus. Other systems more or less prominent are the Lodge-Muirhead of England, Braun-Siemens of Germany and those of DeForest and Fessenden of America. The electrolytic detector with the paste between the tin blocks belongs to the system of DeForest. Besides these the names of Popoff, Jackson, Armstrong, Orling, Lepel, and Poulsen stand high in the wireless world.

A serious drawback to the operations of wireless lies in the fact that the stations are liable to get mixed up and some one intercept the messages intended for another, but this is being overcome by the adoption of a special system of wave lengths for the different wireless stations and by the use of improved apparatus.

In the early days it was quite a common occurrence for the receivers of one system to reply to the transmitters of a rival system. There was an all-round mix-up and consequently the efficiency of wireless for practical purposes was for a good while looked upon with more or less suspicion. But as knowledge of wave motions developed and the laws of governing them were better understood, the receiver was "tuned"

to respond to the transmitter, that is, the transmitter was made to set up a definite rate of vibrations in the ether and the receiver made to respond to this rate, just like two tuning forks sounding the same note.

In order to set up as energetic electric waves as possible many methods have been devised at the transmitting stations. In some methods a wire is attached to one of the two metal spheres between which the electric charge takes place and is carried up into the air for a great height, while to the second sphere another wire is connected and which leads into the earth. Another method is to support a regular network of wires from strong steel towers built to a height of two hundred feet or more.

Long distance transmission by wireless was only made possible by grounding one of the conductors in the transmitter. The Hertzian waves were provided without any earth connection and radiated into s.p.a.ce in all directions, rapidly losing force like the disappearing ripples on a pond, whereas those set up by a grounded transmitter with the receiving instrument similarly connected to earth, keep within the immediate neighborhood of the earth.

For instance up to about two hundred miles a storage battery and induction coil are sufficient to produce the necessary ether disturbance, but when a greater distance is to be spanned an engine and a dynamo are necessary to supply energy for the electric waves.

In the most recent Marconi transmitter the current produced is no longer in the form of intermittent sparks, but is a true alternating current, which in general continues uniformly as long as the key is pressed down.

There is no longer any question that wireless telegraphy is here to stay. It has pa.s.sed the juvenile stage and is fast approaching a l.u.s.ty adolescence which promises to be a source of great strength to the commerce of the world. Already it has accomplished much for its age.

It has saved so many lives at sea that its installation is no longer regarded as a scientific luxury but a practical necessity on every pa.s.senger vessel. Practically every steamer in American waters is equipped with a wireless station. Even freight boats and tugs are up-to-date in this respect. Every ship in the American navy, including colliers and revenue cutters, carries wireless operators. So important indeed is it considered in the Navy department that a line of sh.o.r.e stations have been constructed from Maine on the Atlantic to Alaska on the Pacific.

In a remarkably short interval wireless has come to exercise an important function in the marine service. Through the sh.o.r.e stations of the commercial companies, press despatches, storm warnings, weather reports and other items of interest are regularly transmitted to ships at sea. Captains keep in touch with one another and with the home office; wrecks, derelicts and storms are reported. Every operator sends out regular reports daily, so that the home office can tell the exact position of the vessel. If she is too far from land on the one side to be reached by wireless she is near enough on the other to come within the sphere of its operations.

Weather has no effect on wireless, therefore the question of meteorology does not come into consideration. Fogs, rains, torrents, tempests, snowstorms, winds, thunder, lightning or any aerial disturbance whatsoever cannot militate against the sending or receiving of wireless messages as the ether permeates them all.

Submarine and land telegraphy used to look on wireless, the youngest sister, as the Cinderella of their name, but she has surpa.s.sed both and captured the honors of the family. It was in 1898 that Marconi made his first remarkable success in sending messages from England to France. The English station was at South Foreland and the French near Boulogne. The distance was thirty-two miles across the British channel.

This telegraphic communication without wires was considered a wonderful feat at the time and excited much interest.

During the following year Marconi had so much improved his first apparatus that he was able to send out waves detected by receivers up to the one hundred mile limit.

In 1900 communication was established between the Isle of Wight and the Lizard in Cornwall, a distance of two hundred miles.

Up to this time the only appliances employed were induction coils giving a ten or twenty inch spark. Marconi and others perceived the necessity of employing greater force to penetrate the ether in order to generate stronger electrical waves. Oil and steam engines and other appliances were called into use to create high frequency currents and those necessitated the erection of large power stations. Several were erected at advantageous points and the wireless system was fairly established as a new agent of communication.

In December, 1901, at St. John's, Newfoundland, Marconi by means of kites and balloons set up a temporary aerial wire in the hope of being able to receive a signal from the English station in Cornwall. He had made an arrangement with Poldhu station that on a certain date and at a fixed hour they should attempt the signal. The letter S, which in the Morse code consists of three successive dots, was chosen. Marconi feverishly awaited results. True enough on the day and at the time agreed upon the three dots were clicked off, the first signal from Europe to the American continent. Marconi with much difficulty set up other aerial wires and indubitably established the fact that it was possible to send electric waves across the Atlantic. He found, however, that waves in order to traverse three thousand miles and retain sufficient energy on their arrival to affect a telephonic wave-detecting device must be generated by no inordinate power.

These experiments proved that if stations were erected of sufficient power transatlantic wireless could be successfully carried on. They gave an impetus to the erection of such stations.

On December 21, 1902, from a station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Marconi sent the first message by wireless to England announcing success to his colleagues.

The following January from Wellsfleet, Cape Cod, President Roosevelt sent a congratulatory message to King Edward. The electric waves conveying this message traveled 3,000 miles over the Atlantic following round an arc of forty-five degrees of the earth on a great circle, and were received telephonically, by the Marconi magnetic receiver at Poldhu.

Most ships are provided with syntonic receivers which are tuned to long distance transmitters, and are capable of receiving messages up to distances of 3,000 miles or more. Wireless communication between Europe and America is no longer a possibility but an accomplishment, though as yet the system has not been put on a general business basis.

[Footnote: As we go to press a new record has been established in wireless transmission. Marconi, in the Argentine Republic, near Buenos Ayres, has received messages from the station at Clifden, County Galway, Ireland, a distance of 5,600 miles. The best previous record was made when the United States battleship _Tennessee_ in 1909 picked up a message from San Francisco when 4,580 miles distant.]

CHAPTER III

RADIUM

Experiments of Becquerel--Work of the Curies--Discovery of Radium--Enormous Energy--Various Uses.

Early in 1896 just a few months after Roentgen had startled the scientific world by the announcement of the discovery of the X-rays, Professor Henri Becquerel of the Natural History Museum in Paris announced another discovery which, if not as mysterious, was more puzzling and still continues a puzzle to a great degree to the present time. Studying the action of the salts of a rare and very heavy mineral called uranium Becquerel observed that their substances give off an invisible radiation which, like the Roentgen rays, traverse metals and other bodies opaque to light, as well as gla.s.s and other transparent substances. Like most of the great discoveries it was the result of accident. Becquerel had no idea of such radiations, had never thought of their possibility.

In the early days of the Roentgen rays there were many facts which suggested that phosph.o.r.escence had something to do with the production of these rays It then occurred to several French physicists that X-rays might be produced if phosph.o.r.escent substances were exposed to sunlight.

Becquerel began to experiment with a view to testing this supposition.

He placed uranium on a photographic plate which had first been wrapped in black paper in order to screen it from the light. After this plate had remained in the bright sunlight for several hours it was removed from the paper covering and developed. A slight trace of photographic action was found at those parts of the plate directly beneath the uranium just as Becquerel had expected. From this it appeared evident that rays of some kind were being produced that were capable of pa.s.sing through black paper. Since the X-rays were then the only ones known to possess the power to penetrate opaque substances it seemed as though the problem of producing X-rays by sunlight was solved. Then came the fortunate accident. After several plates had been prepared for exposure to sunlight a severe storm arose and the experiments had to be abandoned for the time being. At the end of several days work was again resumed, but the plates had been lying so long in the darkroom that they were deemed almost valueless and it was thought that there would not be much use in trying to use them. Becquerel was about to throw them away, but on second consideration thinking that some action might have possibly taken place in the dark, he resolved to try them. He developed them and the result was that he obtained better pictures than ever before. The exposure to sunlight which had been regarded as essential to the success of the former experiments had really nothing at all to do with the matter, the essential thing was the presence of uranium and the photographic effects were not due to X-rays but to the rays or emanations which Becquerel had thus discovered and which bear his name.

There were many tedious and difficult steps to take before even our present knowledge, incomplete as it is, could be reached. However, Becquerel's fortunate accident of the plate developing was the beginning of the long series of experiments which led to the discovery of radium which already has revolutionized some of the most fundamental conceptions of physics and chemistry.

It is remarkable that we owe the discovery of this wonderful element to a woman, Mme. Sklodowska Curie, the wife of a French professor and physicist. Mme. Curie began her work in 1897 with a systematic study of several minerals containing uranium and thorium and soon discovered the remarkable fact that there was some agent present more strongly radio-active than the metal uranium itself. She set herself the task of finding out this agent and in conjunction with her husband, Professor Pierre Curie, made many tests and experiments. Finally in the ore of pitchblende they found not only one but three substances highly radio-active. Pitchblende or uraninite is an intensely black mineral of a specific gravity of 9.5 and is found in commercial quant.i.ties in Bohemia, Cornwall in England and some other localities. It contains lead sulphide, lime silica, and other bodies.

To the radio-active substance which accompanied the bis.m.u.th extracted from pitchblende the Curies gave the name _Polonium_. To that which accompanied barium taken from the same ore they called _Radium_ and to the substance which was found among the rare earths of the pitchblende Debierne gave the name _Actinium_.

None of these elements have been isolated, that is to say, separated in a pure state from the accompanying ore. Therefore, _pure radium_ is a misnomer, though we often hear the term used. [Footnote: Since the above was written Madame Curie has announced to the Paris Academy of Sciences that she has succeeded in obtaining pure radium. In conjunction with Professor Debierne she treated a decegramme of bromide of radium by electrolytic process, getting an amalgam from which was extracted the metallic radium by distillation.] All that has been obtained is some one of its simpler salts or compounds and until recently even these had not been prepared in pure form. The commonest form of the element, which in itself is very far from common, is what is known to chemistry as chloride of radium which is a combination of chlorin and radium. This is a grayish white powder, somewhat like ordinary coa.r.s.e table salt. To get enough to weigh a single grain requires the treatment of 1,200 pounds of pitchblende.

The second form of radium is as a bromide. In this form it costs $5,000 a grain and could a pound be obtained its value would be three-and-a-half million dollars.

Radium, as we understand it in any of its compounds, can communicate its property of radio-activity to other bodies. Any material when placed near radium becomes radio-active and retains such activity for a considerable time after being removed. Even the human body takes on this excited activity and this sometimes leads to annoyances as in delicate experiments the results may be nullified by the element acting upon the experimenter's person.

Despite the enormous amount of energy given off by radium it seems not to change in itself, there is no appreciable loss in weight nor apparently any microscopic or chemical change in the original body.

Professor Becquerel has stated that if a square centimeter of surface was covered by chemically pure radium it would lose but one thousandth of a milligram in weight in a million years' time.

Radium is a body which gives out energy continuously and spontaneously.

This liberation of energy is manifested in the different effects of its radiation and emanation, and especially in the development of heat.