WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



By Signor G. Marconi, M. Inst. C. E.'' 



When Ampere threw out the .suggestion that the theory of a univer- 

 sal ether, possessed of merely mechanical properties, might supply the 

 means for explaining electrical facts, which view was upheld by Joseph 

 Henrv and Faraday, the veil of nnstery which had enveloped elec- 

 tricity began to lift. When Maxwell published, in 1864, his splendid 

 dynamical theory of the electro-magnetic held, and worked out mathe- 

 mati^ally the theory of ether waves, and Hertz bad proved experi- 

 mentallv the correctness of Maxwell's hypothesis, we obtained, if I 

 may use the words of Professor Fleming, ''the greatest insight into 

 the hidden mechanisms of nature which has yet been made by the 

 intellect of man." 



A centur}- of progress such as this has made wireless telegraph}' 

 possible. Its basic principles are established in the very nature of 

 electricity itself. Its evolution has placed another great force of 

 nature at our disposal. 



We can not pay too high a tribute to the genius of Heinrich Hertz, 

 who worked patiently and persistently in a new field of experimental 

 physics, and made what has been called the greatest discover}^ in elec- 

 trical science in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He not onl}^ 

 brought about a great triumph in the field of theoretical physics, but, 

 by proving Maxwell's mathematical hj^pothesis, he accomplished a 

 great triumph in the progress of our knowledge of physical agents 

 and physical laws. 



I can not forbear saying one word as to the eminent electrician who 

 was placed in his last home as recently as Saturday last, for it is mani- 

 fest that several vears ago Professor Hughes was on the verge of a 

 great discovery, and, if he had persevered in his experiments, it seems 

 })robable that his name would have been closely connected with wire- 

 less telegraph}^ as it is with so many branches of electrical work, in 

 which he gained so much renown and such great distinction. 



The experimental proof by Hertz, thirteen years ago, of the identity 



* Reprinted from Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Vol. XVI, 

 Part II, pp. 247-256. Read at weekly evening meeting, Friday, February 2, 1900, 



Alexander Siemens, esq., M. Inst. C. E., vice-president, in the chair. 



287 



