144 KECENT ADVANCES IN WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



tion is established between two such countries the stations may be 

 instantly used in time of war, or in any other emergency, to communi- 

 cate with other stations, situated say, at Gibraltar, the West Indies, 

 or some inland point in North America, and also, if necessary, with 

 war shij)s carrying apparatus tuned to the waves such stations radiate. 

 By means of syntony, although the energy can not be directed in one 

 direction, it can, however, be picked up at certain distances only by 

 certain tuned receivers, as occurs now with the ships crossing the 

 ocean. Fifty of these ships carry wireless apparatus, but only five of 

 them have the instrument tuned to receive the long-distance news 

 messages sent from Poldhu ; and, as a matter of fact, these messages 

 are received only by those five specially tuned ships. 



Before concluding, it may not be out of place to give a few details 

 as to the jDractical uses to which the author's system of wireless 

 telegraphy has already been put. 



There are now over 80 British and 30 Italian war ships equipped. 

 A number of these war ships are fitted with long-distance apparatus, 

 and are therefore able to keep in touch with England when far out 

 on the Atlantic, at Gibraltar, and in the Mediterranean. Admiral 

 Lord Charles Beresford has authorized the author to say that during 

 the last cruise of the Channel Fleet from Gibraltar to England they 

 had no difficulty whatever in receiving messages from Cornwall 

 during the entire voyage by means of special long-distance receivers. 



Seventy liners, belonging respectively to England, Italy, France, 

 Germany, Holland, Belgium, and the United States, are fitted with 

 the author's apparatus, and are engaged in carrying on commercial 

 work for the benefit of passengers between ship and ship and between 

 ship and shore; and for this latter purpose there are over 50 land 

 stations with which to communicate. During 1904, 67,625 com- 

 mercial messages were sent and received at the ship and shore stations 

 controlled by the author's company. 



It is also used as a branch of the Italian telegraphic system for 

 ordinary commercial purposes across the Adriatic Sea, namely, 

 between Bari (in Italy) and Antivari (in Montenegro), and in the 

 Straits of Messina at Messina, lieggio, and Giovanni. Also, in con- 

 nection with the British post-office, from Cornwall to the Scilly 

 Islands, on the not infrequent occasions of the breaking down of the 

 cables. 



As to the future of wireless telegraphy, the author expresses his 

 confidence in its ability to furnish a more economical means for the 

 transmission of telegrams from England to America and from Eng- 

 land to the colonies than the present service carried on by the cables. 



It is true that man}^ scientific men are dubious of the practicability 

 of sending electric waves to great distances. Others are not. On 



