298 DISCOVERY CH. 



scientific work of Hertz, Maxwell, Faraday and Henry. 

 As Mr. Marconi himself acknowledged in 1900 : 



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

 identity of light and electricity, and the knowledge of how to 

 produce, and how to detect, these ether- waves, the existence of 

 which had been so far unknown, made possible wireless tele- 

 graphy. 0. Marconi. 



Wireless telegraphy has become part of our everyday 

 life. The waves conceived by a mathematician and 

 demonstrated in a physical laboratory are now con- 

 tinually carrying messages across the sea and land. 

 From the Admiralty Offices at Whitehall the ether- 

 invisible, intangible, immaterial is set vibrating, and 

 its tremors awaken sympathetic response in instruments 

 on warships hundreds of miles away. Ships in distress, 

 if equipped with the means of producing Hertzian 

 waves, can send their call for help into the darkness. 

 Their throbbing plea goes out in ever-widening circles, 

 like the waves formed when a stone is dropped into a 

 placid lake, so that any vessel with wireless telegraphy 

 apparatus which comes within their sphere of influence 

 will respond to it and hasten to the rescue. 



The first notable instance of the use of this wireless 

 message in saving life at sea occurred in January, 1909, 

 when the ocean liner Republic collided with the Florida 

 in a dense fog. The Republic's operator, Mr. Jack Binns, 

 was in his cabin at the time of the collision, and immedi- 

 ately sounded the wireless signal of distress. The sides 

 of the cabin were shattered by the shock, and the ship 

 was plunged in darkness, but the wireless apparatus 

 remained intact, and he remained at the instruments 

 flashing into the fog the cry, " Am in distress and need 

 assistance," and when it had been answered, notifying 

 the position in which the sinking ship would be found. 



