Applied Science 827 



part the results of immense scientific thought and invention, 

 the outcome of very costly experiments by numerous talented 

 radio-engineers and experts. Thirty years ago the ether 

 round the earth was undisturbed except by the short-wave 

 disturbances which affect our senses as light and heat. Now 

 it is everywhere traversed by long waves or billows which 

 are the waves employed in wireless telegraphy. 1 



The Marconi Company have three large stations at Poldhu 

 in Cornwall, Clifden in Ireland, and at Carnarvon. The last 

 communicates with a station in New Jersey in the United States. 

 One of the high-power stations in Paris is at the Eiffel Tower; 

 the tower itself, 1,000 feet high, is used to support the aerial 

 wires. 



It is conceivable that in due time we shall see improvements 

 in directive radiation, which will cause the greater part of the 

 waves radiated from a wireless station to follow a particular path 

 rather than to spread broadcast as at present. The application 

 of wireless telephony to long-distance transmission on a greater 

 scale than is at present practicable is certain. There is at present 

 in existence suitable apparatus for a reliable service between 

 such points as London and New York ; economic questions stand 

 in the way of effecting a regular commercial service, but we are 

 told that it is entirely conceivable that improvements in the art 

 may soon bring the cost of such a system well within the limits 

 imposed by economic considerations. 



1 



Wireless telegraphy is not one of those sudden discoveries, 

 almost unrelated to the scientific knowledge of its time, which 

 have sometimes almost revolutionised science. It is due in the 

 first instance to purely scientific work. Radium was discovered 

 in an almost accidental fashion, but the way for the discoveries 

 in wireless had been carefully prepared. The pioneers were men 



a j. A. Fleming, Fifty Years of Electricity. 



