WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 37 



thick coil cause such electric forces in the thin, 

 that sparks leap across the terminals of the latter. 

 The arrangement is often called by RhumkorfFs 

 name, though actually he was anticipated a year 

 or two by Henry in America. And before this 

 the first steps were made almost simultaneously 

 by Henry in America and Faraday in England. 

 These two great experimenters both laid bare the 

 surprising and unexpected actions of currents upon 

 one another. If we may move for a moment in 

 the proper direction, it was Maxwell who co- 

 ordinated this and other experiments of Faraday's, 

 and drew conclusions which led to the recognition 

 of light as an electrical phenomenon, to the under- 

 standing of electric oscillations, to the anticipation 

 of the existence of electric waves, to their experi- 

 mental realisation by Herz, to their examination 

 by Righi, Lodge, Marconi and others, and so 

 finally to their application on a great scale, chiefly 

 through the ability of Marconi, to wireless tele- 

 graphy. And here again it is to be said that until 

 this particular result of the long series of researches 

 was reached, no one had any idea of what was 

 coming. Wireless telegraphy is not an "invention" 

 standing alone and conceived apart from all other 

 researches; it is a by-product of a consistent and 

 consecutive system of enquiries ; the fruit of many 

 men's work. The researches by which it was 

 achieved do not even stand by themselves; they 

 are inextricably woven with others which led and 



