AN AMERICAN FORERUNNER OF MARCONI.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 8

AN AMERICAN FORERUNNER OF MARCONI.

j The* interesting discovery has been 5 made by Mr Raymond Francis ales, I*editor of the New York Evening Mail's 1 Radio Review, that Marconi had a ‘■forerunner in an American quite unknown to lame, named Dr Malilon Loomis. Away back in the pre-radio—one had almost said pre-historic—days oi the early sixties, Mr A ates tells ns, Dr Loomis transmitted signals through the air and thus was, no doubt, “the first man in the world to transmit messages successfully without the use ol wires.” it appears that the pioneer experiments were made with kites, let up from mountain peaks IS or 21) miles apart, each kite having attached to its under side a piece ol (me copper wire gauze about loin square, con net ed with the wire, 600 ft in length, which served at once as kite-string and aerial. An electrical apparatus was used, and connection was made with ground by laying in a wet place a. coil of wire, one end ol which was secured 1 to the binding-post ol a galvanometer. There was precisely the same electrical equipment m connection with each kite, and signals weu tested bv observation of the deflection m movement of tin* galvanometer needle, the two stations being used altei natch as transmitting and receiving stations. The experimenter hiijisell. m lus sonal diary, declares that. al bnigh no ‘transmitting key’ was made use 01. nor anv ‘sounder’ to voice the messages vet they were just as exact and distinct as any that ever travelled mm a metallic conductor. , >• The diary entry refers to a pubh • demonstration which was made i" from two- ileaks' of the Blue * » 'Mountains in Virginia The peaks weic located eighteen miles apait. u Loomis called life system graphv.” He. made persistent ettoits to main financial support in ordei tlinL e commercial value of his discoYmx nVi.dit be tested; hut one d.sappp.ntinent followed another. The p««t ° 1869 iin Mi bed one growing and the Chicago, fire of 18/1 dcniohshed another. The inventor died n> J - without having had) He satisfaction o seeing his discovery tested on a eom'’lMr ’ from study of the original documents, is convinced that Bv Doonns had an idea of modern wireless as < ■ understand it; he believes that one of the inventor’s sketches shows un indmtion (oil 1 and a spark gap. The. importance of this, together with leKc - rations made necessary In the M* ness of the original description., au nointed out as follows. ■ ' “In Loomis’ day, elect.aca lienee was in its* infancy, and it m thenefoic verv difficult to give many of hm note, the proper interpretation. In some mstames he speaks very vaguely, and even I lie most thoughtful consideration does not seem to reveal the facts he bad in mind. However, it must be remembered that electrical was undeveloped at the time Romms h '“Successful radio-tdegfaphy was finally brought about by high-frcquoiicv currents. Such currents were not known at the time of Loomis expenineiits. but it cannot be said with tcitaintv that he did not nse .them. Loomis did use them, ho IS f doubt the discoverer oi ladio-tel "‘“lii'his patent siiecificatious. it fe teresting to note that he used the word pulsations, which may have meant high-frequency currents. Air Yates further reports that tin matter seems to him of such histonc.U significance that he has fdaced doeuntents relating to Dr Loomis discov orv in the hands of Dr Goldsmith. secretary of the Institute of Radio Engineers. and that Dr (oldsmith In s consented to call the matter to ti c at tention of the hoard of directors o the Institute. Should that bodv decide ( investigate the records, and make apnraisal of the significance of aciul telegraphy” as experimentally practised bv this forerunner of Marconi, tbeii verdict will lie awaited with inteitsi hut it should not be forgotten that the world gives final credit alwais to the individual who makes an idea - able rather than to the originate. of tl,o idea, .lames Watts, universally considered the father of the. steam engine was actually only the iniprovci of a workable steam engine nivciited » > Newcomen, an example of win 1 "* s brought to him for repair. Holm.il- 1 - ton. father of the steamboat, bad been a passenger on a steamboat operating on the River Clyde in Hcothiml. son c years before he developed the C loi niont. Steam locomotives were actnalK in operation, particularly in connection with mines, about twenty years holme Stevenson devised the ,{ot Samuel F. R. Morse was in all probability familiar with the successful: experiments in telegraphy ol Herman phjsuists before be made Ins jirnetical tclcgraph instrument. , Such instances—and the hsi miJH hi* extended almost mdchnitcL adcniiateiv show that not merely original discovery but actual demonstration ol the applicability of an important principle may go quite unrewarded: and i hat the plaudits are reserved lor the man who succeeds in making the principle or method ol mechanism known j,, 1 1m world rather than lor the original investigator. So there is not the slightest probability that the name ol Dr Mali lon Loomis will ever supplant that ol (inglielmo Marconi as “the lather ol radio.”