UNDERGROUND WIRELESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14353, 27 January 1911, Page 7

UNDERGROUND WIRELESS.

| AN AUSTRALIAN'S CLAIM. MESSAGE TILROUGH 92 MILES OP EAItTH. Ia a cable message recently it was stated t&at Ted a, Uie great New \ork experimenter in "wireless, n acl succeeded iu establishing communication over a distance of aDout a milo and a-lialf by means of currents sent through tlie earth. A native of the ltivenna (N.S.W.) district has. just come forward with a system ot underground wireless with which, ho cIi J JIS . I S? I he has received a message threvjLh | miles of the earth's surface. Acting on Itho belief that the earth wo vast 1 storehouse of radio-activity, he has discovered a system of sensitising which are in direct eympathv with the earth. The plates, wbioh are about 9in in diameter, are pla<*d bade to back, separated by two wires, with the sensitised surfaces facing the transmitter and reoeiver. They are encased in a porcelain pip® and buried any distance into the earth. An alternating current is used, which is severed or split, as it were, thereby making one of the sparks explode c + , ' nor water, nor minerals will divert the current, though power is lost when the current passes through certain good conducting" minerals. By an insertion in the instrument the inventor claims to be able to destroy any attempt on t.lia part of another person to cept and read the message. Owing to tlie more compafit and solid nature 01 the earth as compared with the wr, and its lessor subjection to oiitside m- , fluencos the inventor found that tlie , Morse code was too slow, and, there- j fore, lio constructed a cod© of his own, which he claims is much more speedy and less cumbersome than the dots and clashes. Tlve whole secret of tne instrument lies in the sensitised plates, which, though difficult of preparation, are speedily completed. As with the Marconi and other systems, wltere the instrument must be similarly attuned, the plates have to he sensitised, to the 6amo degree. The receiving instrument and dotter are a modification of several well-known inventions. The inventor, who for the present, desires his name to remain unknown, is only 27 years of age, and is the son of a well-known squatter in New South Wales. His father was a mechanical .engineer, hut it was not until six years ago that the son commenced to study electricity. He was then employed by a sugar company in Queensland, and was transferred to the electric installation. branch. For years his experiments met with failure, and he spent the greater part of his income in trying new methods. The experiments by Mr. Nightingall, whose treatment of wheat by means of radio-activity was made public some eight months ago, when the advantages of the artificial process over the natural one were shown to be five to one, suggested a new line of action to the young man. One day he succeeded in establishing communication between two flower pots, using small batteries. Applying tt - 60ampere current, the inventor carried on his experiments in a highly mineralised district with, he asserts, distinct success. A message was subsequently picked out of the bed of a creek 47 rest deep from a transmitter buried llin in the ground, some hundreds of yards distant. The inventor states that it is immaterial to "what depth the plates are placed in the earth. Referring to the TesLa system, he said that that was believed to be an adaptation of tlie Hertzian wave, using two poles placed in the earth, bu-tj communication had failed over two miles. Last week, at a distance of 92 miles, a message was sent underground' to a receiving station, a comparatively loir-powered motor Estill being used. With an unlimited current, it is affirmed, space would offer no obstacle. Working on a parallel basis to this underground system of wireless telegraphy, the inventor submits that lie has obtained a means whereby, the position of' mineral deposits in any tract of country can bo ascertained. He leaves with his secret almost immediately for England, where he will place his invention' before the authorities of the British War Office.