RADIO DEPARTMENT
Th<e T 1f'iUle W ii1f'ce lice§§
By NIH-OLA TE§lL.A
IVrill t n Enlusivtl:,. for TI.l' Elulriclll E.rptri",tnltr
E VER since the announcemmt of
Maxwell's clet:tro-magnetic theory
scientific investigators all the world
over had beeu bent on its experimental
verification. They were con\'
inced that it would be done and livM in
an atmosphere of eager expectancy, unusually
favorable to the reception of any
evidence to this end. No wonder then that
the puhliGition of Dr. Heinrich Hertz's results
caused a thrill as had scarcely ever
~n experienccd before. At that
proved appliancu. Similar phenomena were
noted, greatly ma~nified in intensity, but
they were susceptible of a differem and
more plausible explanation. I considerM
this so important that in 1892 I went to
Bonn. Germany, to ronfer with Dr. Hertz
in regard to my obsen'ations. He seemed
disappointed to such a de~ree that J regrettro
my trip and parted from him sorrowfully.
During the succeeding yea rs I
made numerous exr,erimenls with the same
Obje<:tibnt the resu ts were uniformly negat
ive. n 1900, however. after I had e\'olved
a wireless Iransmitter which enabled me
to obl.ain eI«tro-magnetic activities of many
millions of horse-power. J made a last des·
pe.rate atlempt to prove that the diSlUrbances
emanating from the oscillator were
ether vibrations akin to those of light. but
met again with utter failure. For more than
eifZhteen years I have been reading treatises.
reports of scientific transactions, and
articles on Herlz-wa\'e telegraphy, to keep
myself informed, but they have always imprest
me like works of fi ction.
The history of science shows that theories
are perishable. \Vith every new truth
that is re \'ealed we gel a better understanding
of Nature and our conceptions
and views arc modified. Dr. Hertz did not
discover a new principle. He merely gave
material support to a hypothesis which had
application of these radiations for the pur.
pOse was quite obvious. \Vhen Dr. Hertz.
was asked whether such a system would
be of practical value, he did not think so,
and he was correct in his forecast. The
best that might have been expected was a
methOd of communication similar to the
-_.", ~,."'
E lect rIc T rantmlnlon Thru Two WIre. and
Hydra ulle Analog. F Ig. 3.
heliographic and subje<:t to the same or
evo:n greater limitations.
timc I was in the midst of pressing
work in connection with the
commercial introduction of my
system of power transmission,
but, nevertheless, caught the fire
of enthusiasm and fairly burned
with desire to behold the miracle
with my own eyes. Accordingly,
as soon as I had freed myself
of these imperative duties and
resumed research work in my
laboratory on Grand Street, New
York, I began, parane! with
high frCCj.uency alternators, the
constructIOn of several forms of
apparatus with tlu: object of exploring
the field opened \IP by
Dr. Hertz. Re<:ognizing the limitations
of the devices he had
employed, I concentrated my atlention
on the prodnction of a
III the spring of 1891 I gave my demonstrations
with a high f requency
machine before the American Institute
of Electrical Engineers al
Columbia College, which laid the
foundation to a new and far more
promising deparlure. Altho the
laws of electrical resonance were
well known at that time and my
lamented friend, Dr. John Hopkinson,
had even indicated their
speeific application to an alternalor
in the ProceedinJ<S of the Institute
of Electrical Engineers.
London, Kov. 13, 1889, nothing
had been done towards thc practical
usc of this knowledge and
it is probable that thOse experiments
of mine were the first public
exhibition with resonant circuits.
more part,icularly of high
frequency. \\'hlle the spontaneous
success of my lecture was
I N this remarkable amI colll p l.cle slOry 01 his di.!covery 01 tloe
"True Wirelus" and Ille principles UPfJIl 1<:hicfl mlt/sminioll
and r eception, el'en in the present day syslems, are baud, J)r.
1\·i/.:ola T e&Ia , /tOIl:! US II'at lie is indeed th e MFather 01 the Wire.
Ius." To Itim lloe Her'::; R'(n:e theory ioJ a (fefllsion; it took, , ollnd
from cerlui" angtu, bu, Ihe lacts telld 10 wove tllat il is hollow
and em lJly. 111'. co/willce! III Illat the re(,1 lI erl: 1(."(/tle6 are blul/ed
out Il/fer IIICy "atle traveled but a $hort diSlance from tloe ",-"der.
It lofloU't . lloerr.fore, ,/out the measured antenna current is 110 indio
cation 01 the effect. becau,e only a ,mali palt 01 it is effective '"
a dislanee. Thll limiled activity of pure li en: reace tran$mi.s.Jion
and r eceplion is here cfoorly explained, bl!lidu sllmt"ing defillildy
that in 'pilf! of Ihem$e/,;e6, Ihe radia engineen 01 III(IIIY lire
emplo)'i"g IIII'. origil/Ill Te$llf ,uned oscillutory ly&lem. lie , horCJ
by example, with diOerellt lorm, of aer illf$ tlou' tloe &igml/.$ Ilicked
up by ,Ioe instrumen!.f IIU/..SI actualfy be i"duced by earllo curren/.!not
elheric ' I/(jCll waves. Tula also d isproves Ihe Mlleaviside layer"
theory Irom I,is penonal ob'en'ations and 1e&U.
powerfnl induction coil but made
no notable progrcss until a happy
inspiration led me to the invention of the
oscillation transformer. In the latter part
of 1891 1 was already so far advanced in
the development of this new principle that
I had at my disposal means vastly superior ---:J I_*, Jec_~ ~~I;r=;
~ - DIag ram Itl u.t ~. t1 n g t he Cln:ult Connection.
a nd TunIng D ... lcu Employed by Tesla In
HIs Exper imental Demonltratlons lJ efol"1l the
Amer 1c;>n Inltltuh of E lectrical Englnee ...
Wllh the HIgh F l"1Iquency Altern"or Sho ..... n
In Fig. t. F Ig. 2.
to those of the German physicist. All my
r.revious effort, with Rhumkorf (Oils had
e ft me unconvinced, and in order to settle
my doubts 1 wenl over the whole ground
once more, very carefully, with thcse im-
EDITOR.
been long ago formulated. It was a perfeetly
well-established fact that a circuit.
traversed by a periodic current. emitted
some kind of space waves, but we were in
ignorance as 10 their character. He apparelllly
ga\'e an experimental proof that
they wen'; t ransversal vibrations in the
ether. Most pwple look upon this as hi ~
great accomplishment. To my lIlind it
Seems that his immortal merit was not so
much in this as in the focusing of the investigators'
attention on the prOCessC5 taking
place in the ambient medium. The
Hertz.-wave theory, by il$ fascinating hold
on the imagination, has stifled creative effo
rt in the wireless art and retarded it for
twcntr-five :rears. But, on the other hand,
it is ImpoSSIble to over-estimate the beneficial
effects of the powerful stimulus it
has given in many directions.
As regards signaling without wires, the
due to spectacular features, its
chief import was in showing that
all Kinds of devices could be operated
thm a single wire without return. This
Q:):'::=:- -- -;r--{ '-' --
E lect r Ic Tr:tnsmlulon T h ru II SIng le WI,..
Hydraulic An .log. F Ig. 4.
was the initial !te~ in the evolution of illY
wirele5s system. The idea preSented itself
to me that it might be possible. under ob