Marvels of Scientific Invention Part 13

The difference between them, as has been said already, is the distance from crest to crest of the waves--the "wave-length," that is. And the reader will wonder by what manner of means this mysterious dimension can be ascertained. In spite of its seeming mystery the method is very simple.

It is based upon the fact that two sets of similar waves travelling at the same speed in opposite directions interfere with one another in a peculiar way. Suppose that one set of waves travel along to a reflector and strike it vertically; then another set will travel back from the reflector exactly similar to the first, except that their direction will be opposite. And the result will be that at certain intervals they will exactly neutralise each other, so that at those points there will be no wave-action appreciable at all. Those points where no action is to be perceived are called "nodes," and they are exactly half a wave-length apart.

This will be quite easily understood from the accompanying diagrams. In each of these diagrams the set of waves marked _a_ are supposed to be moving from left to right, while those denoted by _b_ are reflected back and are moving from right to left. It will be noticed that each wavy line has a straight line drawn through it, dividing it into alternate crests and hollows, which line is known as the axis of the waves.

Now notice that in Fig. 8 there are points marked x, where the _a_ waves are just as much above the axis as the _b_ waves are below it, and vice versa. Hence at those points the two sets of waves will neutralise each other.

Now turn to the next figure, which, be it remembered, shows the same waves a moment later, when they have moved a little farther on in their respective journeys, and it will be seen that there, too, are places marked x where the two sets of waves neutralise each other. And the same with the third diagram.

And finally observe that the places marked x are always the same in all the diagrams--that is to say, they are always the same distance from the line on the right-hand side, which denotes the reflector. It will be clear, too, that each node is half a wave-length from the next.

Thus it can be shown that at every moment, and not merely at the three indicated in the diagrams, the two sets neutralise each other at the nodes, that the nodes are always in the same places and half a wave-length apart.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 8, 9 and 10.--These diagrams help us to see how the "wireless waves" are measured. The _a_ waves are supposed to be moving from left to right and the _b_ waves from right to left. At the points marked x they neutralise each other. It is then easy to discover those points and the distance apart of any two adjacent ones is half the "wave-length."

_N.B._--In Fig. 10 the _b_ waves fall exactly on top of the _a_ waves.]

Everywhere else, except at the nodes, there is action more or less energetic, but _there_ is perpetual calm.

But how can we tell where the nodes are? When we recollect that they are points at which no wave-motion at all takes place it is easy to see that we shall at those points get no spark in our detector. So what Hertz did was to set his oscillator going so that it threw waves upon a reflecting surface and then move his detector to and fro in the neighbourhood until he found the nodes. Between the nodes, as will be seen by an inspection of the curves once more, there are other points at which the wave-action will be twice as great as with the single wave, and so at those points the response of the detector would be especially energetic.

This mutual action between an incident wave and a reflected wave is termed "interference," and by it the wave-lengths of all the ethereal waves have been measured. The plan used in the case of light waves, although the same in principle, is somewhat different because of the extreme shortness of the waves.

So the experiments of Hertz not only showed that long electric waves existed, but that they were in all essentials similar to light, and their wave-lengths were ascertained. On that basis has been built up modern wireless telegraphy.

It may be interesting to mention at this point a very curious, and in a sense pathetic, incident. Professor Hughes, whose name is a.s.sociated with certain well-known instruments for ordinary telegraphy, nine years before Hertz' discovery noticed that a microphone was affected by the action of an induction coil some distance away. He himself attached some importance to the matter, but he allowed himself to be dissuaded from following up the discovery by other scientists, more eminent than himself at the time, who thought that it was not a promising field for investigation. But for the influence of these friends he would possibly be the hero of this story in place of Hertz.

Professor Silva.n.u.s Thomson has said that he too noticed the sparks produced at a distance when a Leyden jar was discharged, but he makes no claim to precedence over Hertz, since, seeing the phenomenon, he did not perceive its real meaning, while Hertz, though a little later in time, realised the profound significance of it.

Hertz himself in his account of his experiments is generous enough to a.s.sert that, had he not discovered the waves when he did, he is quite certain that Sir Oliver Lodge would have done so.

Before proceeding to describe the princ.i.p.al apparatus used in the wireless station I should like to devote a little s.p.a.ce to the explanation of a term which will come up again and again, and which represents that which is responsible, in the main, for the marvellous advances which the art of sending wireless messages has achieved in the last few years. I refer to "resonance."

It will be a great help if the reader will try for himself a simple, inexpensive little experiment. Stretch a string horizontally across a room and on to it tie two other strings so that they hang down vertically a little distance apart. To the ends of the two strings tie some small objects--a cotton reel on each will answer admirably. They will thus form two pendulums, and, to commence with, they should be just the same length. Having rigged all this up, give one pendulum a good swing. It will impart motion of a to-and-fro variety to the supporting string, which in its turn will pa.s.s that motion on to the other pendulum. In a very short time, then, the second pendulum will be vibrating like the first. Indeed the _whole_ motion of the first will shortly become transferred to the second, so that the second will be swinging and the first still. Then the second will re-transfer its energy back to the first, and so they will go on until the original energy given to the first pendulum is exhausted. The point to be observed is the quickness with which one pendulum responds to the impulses given it by the other, and the ease with which the energy of the one pa.s.ses to the other.

Now reduce the length of one pendulum. On setting the first in motion a certain irregular spasmodic action is to be observed in the second, but it is very different from the "whole-hearted" response in the previous instance. In the former case the second one responded naturally and readily to the first. Now its response is reluctant in the extreme. It moves somewhat because it is forced to, but it is apparently unwilling.

Energy has to be _impressed_ upon it. There is no readiness, because there is no sympathy between them.

That sympathy between the two equal pendulums is "resonance." The same occurs between two violin or piano strings when they are "in tune."

The explanation is that a pendulum has a certain natural frequency which depends upon its length. Another pendulum of the same length, arranged as just described, therefore imparts impulses to it at just the frequency which is natural to it. Consequently the effect is a c.u.mulative one, and it responds quickly. Impulses at any other frequency tend more or less to neutralise each other. In the same way a string, of a certain length and a certain tension, has a frequency peculiarly its own, and it will respond to another similar string because the other gives its impulses at its own natural frequency.

It is on record that an engine in a factory happened to run at precisely the same speed as the natural frequency of the building, with the result that after a little time the structure shook so much that it collapsed.

Now electrical circuits in which currents oscillate have a natural frequency of their own. That frequency depends upon the two electrical properties of the circuit: capacity and inductance. And if you want to set up an electrical oscillation in any circuit you can best do it by giving it impulses at intervals which agree with its natural frequency.

Sir Oliver Lodge seems to have been the first to appreciate fully the effects of resonance in wireless telegraphy. It is strange that in England the work of this eminent man in "wireless" matters is not more fully recognised. When wireless telegraphy reached the point at which the public became interested, Marconi was just coming to the front and so, for ever, will his name be foremost in the public estimation. Indeed more than foremost, for in the minds of many he monopolises the credit for this invention. Many people are under the impression that he is the one and only, or at any rate the original, inventor of wireless telegraphy.

Now Marconi has done exceedingly valuable work in this field. Moreover, he has been the means of placing the affair on a good commercial footing. But all the same he is by no means the original or only inventor. While admitting that he is a remarkable man, who has done wonders, it is only common justice to refer to the others whose contributions to the solution of the problem are possibly of equal value. And, of these, few can compare with Sir Oliver Lodge.

But to return to the question of resonance. At first the distances over which messages could be sent were but small. Now a marconigram can be flung across a hemisphere. At first little could be done by day, work had to be done mainly at night. Now communication pa.s.ses by day and night alike. Yet in principle, and in many details, the instruments are unaltered from what they were several years ago. The main source of all this improvement is the use of resonance.

To enumerate broadly the apparatus used for the dispatch and receipt of messages the following list will be useful:--

_Transmitting End_

(1) An Antenna, consisting of a number of wires raised to a considerable height above the ground.

(2) A Spark-gap, consisting of a series of metal b.a.l.l.s with gaps between them, the outer ones being connected to the antenna and to the induction coil.

(3) A powerful Induction Coil with batteries or other source of current to work it.

(4) A Telegraph Key, by which the induction coil can be started and stopped at will.

_Receiving End_

(1) An Antenna precisely similar to the other.

(2) A Coherer or other "oscillation detector."

(3) A Receiving Instrument which may be a writing telegraph instrument, a telephone, any of a number of ordinary telegraph instruments, or a galvanometer.

Transmitting and sending instruments are, of course, installed at both ends and either of them can be connected to the antenna at will by the simple movement of a switch.

The antenna plays the part of one of the metal plates in the Hertz oscillator. Early experiments were made with Hertz apparatus, but the range of such a contrivance is very limited. For one thing, it neglects to take advantage of the earth. It is little realised what an important part the earth plays in the carrying of wireless messages. A very great step was taken when Marconi dispensed with one of the plates of Hertz, and used the earth instead; while the other plate gave place to the elevated wires, the most familiar part of the apparatus to most people.

The condenser is thus formed by the earth as one plate, the elevated wires as the other, and the intervening air as the insulator. The "capacity" must be exceedingly small in such an apparatus, but it is sufficient; while the long lines of electrical force stretching from the high antenna to the earth produce waves of great carrying power. Lastly, when the earth forms a part of the condenser the waves cling to it, so that instead of being largely dissipated into s.p.a.ce, they move along the surface of the earth. The advantage of this is obvious.

At first it was customary to place the spark-gap in the wire leading from the antenna to the earth, as in the accompanying sketch. Later, however, it was found better to place the coil and spark-gap in a local circuit in which the oscillations are first produced. These oscillations pa.s.s through a coil which is interwound with another one connected to the antenna and to earth, and thus the local oscillations, as we might call them, induce similar oscillations in the antenna, just as the fluctuations in one part of an induction coil induce fluctuations in the other. Indeed the coil in the local circuit and the one in the antenna circuit actually const.i.tute an induction coil.

The advantage of this is that by introducing condensers the capacity of which can be varied, and coils the inductance of which can be varied, into the oscillation circuit it becomes possible to "tune" the circuits effectively. Thus resonance comes into play and the power expended can be made to produce the maximum effect.

Some attempts have been made to displace the induction coil in wireless telegraphy altogether by a specially made dynamo. These machines can produce either alternating or continuous currents, in fact the alternating current dynamo is really simpler than the more familiar continuous-current machine. The difficulty is, however, to run it sufficiently fast to produce sufficiently rapid alternations. Nicola Tesla made an alternator (to give the alternating current dynamo its short t.i.tle) which could produce 1500 alternations per second, while Mr W. Duddell made one which produced 120,000, but neither was satisfactory for the work in question. Could such a machine be made, it would be invaluable, for it will be apparent that a continuous succession of waves would be formed by it and not a succession of short trains of waves such as is produced by the induction coil and spark-gap. The difficulties are not electrical, but mechanical. It seems doubtful if a machine will ever be made to run with sufficient rapidity which would not knock itself to pieces in a very short time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 11.--The simplest form of wireless antenna.]

Small alternators are used sometimes, however, to supply alternating current to the primary of an induction coil, or transformer, as it is more often called in its larger sizes. The interrupter is only needed when the primary current is continuous--from batteries, for example.

Alternating current needs no interrupter, and so that bother is removed.

The alternations of a hundred or so per second, which are quite the common thing with alternators, are just what is needed to excite an induction coil. Consequently small machines of this kind are to be found in many stations.

A Danish inventor, Valdemar Poulsen, has adopted an altogether different method of producing electrical oscillations, which method is the distinctive feature of his mode of telegraphy. He takes advantage of a curious effect of pa.s.sing current between two rods, one of which is carbon, so as to form an arc such as we see in arc lamps.

My readers are already familiar with the term "shunt" in connection with electrical matters, and so will perceive at once what is meant when a second circuit is said to be arranged as a shunt to the arc. The accompanying diagram will in any case make the matter clear.

The current comes along from the battery or continuous-current dynamo to a hollow rod of copper which, to prevent it being melted, has cold water continually circulating inside it. Thence the current jumps across to a carbon rod, forming an arc between the two rods, and returns whence it came. In its journey it traverses the coils of an electro-magnet, the poles of which are one each side of the arc. This tends to blow the arc out, as a puff of wind blows out a candle, an effect which a magnet always has upon an electric arc.

The shunt consists of a wire leading from the copper to the carbon rod with a condenser and an inductance coil inserted in it. The latter coil also forms one part of that coil by which the oscillations in the local circuit are transferred to the antenna.

The electrical explanation of what happens when the current is turned on to an arrangement like this is rather too complex to set out here. It depends upon a curious behaviour of the arc. It is really a conductor, yet it does not behave as ordinary conductors do, and the result is that the continuous current flowing through the arc is accompanied by an oscillating current in the shunt circuit. And the important feature of the arrangement is that these oscillations are continuous, in one long train, not in a succession of trains. The advantage of this has already been referred to.