Below are the complete text and illustrations of one of the first
books on the subject of Wireless. I have copy-and-pasted the first
few pages of the book so you'd have an idea of its contents.

Here are links to many more early wireless books:

http://www.archive.org/details/WirelessTelegraphy
Wireless Telegraphy (1915)

Author: Dr. Zenneck &Amp; A.E. Secling
http://earlyradiohistory.us/1901fa.htm

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...ibil00lowarich
Wireless possibilities ([c1924])

Author: Low, A. M. (Archibald Montgomery), 1888-

http://www.archive.org/details/hertz...wire00flemrich
Hertzian wave wireless telegraphy ([1905?])

Author: Fleming, J. A. (John Ambrose), Sir, 1849-1945

http://www.archive.org/details/princ...wire00pierrich
Principles of wireless telegraphy (1910)

Author: Pierce, George Washington, 1872-

http://www.archive.org/details/thericorwirele00blairich
Ætheric or wireless telegraphy ([1905?])

Author: Blaine, Robert Gordon

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...smis00martuoft
Wireless transmission of photographs ([1919])

Author: Martin, Marcus J

http://www.archive.org/details/teleg...leph00pooluoft
Telegraphy, telephony, and wireless ([n.d.])

Author: Poole, Joseph

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00kennrich
Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony an elementary treatise
(1913)

Author: Kennelly, Arthur E. (Arthur Edwin), 1861-1939

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00bottrich
Wireless telegraphy and Hertzian waves (1910)

Author: Bottone, Selimo Romeo

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...sein00secorich
Wireless course in twenty lessons (c1912)

Author: Secor, Harry Winfield, 1887-

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00ashlrich
Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony : an understandable
presentation of the science of wireless transmission of intelligence
(1912)

Author: Ashley, Charles Grinnell

http://www.archive.org/details/eleme...inci00bangiala
The elementary principles of wireless telegraphy ([1918?])

Author: Bangay, Raymond Dorrington, b. 1883

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...phon00ruhmrich
Wireless telephony, in theory and practice (1908)

Author: Ruhmer, Ernst Walter, 1878-

http://www.archive.org/details/treat...wire00hopprich
A treatise upon wireless telegraphy and telephony ([c1912])

Author: Hoppough, C. I

http://www.archive.org/details/howto...eles00moreiala
How to make a wireless set ([c1911])

Author: Moreton, David Penn

http://www.archive.org/details/eleme...inci00bangrich
The elementary principles of wireless telegraphy (1914)

Author: Bangay, R. D

http://www.archive.org/details/howtomakewireles00more
How to make a wireless set ([c1911])

Author: Moreton, David Penn, 1882-

http://www.archive.org/details/marco...swir00dunlrich
Marconi, the man and his wireless (1937)

Author: Dunlap, Orrin Elmer, 1896-

http://www.archive.org/details/textb...irele031393mbp
Text Book On Wireless Telegraphy Vol I ( 00, 1919)

Author: Stanley,Rupert

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...iona00otisiala
The wireless station at Silver Fox Farm (c1910)

Author: Otis, James, 1848-1912

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...phon00erskrich
Wireless telephones and how they work; (1910)

Author: Erskine-Murray, James, 1868-

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00collrich
Wireless telegraphy; its history, theory and practice ([c1905])

Author: Collins, A. Frederick (Archie Frederick), 1869-

http://www.archive.org/details/repri...tion00milliala
Reprint of sections on wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony from
practical physics (1922)

Author: Millikan, Robert Andrews, 1868-1953

http://www.archive.org/details/exper...wire00edelrich
Experimental wireless stations : their theory, design, construction
and operation including wireless telephony and quenched spark systems
: a complete account of sharply tuned modern wireless installations
for experimental purposes which comply with the new wireless law
(1915)

Author: Edelman, Philip E., 1894-

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...ator00bishrich
The wireless operators' pocketbook of information and diagrams (1911)

Author: Bishop, L. Wilbur, 1888-

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00sewarich
Wireless telegraphy : its origins, development, inventions, and
apparatus (1904, c1903)

Author: Sewall, Charles Henry

http://www.archive.org/details/pract...sofw00maubrich
Practical uses of the wave meter in wireless telegraphy (1913)

Author: Mauborgne, Joseph Oswald, 1881-

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00flemiala
The wireless telegraphist's pocket book of notes, formulæ, and
calculations (1915)

Author: Fleming, J. A. (John Ambrose), Sir, 1849-1945

http://www.archive.org/details/manua...less00robirich
Manual of wireless telegraphy for the use of naval electricians (1911,
c1912)

Author: Robison, S. S. (Samuel Shelburne), b. 1867

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...swir00miesrich
Radiodynamics, the wireless control of torpedoes and other mechanisms
(1916)

Author: Miessner, Benjamin Franklin, 1890

http://www.archive.org/details/twent...ntur00meyerich
Twentieth century manual of railway, commercial and wireless
telegraphy ([c1914])

Author: Meyer, Frederic Louis, 1875-

http://www.archive.org/details/vacuu...nwir00buchiala
Vacuum tubes in wireless communication, a practical text book for
operators and experimenters ([c1919])

Author: Bucher, Elmer Eustice, b. 1885

http://www.archive.org/details/practicalwire00buchrich
Practical wireless telegraphy; a complete text book for students of
radio communication ([c1917])

Author: Bucher, Elmer Eustice, 1885-

http://www.archive.org/details/oscil...alve00bangrich
The oscillation valve, the elementary principles of its application to
wireless telegraphy (1919)

Author: Bangay, Raymond Dorrington, 1883-

http://www.archive.org/details/comme...lueo00temprich
The commercial value of wireless telegraphic communication with the
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (1900)

Author: Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir, 1850-1931

http://www.archive.org/details/moder...gnor00frasrich
A modern campaign; or, War and wireless telegraphy in the Far East
([1905?])

Author: Fraser, David

http://www.archive.org/details/wonde...eles00flemrich
The wonders of wireless telegraphy explained in simple terms for the
non-technical reader (1914)

Author: Fleming, John Ambrose, 1849-

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00twinrich
Wireless telegraphy and high frequency electricity; a manual
containing detailed information for the construction of transformers,
wireless telegraph and high frequency apparatus, with chapters on
their theory and operation ([c1909])

Author: Twining, Harry La Verne, 1863-

http://www.archive.org/details/flame...city00ilesuoft
Flame, electricity and the Camera, man's progress from the first
kindling of fire to the wireless telegraph, and the photography of
color (1900)

Author: Iles, George, 1852-

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...nefo00cockrich
Radio-telephone for everyone; the wireless: how to construct and
maintain modern transmitting and receiving apparatus ([c1922])

Author: Cockaday, Laurence Marsham

http://www.archive.org/details/Tesla_1909
How to Signal to Mars : Wireless the only way now, says Nicola Tesla -
Mirror plan not practicable (May 23, 1909)

Author: Nikola Tesla

http://www.archive.org/details/roman...erni00williala
The romance of modern invention, containing interesting descriptions
in non-technical language of wireless telegraphy, liquid air, modern
artillery, submarines, dirigible torpedoes, solar motors, airships,
etc., etc (1907)

Author: Williams, Archibald

http://www.archive.org/details/abcof...stel00trevrich
The A B C of wireless telegraphy; a plain treatise on Hertzian wave
signaling; embracing theory, methods of operation, and how to build
various pieces of the apparatus employed (1904)

Author: Trevert, Edward, 1858-1904

http://www.archive.org/details/inter...lwir00interich
International wireless telegraph convention concluded between Germany,
the United States of America, Argentina, Austria, Hungary, Belgium,
Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain,
Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Norway, the Netherlands, Persia,
Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, and Uruguay (1907)

Author: International Radiotelegraph Conference (1906 : Berlin)

http://www.archive.org/details/wirel...grap00morgrich
Wireless telegraphy and telephony simply explained; a practical
treatise embracing complete and detailed explanations of the theory
and practice of modern radio apparatus and its present day
applications, together with a chapter on the possibilities of its
future development (1913)

Author: Morgan, Alfred Powell, 1889-1972

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...phyu00ussirich
Radiotelegraphy. U. S. Signal Corps. 1914 (1914)

Author: U.S. Signal office

http://www.archive.org/details/princ...derl00unitrich
The principles underlying radio communication (1922)

Author: United States. National Bureau of Standards

http://www.archive.org/details/eleme...diot00stonrich
Elements of radiotelegraphy (1919)

Author: Stone, Ellery W

http://www.archive.org/details/therm...lvei00flemrich
The thermionic valve and its developments in radio-telegraphy and
telephony (1919)

Author: Fleming, John Ambrose, Sir, 1849-

http://www.archive.org/details/us_patent_2601610
US Patent 2601610: Radio aerial installation (March 24, 1952)

Author: Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co

http://www.archive.org/details/flemingmanual00flemrich
An elementary manual of radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony for
students and operators (1916)

Author: Fleming, John Ambrose, 1849-

http://www.archive.org/details/therm...besi00scotrich
Thermionic tubes in radio telegraphy and telephony ([1921])

Author: Scott-Taggart, John

http://www.archive.org/details/radiotelephony00goldrich
Radio telephony (c1918)

Author: Goldsmith, Alfred Norton, 1887-

http://www.archive.org/details/manua...onii00radirich
Manual of the Marconi Institute for training in radio communications
and allied vocations (1918?])

Author: Radio Institute of America

http://www.archive.org/details/inven...cove00ilesrich
Invention and discovery (1902)

Author: Iles, George, 1852-1942

http://www.archive.org/details/ameri...grap00maverich
American telegraphy and encyclopedia of the telegraph: systems,
apparatus, operation. Embracing electrical testing; primary and
storage batteries; dynamo machines; Morse, duplex, quadruplex,
multiplex, submarine, automatic, and wireless telegraphy;
burglar-alarm, fire-alarm, and police-alarm telegraphy; printing
telegraphy; military and naval signaling; railway block systems;
telegraph wire, cables, and conduits; etc. ([1903])

Author: Maver, William, jr

http://www.archive.org/details/elect...llat00pierrich
Electric oscillations and Electric waves; with application to
radiotelegraphy and incidental application to telephony and optics
(1920)

Author: Pierce, George Washington, 1872-1956

http://www.archive.org/details/teleg...diou00unitrich
Radiotelegraphy : U.S. Signal Corps. : Rev. October 1916 (1917)

Author: United States. Army. Signal Corps

http://www.archive.org/details/techn...rmyt00unitrich
The technique of army training; (1922)

Author: United States. Adjutant-General's Office

http://www.archive.org/details/princ...radi00morerich
Principles of radio communication (1921)

Author: Morecroft, John H. (John Harold), 1881-1934

http://www.archive.org/details/milit...alco00whitiala
Military Signal Corps manual ([c1918])

Author: White, James Andrew, b. 1889

http://www.archive.org/details/signa...pace00lodgrich
Signalling across space without wires : being a description of the
work of Hertz & his successors ([1911?])

Author: Lodge, Oliver, Sir, 1851-1940

http://www.archive.org/details/telep...hout00couriala
Telephony without wires (1919)

Author: Coursey, Philip Ray

http://www.archive.org/details/eleme...nual00flemrich
An elementary manual of radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony for
students and operators; (1911)

Author: Fleming, J. A. (John Ambrose), Sir, 1849-1945

http://www.archive.org/details/pract...atio00whitrich
Practical aviation for military airmen ([c1918])

Author: White, James Andrew, 1889-

http://www.archive.org/details/princ...radi00jansrich
Principles of radiotelegraphy (1919)

Author: Jansky, Cyril Methodius, 1870-

http://www.archive.org/details/under...ples00unitrich
The principles underlying radio communication (1919)

Author: United States. Army. Signal Corps

http://www.archive.org/details/therm...cuum00vandrich
The thermionic vacuum tube and its applications (1920)

Author: Van der Bijl, H. J. (Hendrik Johannes), 1887-1948

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...phyu00unitrich
Radiotelegraphy. U.S. Signal corps (1915)

Author: United States. Army. Signal Corps

http://www.archive.org/details/detec...icie00bromrich
Detecting efficiency of the resistance-capacity coupled amplifier to
6000 meters .. (1922)

Author: Brombacher, W. G. (William George), 1891-

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...aphy00moncuoft
Radiotelegraphy (1908)

Author: Monckton, C. C. F

Large sums of money have been spent experimentally in
bringing radio-telegraph apparatus to its present state of
efficiency, so to-day the cost of erecting a station is often
largely increased by sums for patent rights. Unfortunately
it is not known how far many of the patents of the different
companies are valid, and how far each company infringes
on the rights of other companies. It is this question of
patent rights that is no doubt preventing a more rapid
increase in the number of radio-telegraph stations, but,
considering
that it is only twelve years since the first practical
applications, the progress has been enormous.
A short time back it seemed possible that future progress
might be prevented by a radio-telegraphic war. The
Marconi Company had practically obtained a monopoly in
PREFACE. vii
England; they had erected numerous stations along the
coasts and on the Atlantic liners, at the same time refusing
to intercommunicate with stations fitted with apparatus not
supplied by them. On the other hand, a powerful competing
company had sprung up in Germany, the combination
of four interests (Slaby, Arco, Siemens, and Braun),
and it is likely that either company might have so filled
space with a medley of discordant waves as to effectually
prevent the other working. Happily, though the companies
were unable to come to an understanding, the
Governments of all the principal countries in the world
have made a satisfactory agreement, the terms of which
come into operation on the 1st July, 1908. By the terms of
the Convention intercommunication is compulsory between
a ship and a coast station, except for those especially to be
exempted. Interference with other stations as far as
possible is prohibited, and priority is to be given to calls
from ships in distress. Most of the principal countries,
witli the exception of Great Britain and Italy, have also
agreed to compulsory intercommunication between ship
and ship stations.

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...ents00unitrich
Radio instruments and measurements. Issued March 23, 1918 (1918)

Author: United States. National Bureau of Standards

http://www.archive.org/details/radio...phyu00ussirich
Radiotelegraphy. U. S. Signal Corps. 1914 (1914)

Author: U.S. Signal office

http://www.archive.org/details/princ...derl00unitrich
The principles underlying radio communication (1922)

Author: United States. National Bureau of Standards

http://www.archive.org/details/therm...besi00scotuoft
Thermionic tubes in radio telegraphy and telephony ([1921])

Author: Scott-Taggart, John




--------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.archive.org/details/histo...eles00fahirich
A history of wireless telegraphy, 1838-1899: including some bare-wire
proposals for subaqueous telegraphs (1899)


Author: Fahie, J. J. (John Joseph), 1846-1934



PREFACE.
in 1897 there was a great flutter in the dove-cotes
of telegraphy, and holders of the many millions of telegraph
securities, and those interested in the allied industries,
began to be alarmed for the safety of their property.
Mysterious paragraphs about the few, Wireless, or Space
Telegraphy, as it was variously called, kept appearing in
the papers ; and the electrical profession itself certainly
some leading members of it seemed disposed to accept
implicitly the new marvels, without the grain of salt usual
and proper on such occasions.
In a lecture on Submarine Telegraphy at the Imperial
Institute (February 15, 1897), Professor Ayrton said: "I
have told you about the past and about the present. What
about the future *? Well, there is no doubt the day will
come, maybe when you and I are forgotten, when copper
wires, gutta-percha coverings, and iron sheathings will be
relegated to the Museum of Antiquities. Then, when a
person wants to telegraph to a friend, he knows not where,
he will call in an electro-magnetic voice, which will be
viii PREFACE.
heard loud by him who has the electro-magnetic ear, but
will be silent to every one else. He will call,
' Where are
you 1
' and the reply will come,
' I am at the bottom of the
coal-mine,' or '
Crossing the Andes,' or ' In the middle of
the Pacific
'
; or perhaps no reply will come at all, and he
may then conclude the friend is dead."
Soon after, in the course of a debate in the House of
Commons (April 2, 1897) on the Telephone monopoly, one
of the speakers said :
" It would be unwise on the part of
the Post Office to enter into any very large undertakings in
respect of laying down telephone wires until they had ascertained
what was likely to be the result of the Eontgen
form of telegraph, which, if successful, would revolutionise
our telephonic and telegraphic systems."
When cautious men of science spoke, or should I not
say dreamt thus, and when sober senators accepted the
dream as a reality and proceeded to legislate upon it, we
can imagine the ideas that were passing in the minds of
those of the general public who gave the subject a thought.
Well, two years have now elapsed, and the unbounded
potentialities of the new telegraphy have been whittled
down by actual experiment to small practical though still
very important proportions ; and so, those interested in the
old order can sleep in peace, and can go on doing so for a
long time yet to come.
Having in the course of many years' researches in electric
lore collected a mass of materials on this subject for the
idea embodied in the new telegraphy is by no means new
and having been a close observer of its recent and startling
developments, I have thought that a popular account of its
PREFACE. IX
origin and progress would not now be uninteresting. This
I have accordingly attempted in the following pages.
At an early stage in the evolution of our subject, objection
was taken to the epithet Telegraphy without Wires,
or, briefly, Wireless Telegraphy, as a misnomer (e.g., the
'Builder/ March 17, 1855, p. 132), and in recent times
the objection has been repeated. Induction, Space, and
Ethereal Telegraphy have been suggested, but though
accurate for certain forms, they are not comprehensive
enough. A better name would be Telegraphy without
Connecting Wires, which has also been suggested, but it is
too cumbrous an awkward mouthful. Pending the discovery
of a better one, I have adhered to the original
designation Wireless Telegraphy, which actually is the
popular one, and for which, moreover, I have the high
sanction of her Majesty's Attorney-General.
In the course of a discussion on Mr W. H. Preece's
paper on Electric Signalling without Wires (' Journal
Society of Arts,' February 23, 1894), Sir Eichard Webster
laid down the law thus :
" I think the objection to the
title of the paper is rather hypercritical, because ordinary
people always understand telegraphing by wire as meaning
through the wire, going from one station to the other ; and
these parallel wires, not connected, would rather be looked
upon as parts of the sending and receiving instruments. I
hope, therefore, that the same name will be adhered to in
any further development of the subject." If thus the name
be allowable in Mr Preece's case where, to bridge a space
of, say, one mile, two parallel wires, each theoretically one
mile long, are requisite, or double the amount required in
X PREFACE.
the old form of telegraphy, it cannot be objected to in any
of the other proposals which are described in these pages,
certainly not to the Marconi system, where a few feet of
wire at each end suffice for one mile of space, or, to put it
accurately, where the height of the vertical wires varies as
the square root of the distance to be signalled over.
At the outset of my task I was met with the difficulty
of arranging my materials whether in simple chronological
order, or classified under heads, as Conduction, Induction,
Wave, and Other or Miscellaneous Methods. Both have
their advantages and disadvantages, but after consideration
I decided to follow in the main the chronological order as
the better of the two for a history which is intended to be
a simple record of what has been done or attempted in the
last sixty years by the many experimenters who have
attacked the problem or contributed in any way to its
solution.
Having settled this point, the further question of subdivision
presented itself, and as the materials did not lend
themselves to arrangement in chapters I decided to divide
the text into periods. The first I have called The Possible
Period, which deals with first suggestions and empirical
methods of experiment, and which, by reason of the want
of delicacy in the instruments then available, may not
inaccurately be compared with the Palaeolithic period in
geology. The second is The Practicable (or Neolithic)
Period, when the conditions of the problem came to be
better understood, and more delicate instruments of research
were at hand. The third The Practical Period brings
the subject up to date, and deals with the proposals of
PREFACE. XI
Preece (Electro
- Magnetic), of Willoughby Smith (Conductive),
and of Marconi (Hertzian), which are to-day in
actual operation.
The whole concludes with five Appendices, containing
much necessary information for which I could not conveniently
find room in the body of the work. Appendix A
deals with the philosophic views of the relation between
electricity and light before and after Hertz, who, for the
first time, showed them to be identical in kind, differing
only in the degree of their wave-lengths. Appendix B
gives in a popular form the modern views of electric
currents consequent on the discoveries of Clerk-Maxwell,
Hertz, and their disciples. Appendix C reproduces the
greater part of Professor Branly's classic paper on his
discovery of the Coherer principle, which is one of the
foundation-stones of the Marconi system. Appendix 1)
contains a very interesting correspondence between myself
and Prof. Hughes, F.K.S., which came too late for insertion
in the body of the work, and which is too important from
the historical point of view to be omitted.
In Appendix E Mr Marconi's patent specification is
reproduced, as, besides being historically interesting as the
first patent for a telegraph of the Hertzian order, it is in
itself a marvel of completeness. As the apparatus is there
described, so it is used to-day after three years' rigorous
experimentation, the only alterations being in points of
detail a finer adjustment of means to ends. This says
much for the constructive genius of the young inventor,
and bodes well for the survival of his system in the
struggle for existence in which it is now engaged.
Xll PREFACE.
In the presentation of my materials I have allowed, as
far as possible, the various authors to speak in their own
words, merely condensing freely and, where necessary,
translating obsolete words and phrases into modern technical
language. This course in a historical work is, I think,
preferable to obtruding myself as their interpreter. For
the same reason I have given in the text, or in footnotes
thereto, full references, so that the reader who desires to
consult the original sources can readily do so.
I seem to hear the facetious critic exclaim,
" Why, this
is all scissors and paste." So it is, good sir, much of it;
and so is all true history when you delete the fictions with
which many historians embellish their facts. What one
person said or what another did is not altered by the presence
or absence of quotation marks. However, the only
credit I claim is that due to collecting, condensing, and presenting
my facts in a readable form no light task, and if
my critics will award me this I will be satisfied.
Since the following pages were written, two excellent
contributions have been made by Prof. Oliver Lodge
and Mr Sydney Evershed in papers read before the Institution
of Electrical Engineers, December 8 and 22, 1898.
These will be found in No. 137 of the 'Journal,' and,
together with the discussion which followed, should be
studied by all interested in this fascinating subject. Mr
Marconi has followed up these papers with one on his own
method, which was read before the Institution on the 2nd
of March last, and was repeated by general request on the
16th idem. He does not carry the matter farther than I
have done in the text, but still the paper is worth reading
PREFACE. Xlll
if only as an exposition in a nutshell of his beautiful
system.
As a Frontispiece I give a group of twelve portraits of
eminent men who may be fitly called the Arch-builders of
Wireless Telegraphy. At the top stands Oersted (Denmark),
who first showed the connection between electricity
and magnetism. Then follow in order of time Ampere
(France), Faraday (England), and Henry (America), who
explained and extended the principles of the new science of
electro-magnetism. Then come Clerk-Maxwell (England)
and Hertz (Germany), who showed the relation between
electricity and light, the one theoretically, and the other
by actual demonstration. These are followed by Branly
(France), Lodge (England), and Eighi (Italy), whose discoveries
have made possible the invention of Marconi.
The last three are portraits of Preece and Willoughby
Smith (England) and Marconi (Italy), who divide between
them the honour of establishing the first practical lines of
wireless telegraph each typical of a different order.
ST HELIER'S, JERSEY,
September 1899.

CONTENTS,
FIRST PERIOD THE POSSIBLE.
PACK
PROFESSOR C. A. STEINHEIL 1838 . . . 1
EDWARD DAVY 1838 . . 6
PROFESSOR MORSE 1842 .... 10
JAMES BOWMAN LINDSAY 1843 . . . .13
j. w. WILKINS 1845 ..... 32
DR O'SHAUGHNESSY (AFTERWARDS SIR WILLIAM o'SHAUGHNESSY
BROOKE) 1849 . . . .39
E. AND H. HIGHTON 1852-72 . . . .40
G. E. DERING 1853 ..... 48
JOHN HAWORTH 1862 . . . . .55
J. H. MOWER 1868 ..... 70
M. BOURBOUZE 1870 ..... 71
MAHLOX LOOMIS 1872 . ... 73
SECOND PERIOD THE PRACTICABLE.
PRELIMINARY : NOTICE OF THE TELEPHONE IN RELATION
TO WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY . . . .79
PROFESSOR JOHN TROWBRIDGE 1880 85
xvi CONTENTS.
PROFESSOR GRAHAM BELL 1882 . . \ . 96
PROFESSOR A. E. DOLBEAR 1883 . . . .99
T. A. EDISON 1885 '. . . .103
W. F. MELHUISH 1890 . . . ..- .114
C. A. STEVENSON 1892 . .
* "
... 122
PROFESSOR ERICH RATHENAU 1894 ". 130
THIRD PERIOD THE PRACTICAL.
SYSTEMS IN ACTUAL USE.
w. H. PREECE'S METHOD . . . . ; . 136
WILLOUGHBY SMITH'S METHOD . . . .
" 162
G. MARCONI'S METHOD .... . '. . .177
APPENDIX A.
THE RELATION BETWEEN ELECTRICITY AND LIGHT
BEFORE AND AFTER HERTZ . . . 246
APPENDIX B.
PROF. HENRY ON HIGH TENSION ELECTRICITY BEING
CONFINED TO THE SURFACE OF CONDUCTING BODIES,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE PROPER CONSTRUCTION
OF LIGHTNING-RODS . . . 261
ON MODERN VIEWS WITH RESPECT TO THE NATURE OF
ELECTRIC CURRENTS ..... 264
APPENDIX C.
VARIATIONS OF CONDUCTIVITY UNDER ELECTRICAL INFLUENCE
276
CONTENTS. Xvii
APPENDIX D.
RESEARCHES OF PROF. D. E. HUGHES, F.R S., IN ELECTRIC
WAVES AND THEIR APPLICATION TO WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY,
1879-1886 -. . . .... 289
APPENDIX E.
REPRINT OF SIGNOR G. MARCONI'S PATENT . . 296
+-
INDEX . 321

A HISTOEY OF
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.
1838-1899.
FIKST PERIOD THE POSSIBLE.
"Awhile forbear,
Nor scorn man's efforts at a natural growth,
Which in some distant age may hope to find
Maturity, if not perfection.
"
PROFESSOR C. A. STEINHEIL 1838.
JUST mentioning en passant the sympathetic needle and
sympathetic flesh telegraphs of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, a full account of which will be found in
my 'History of Electric Telegraphy to 1837' (chap, i.),
we come to the year 1795 for the first glimmerings of
telegraphy without wires. Salva, who was an eminent
Spanish physicist, and the inventor of the first electrochemical
telegraph, has the following bizarre passage in
his paper
" On the Application of Electricity to Telegraphy,"
read before the Academy of Sciences, Barcelona,
December 16, 1795.
After showing how insulated wires may be laid under
2 FIRST PERIOD THE POSSIBLE.
the seas, and the water used instead of return wires, he
goes on to say : "If earthquakes be caused by electricity
going from one point charged positively to another point
charged negatively, as Bertolon has shown in his ' Electricite
des Meteores '
(vol. i. p. 273), one does not even want
a cable to send across the sea a signal arranged beforehand.
One could, for example, arrange at Mallorca an area of
earth charged with electricity, and at 'Alicante a similar
space charged with the opposite electricity, with a wire
going to, and dipping into, the sea. On leading another
wire from the sea-shore to the electrified spot at Mallorca,
the communication between the two charged surfaces would
be complete, for the electric fluid would traverse the sea,
which is an excellent conductor, and indicate by the spark
the desired signal."
l
Another early telegraph inventor and eminent physiologist,
Sommerring of Munich, has an experiment which,
under more favourable conditions of observation, might
easily have resulted in the suggestion at this early date
of signalling through and by water alone. Dr Hamel 2
tells us that Sommerring, on the 5th of June 1811, and
at the suggestion of his friend, Baron Schilling, tried the
action of his telegraph whilst the two conducting cords
were each interrupted by water contained in wooden tubs.
The signals appeared just as well as if no water had been
interposed, but they ceased as soon as the water in the
tubs was connected by a wire, the current then returning
by this shorter way.
Now here we have, in petto, all the conditions necessary
1 Later on in these pages we shall see that Salve's idea is after
all not so extravagant as it seems. We now know that large spaces
of the earth can be electrified, giving rise to the phenomenon of
"bad earth," so well known to telegraph officials.
2 Historical Account of the Introduction of the Galvanic and
Electro-magnetic Telegraph into England, Cooke's Keprint, p. 17.
PROFESSOR C. A. STEINHEIL. 3
for an experiment of the kind with which we are dealing,
and had it been possible for Sommerring to have employed
a more delicate indicator than his water-decomposing apparatus
he would probably have noticed that, notwithstanding
the shorter way, some portion of the current still went the
longer way ; and this fact could hardly have failed to suggest
to his acute and observant mind further experiments, which,
as I have just said,' might easily have resulted in his recognition
of the possibility of wireless telegraphy.
Leaving the curious suggestion of Salva, which, though
seriously meant, cannot be regarded as more than a jeu
d'esprit a happy inspiration of genius and the whatmight-
have-come-of-it experiment of Sommerring, we come
to the year 1838, when the first intelligent suggestion of a
wireless telegraph was made by Steiuheil of Munich, one of
the great pioneers of electric telegraphy on the Continent.
The possibility of signalling without wires was in a
manner forced upon him. While he was engaged in establishing
his beautiful system of telegraphy in Bavaria, Gauss,
the celebrated German philosopher, and himself a telegraph
inventor, suggested to him that the two rails of a railway
might be utilised as telegraphic conductors. In July 1838
Steinheil tried the experiment on the Nurmberg-Furth
railway, but was unable to obtain an insulation of the rails
sufficiently good for the current to Teach from one station
to the other. The great conductibility with which he
found that the earth was endowed led him to presume that
it would be possible to employ it instead of the return wire
or wires hitherto used. The trials that he made in order
to prove the accuracy of this conclusion were followed