Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/103

Rh say of a hundred a second, they give rise to aerial oscillations in the tube, which impress the ear as a deep, musical note or roar; and this continuous sound can be cut up by closing the valve intermittently into long and short periods, and so caused to signal a letter according to the Morse code, denoting the name of the lighthouse. In this case the object is to produce: first, aerial vibrations in the tube, giving rise to a train of powerful air waves; secondly, to intermit this wave-train so as to produce an intelligible signal; and thirdly, to transmit this wave as far as possible through space.

The production of a sound or air wave can only be achieved by administering a very sudden blow to the general mass of the air in the tube. This impulse must be sufficient to call into operation the inertia and elastic qualities of the air. It is found, moreover, that the amplitude of the resulting wave, or the loudness of the sound, is increased by suitably proportioning the length of the siren pipe and the frequency of the air puffs; whilst the distance at which it is heard depends also in some degree upon the form of the mouthpiece.

Inside the siren tube, when it is in operation, the air molecules are in rapid vibratory motion in the direction of the length of the tube. If we could at any one instant examine the distribution and changes of air pressure in the tube, we should find that at some places there are large, and at others small, variations in air pressure. These latter places are called the nodes of pressure. At the pressure nodes, however, we should find large variations in the velocity of the air particles, and these points are called the antinodes of velocity. In those places at which the pressure variation is greatest, the velocity changes are least, and vice versa. Outside the tube, as a result of these air motions in it, we have a hemispherical air wave produced, which travels out from the mouthpiece as a center; and if we could examine the distribution of air pressure and velocity through all external space, we should find a distribution which is periodic in space as well as time, constituting the familiar phenomenon of an air wave.

Turning then to consider the production of an electric, instead of an air wave, we notice in the first place that the medium with which we are concerned is the ether filling all space. This ether permits the production of physical changes in it which are analogous to, but not identical in nature with, the pressures and movements which constitute a sound wave. The Hertzian radiator is an appliance for acting on the ether as the siren acts on the air. It produces a wave in it, and it can be shown that all the parts of the above described siren apparatus have their electrical equivalents in the transmitter employed in Hertzian wave wireless telegraphy.

To understand the nature of an electric wave we must consider, in the first place, some properties of the ether. In this medium we can