Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/376

372 in which the radiator draws off gradually a large supply of energy from a non-radiating circuit, and so sends out a true train of waves, and not mere impulses, into the ether, and as we shall see later on, it is only when the radiation takes place in the form of true wave trains that anything like syntony can he obtained.

There are a number of variants of the above methods of arranging the radiator and associated energy-storing in circuit. Descriptions of these arrangements will be found in patents by Mr. Marconi, Professor Slaby and Count von Arco, Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. Muirhead, Professor Popoff, Professor Fessenden and others. In all cases, however, they are variations of the three simple forms of radiator already described.

Returning to the analogy with the air or steam siren suggested at the commencement of this article, the reader will see, in the light of the explanations already given, that all parts of the air wave producing apparatus have their analogues in the electrical radiator as used in Hertzian wave telegraphy. The object in the one case is to produce rapid oscillations of air particles in a tube, which result in the production of an air wave in external space; in the other case, the arrangement serves to produce oscillations of electrons or electrical particles in a wire, the movements of which create a disturbance in the ether called an electrical wave. Comparing together, item by item, it will be seen, therefore, that the induction coil or transformer used in connection with electric wave apparatus is analogous to the air pump in the siren plant. In the electrical apparatus, this electron pump is employed to put an electrical charge into a condenser; in the air wave apparatus, the air pump is employed to charge an air vessel with high pressure air. From the electrical condenser the charge is released in the form of a series of electrical oscillations, and in the air wave producing appliance, the compressed air is released in the form of a series of intermittent puffs or blasts. In the electrical wave producing apparatus, these electrical oscillations in the condenser circuit are finally made to produce other oscillations in an air wire or open circuit, just as the puffs of air finally expend themselves in producing aerial oscillations in the siren tube. Finally, in the one case we have a series of air waves and in the other case, a series of electrical waves. These trains of electric waves or air waves, as the case may be, are intermitted into long and short groups, in accordance with the signals of the Morse alphabet, and therefore the Hertzian wave transmitter, in whatever form it may be employed, when operated by means of a Marconi aerial, is in fact an electrical siren apparatus, the function of which is to create periodic disturbances in the universal ether of the same character as those which the siren produces in atmospheric air.