All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

i68 All About Inventions their designed functions, the words uttered at the one end will be repeated at the other extremity of the line with absolute clearness and distinctness. But shall we continue to telephone over wires ? During the year 1915 surprising achievements were recorded which foreshadow important and far-reaching developments. The ability to send telegraphic signals through the ether and without the aid of wires stimu- lated scientists to endeavour to transmit the human voice in a similar manner. Wireless telephony and wireless telegraphy have moved contemporaneously for many years past, and although the greatest suc- cesses have so far been placed to the credit of wire- less telegraphy, talking through the ether is no longer merely a scientific possibility or even a laboratory achievement. European progress in this field was arrested by the outbreak of hostilities, when we were on the brink of startling exploits in the wireless telephony field, but the American in- vestigators, not being hampered by war, have been able to continue their investigations without difficulty. The engineers of the Bell Telephone Company evolved a new wireless receiver to catch the human voice. When it was considered to have been per- fected sufficiently to warrant tests being made they erected two stations—one at Montauk, Long Island, and the other at Wilmington, Delaware—250 miles distant as the crow flies. No difficulty was encoun- tered in this instance, the voice, readily distinguish- able and distinct, being caught with ease. There- upon the gap was increased to 1,000 miles by setting up another station at St. Simon’s Island, Georgia.