Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 143 carrying swift messages from its brain centers to its hands, annihilating distance in thought. All differences between men as individuals and people as nations can be traced to the lack of close contact. Reduce or annihilate all distance in thought and action, and mankind would possess un- bounded opportunities for peaceful economic and healthful development. No force more vital than the possibilities of wireless has ever presented itself or could be demanded to attain such an end. Such a statement, in the light of actual developments, might even be considered conservative, and is neither absurd nor the dream of a vivid imagination. The greatest obstacle to all efforts in radically new direc- tions is the resistance of the human race. The antagonism of prejudice and skepticism can only disappear when the world as a whole grasps a new proof and learns to appre- ciate it. Inertia must be overcome, and the great masses set to thinking and striving toward an end before the awe- ing genie finally bursts forth and amazes the Aladdins of science. Within the memory of older men and women are primers of science, which speculate about the developments of elec- trical force, and guardedly discuss its possibilities. And now, electricity—this mysterious agent—has multi- plied the muscular strength of man a billion times. The tasks of Hercules are now but chores to be accomplished by the closing of a switch. Mighty rivers roar through in- take and turbine to drive the wheels of industry in a dis- tant city and turn the night into clay. Any attempt to chronicle all the applications of this wondrous power would be absurd. Such is electricity to-day. Only a few years ago Langley launched his famous aero- drome over the waters of the Potomac, while the world stood by and sneered, ridiculed a man whose work is now one of the classics of aeronautical literature, and scoffed at