Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing—
Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness;
So, on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again, and a silence.
Abundant experience has been gathered to show the inexpressible value of this means of communication in case of accident, and it can hardly be doubted that before long the possession of this apparatus on board every passenger vessel will be demanded by the public, even if not made compulsory. Although the privacy of an ocean voyage may have been somewhat diminished by this utilisation of ether waves, there is a vast compensation in the security that is thereby gained to human life and property by this latest application of the great energies of nature for the use and benefit of mankind.
GEO. TUEKER, PRINTER, SALISBURY COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
Footnotes:
[1] This series of articles is based on the Cantor Lectures delivered before the Society of Arts, London, in March, 1903. The lectures were attended by many of the leading British scientific men and electrical engineers, and attracted wide attention as the most complete and authoritative statement hitherto made of wireless telegraphy. In writing the articles for the "Popular Science Monthly," the author has omitted advanced technicalities in order that the substance may be suitable for the general reader.—Editor.
[2] For a more detailed account of this hypothesis, the reader is referred to an article by the present writer, entitled "The Electronic Theory of Electricity," published in the "Popular Science Monthly" for May, 1902.
[3] See J. J. Thomson, "Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism," chap. I., p. 16.
[4] See O. Heaviside, "Electromagnetic Theory," Vol. I., p. 54.