--Editor)--that their reception over
the almost impassable distances of space would be made possible.
This idea of piling up the waves was suggested by purely physical
analogies. The enormous waves generated by severe storms upon the ocean
travel farther than the smaller waves, and are less consecutively
dissipated by the resistance of the water, the traction of its molecules
and the occasional diversion of cross disturbances from other centers.
Again some experiments made invacuo upon a limited scale seemed to show
the accuracy of his predictions. Through a glass tube one foot in
diameter and ten feet long we sent magnetic waves both when the tube
was filled with air and when it was exhausted. Our means of measuring
the time required in both cases were quite inadequate--perhaps there was
no appreciable difference--but the records in the latter case, secured
upon a Morse register, were unmistakably more vigorous and audible.
At last our various results had reached a point where we felt justified
in extending the limits of our investigations. We had up to this time
only tried our messages between the two stations upon the plateau of Mt.
Cook. My father now proposed that I go to Christ Church, install a
sender (transmitter) and send messages to him at the observatory. I did
so and the experiment was convincing. The day before I was ready to
transmit a message I had attended an attractive church service--it was
toward the close of Lent in the year 1889--and as my father was entirely
unprepared for the account I proposed to give him of the function, I
thought its correct transmission would afford an indubitable proof of
our success.
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