TO
a large and enthusiastic audience composed of radio engineers and
scientists of prominence, at a joint meeting of the Institute of Radio
Engineers and the New York Electrical Society, held March 5, 1919, Roy
A. Weagant, Chief Engineer of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America,
delivered a paper describing in detail his apparatus for the elimination
of the great bug-bear of transoceanic wireless communication -- static
interference.
So quiet had the details of
Weagant's great discovery been kept that few in the audience had
the slightest inkling of the fundamental principles upon which the operation
of his system is based. And so convincing was the explanation given by
the speaker that even the most skeptical were compelled to admit that the
discovery was not the result of speculation in theory, but was the out-come
of a progressive series of orderly, scientific investigations founded on
sound scientific principles.
In the subsequent discussion
of the paper, one of the first to laud the inventor was Dr. Michael Ivadorsky
Pupin, world famous scientist, who remarked that whatever may be our opinion
of the theory advanced suppor-ing a seemingly vertical propagation of static,
the outstanding fact remained that Mr. Weagant had demonstrated beyond
all doubt that his apparatus was a practical operative proposition and,
after all, this was the all-important thing to be considered.
He congratulated the inventor
on the success attained and remarked that the discovery was one great stepping
stone toward the final solution of the ideal wireless system. He
hoped that radio engineers would now give their attention to the development
of an amplifier which would permit transoceanic communication with very
small powers, for, as he jocularly remarked, the average college professor
with his limited pocketbook could not accustom himself to think in terms
of 200 kw radio frequency alternators and enormous receiving aerials such
as now are employed! He felt, however, that the commercial success
of transoceanic communication is now assured.
David Sarnoff, Commercial Manager
of the Marconi Company, brought out the fact that for the first time in
the history of electrical communication we are enabled to establish a telephonic
service between countries separated by the oceans, noting that in the some
60 years of the practical applications of electrical signaling, no solution
of the problem had even been suggested. He also threw an interesting sidelight
on the inventor's ideas regarding nature and its laws, declaring that Mr.
Weagant once remarked that he could not conceive that Mother Nature, having
given to mankind such a priceless boon as wireless communication, would
deliberately put into force another unsolvable law which would destroy
its usefullness. Mr Weagant had held to this belief |
firmly, and his subsequent success
would seem to indicate that his discovery had initially more of the nature
of an inspiration than had ordinary scientific achievements.
G. H. Clark, Expert Radio Aide,
U. S. N., who had been assigned to the U. S. Navy Department to witness
the experiments of Weagant, testified to the indefatigableness of the inventor,
ascribing his success to stubborn persistence and willingness to abandon
a mere theory in favor of an experimentally demonstrated fact. He
stated that he was amazed at the results secured in the very earliest experiments,
which he was privileged to witness, and that, concerning the ability of
the Weagant system to weed out static, there could be no doubt.
F. N. Waterman, who has been
closely associated with Weagant from the inception of the invention, praised
the inventor for his daring in attacking a problem of such magnitude and
declared that it was the ability of Weagant to recognize the fallacies
of all previous systems purporting to eliminate static that enabled him
to evolve a practical method of wireless reception of wonderful, commercial
and scientific value. He recounted in a most interesting manner the
results of early experiments, and the many obstacles and discouragements
met with and overcome.
He stated that after complete
success had been attained, it was almost uncanny to pick up a telephone
receiver, at a long distance radio receiving station, in which the crashes
of atmospheric electricity were so loud that it was next to impossible
to detect the wireless signal, and then to simply throw a switch and note
the static disturbances disappear to a degree that required a trained ear
to hear them; and simultaneously to note the wireless signal so increased
in intensity as to make it easily readable.
E. F. W. Alexanderson, of radio
frequency alternator fame, said that when it was first mentioned that a
hitherto unknown law of nature had been uncovered, he was somewhat skeptical
regarding it, but now it was plainly to be seen that the speaker of the
evening had made a discovery which gave practical results.
Previous to the meeting much
speculation had existed regarding the newly observed law of nature disclosed
by Weagant's experiments, and while the speaker plainly asserted that his
theory regarding the origin of a particular type of static may yet call
for some revision, the reported results of his researches, in a large measure,
justified, in the judgment of those present, the belief that Weagant had
observed and made practical use of a hitherto unknown static phenomenon.
CLASSIFICATION OF STATIC OR STRAYS
As a beginning, Mr.. Weagant
first classified strays after the well known method of Eccles, pointing
out from his observations the distinction between the types that represented
genuine obsticles to transoceanic communi- |
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