The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1904, Page 35

~ N LOCAL SCIENTISTS INVENT A NEW FRANC 1SCO, SYSTEM OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY Success Rewards the Scientific Electrical Researches of the Rev. Father Richard H. Bell and Professor John Montgomery, Dis- a mn new principle pplied to ithout Bell, Clara H have completed a hy, upon s the pres origin ention d since 1898, at Santa The work arried on with detail in con- guished Members of the Santa Clara College Faculty = 4 ISTS WHO HAVE IN- TED A NEW SYSTEM OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. with investigations made. h this precise inspection of encountered that these nto the realm of scientific 1 research were rewarded with the discovery they will make public in lectures soon as the application for letters pat- ent has been flled at Washington. During the past three months the work s been pursued by Father and S Hav- w practically their investigations and the task such apparatus as will amercial . value of their system, Father Bell consented to make the matter public. TELLS OF EXPERIMENTS. Father Bell is rotund, yet vigorous and muscular, and in the prime of man- hood. The pleasant manner in which he greets one, his cheery, animated face and jolly laugh, are no doubt responsi- ble for the popularity he enjoys among his associates of the faculty and among the students at Santa Ciara and at St Ignatius College, San Francisco. “We are doing work here that will have an important bearing on future of wireless transmission,” he be- gan. “The first actual work was done in 1898, though I had made it a study for some t revious. After some in- in that year I dropped the and for two years or more did mena subje nothing. I was then at St. Ignatius Col- lege, where conditions were not favor- able for experiments. In the beginning of 1902 the first experiments here were carrieéd on from the fathers’ villa in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a distance of seven miles. A common Ruhmkorff coil was used, and the receiver was the or: dinary coherer, which was improved by the addition of carbon and silver. The coherer i= a small glass tube, having two metallic terminals or plugs of silver b; ted. These separated a in the tube, in which space the carbon and silver secured s W vented by Branley and won- derfully improved by Marconi. “When we began our- experiments this distance of seven miles we nce that the contrivance are Lace der of over had no assura would work, and in order to know when the instrument was touched at either point an click d we might expect the audible upon its transmission, we ‘em- ed & system of signals. LESS SIGNALS. ‘In signaling we set up two lamps " with powerful refiectors, one in the tov er at Santa other on a height at the villa, a sort of Paul Revere arrangement,” he added with a laugh. “By this means we could tell when a wireless signal was sent and ac- knowledge its receipt. The signals were verified by visual mes -e. There was found a correspondence between them both.” Here the theory of Maxwell was ex- z| to be given ut College Hall as | the | Clara College and the | plained; that light and electricity, be- | ing related and causing in transmis- sion a transverse molecular or atom- ical motion, travel at the same rate through space. The light from the | college tower reached the villa heights at the same instant that the electric click was heard. | “These experiments,” he continued, | “satisfled us that we were on the right | track. We then began to build ap-| paratus for sending messages longer | distances. At first it was uphill work. We had to make all our own appar- atus, for we had but little in the wa of financial resource back of us, and | have little now. First we constructed | the transmitter, which is called the | Tesla oscillator. ' To operate this we | | had to make a transformer for the al- | ternating current, which was done by | | Mr. Montgomery and myself. | | “With this transformer we use the | | commercial current of the Standard | Electric Company, which Is trans-| | formed from a pressure of 110 volts | as it comes into the house up to 20,- | 000 volts. This is the current used | |in the oscillator, being further raised | {to an approximate voltage of some- where between a million and a million and a half. BREATHING OF THE MAGNET. “Lines were then run from the in- struments to the top of the scientific building, 120 feet, and to the roof of the college theater. Then we oper- ated on these lines to secure syntony, |and messages were clearly transmit- {ted within short ranges. We had a | task with oscillators. I do not know | how many, but we made a number before we got one that gav: proper oscillation. The recelving apparatus | required immense labor when we turned our attention to that part. We began with the ordinary coherer, then constructed the magnetic detector of Marconi and found marked effects. For instance, one of the curious re- sults was that we were able to teil the quality of a current from a Ruhm- | | korff coil, whether positive or nega- | tive, | “More interesting vet, we discov- |ered another effect, which we have | called ‘the breathing of the magnet.’ { This, so far as known, has never been | | hinted at or remarked by any exper- | imenter or investigator. It is a sound to be likened only to a deep, regular | respiration. This ‘breathing of . the "magnel‘ gives us an auditory manifes- tation through the medium of that most delicate of all electrical instru- | ments, the telephone, of the principle | actuating and underlying that instru- | ment. It seems to be the soul of the | instrument. It leads us into knowl- edge of what takes place when the oscillatory effect by the aerial line is received and is translated into the ! click which we hear in the instrument. | This is evidently the effect of the im- pression of the oscillatory wave on | this magnetic breath, which is attrib- | completed. | claimed, o uted by some to what is called hys- teresis. INVENT NEW RECEIVER. “Then we madeg the Caselli receiver, the Branley ‘jigger,” a small tripod af- fair used as a coherer, which goes jigging, thus breaking the current and producing ‘the click for transmission of the message. Other receivers also were made, the principle in depended on the occidation faces. “We were not satisfied with these. Accordingly we turned our attention to a receiver of our own. This has been It is more delicate by far than any of the others, and we have tested it repeatedly. I cannot now give you an account of it, for we de- of sur- | sire to secure patents before disclosing the details of its construction.” Father Bell then explained his be- lief that electric waves in wireless transmission do not pass through large solids in the form of mountains, but over them. For instance, the slight rise of the San Bruno hills has rendered the transmission of “wire- less” to San Francisco a difficult thing to accomplish, while on an open plain or across a body of water, where no intervening obstruction occurs, trans- mission for long distances is easy. It is reasqnable to infer that this condi- tion is accountable for the present ex- tensive use of the wireless telegraph | on ocean-going vessels, while its avail- ability on land in still attended with difficulties. SYSTEM IS DISTINCT. “Heretofore,” continued Father Bell, “the system used in sending and re- celving was the ordinary Marconi method. To come to the vital part of my story, we have discovered, or in- vented, aside from this, a system of wireless telegraphy quite distinct and apart from the Marconi or any other method. TIts possibilities are greater and it is capable of large development. We have not the funds to cover the cost of this development, but we are confident that a complete equipment can be constructed for less than $5000. The details of this system I cannot speak of minutely, but as soon as patents are secured or the application ! is filed we will give to the public the details of the construction and opera- tion through the press and in public | lectures at this institution—probably during the present month. The lec- tures will deal with the Hertzian wave and its application to wireless tele- graphy. Many of the experiments of the celebrated Professor Hertz, which are among the most beautiful known, will be shown. “In the scheme of wireless tel- egraphy Maxwell's is the underlying principle. His was the mind of the whole. Clerk Maxwell tried to estab- lish the relation of light and eleetric- ity, or rather the identification of elec- tromagnetismt and light, which, he were one. Experimental proofs were wanting, however, until Flertz, by a series of most classic ex- periments, substantiated the views of Maxwell. Then came the application of the Hertzian wave to wireless tel- egraphy by Popoff and Marconi. We have worked along these lines, and will soon be prepared to show the re- sult of our investigations.' 2 / which | MAY HAVE FOUND THE 0y HULK L o, Mysterious Crew of Wreck- ers Reported to Be Rais- ing Cargo From Hold of | the Ill-Fated Steamship LAUNCH MAKES FAST TO HER MIZZENMAST | e 1 | ! Operations of Diver ing Boxes and Barrels| e The Pacific Mail steamer Rio de Ja- | neiro, which went down in the Golden Gate on the morning of Washington’s | birthday, 1901, has at last, it is believed, been located. Quietly, very quietly | the raising of her cargo is said to have | been begun yesterday. The famous ship, bearing a precious | freight of bullion and merchandise and | a still more precious freight of 210 hu- | ! man beings, struock a rock off Fort | Point at 5:20 a. m. Dense fog over- hung land and sea at. that hour, and it was Pilot Jordan's violation of the com- pany’s rules against entering a harbor under such conditions that caused this, | the most horrifying disaster in the | maritime history of the Pacific Coast. | The ship sank at 5:33 o'clock., carry- | ing down with her 130 persons. Her | cargo was estimated at the time to have been worth $1,200,000, including | $600,000 in specie. The vessel, built in 1878, was valued at $700,000. Ever since that fatal morning at- and | : His Companions in Lift-|| Described by Eyewitnesses | | “GIVE ME PROTECTION” IS MRS. MADDENS PLEA In Answer to .Divorce of Army Captain Save Her From Her Husband’s Family| I [ | ADDITIONAL MEN ASKED Complaint, Wife Prays the | tempts have been made to find the | < —_———— - — | sunken ship. Innumerable . announce- | | £ A - v . } ments of her discovery have been|| WIFE OF AN ARMY OFFICER WHO BITTERLY ARRAIGNS HER | given out by sanguineé wreckers, but | they were never confirmed. Even her | | general location was in doubt, water front men contending that the wreck lay in the deep sea near Mile Rock, just outside the Heads. ' Othérs were sure that, in spite of the fieree | tides, it had not moved far from ‘its original berth near Fort Point. THEORIES ARE VAIN. No positive éyidence on the subject was ever made public. If the owners knew, they kept silent. If private in- vesllga(ors’ learned anything definite of the dead ship's grave they, too, said | nothing. - Meanwhile the scores of theo- ries formed for raising ship or cargo when located came to nothing. During the last fortnight residents in | the thinly. settled region sverlooking | Fort Point have observed daily the | movements of a steam launch which | came around the point and anchored or made fast to a-buoy about a quarter of a mile southwest of Fort Winfield Scott. The half-dozen men on bodrd the launch kept their own- counsel, however, and it has transpired only within the last twenty-four hours that the mysterious party was working in the hope of salying the cargo of the Rio. This leaked out in spite of their efforts to keep it a profound secret. The story current among a few men on the water front yesterday was that divers from the launch had found the Rio ly- ing on'her gide, that they had attached a line to her mizzenmast and a buoy to this line at the surface, and were tying the launch to this buoy each day while they proceeded with the work of breaking into the hold. But the iden- | tity of the wreckers and the ownership | of the launch, as well as its name, have | been so well concealed that they are | still among the mysteries which cluster | | thick about the whole post mortem | history of the lost vessel. | STORY OF WRECKERS. The best account of the work of the | wreckers was given last night by Vie- | tor Killick, the 15-year-old son of Fred H. Killick, teacher of swimming at Su- tro Baths, near the cliff. The elder Kil- | lick has been watching the operations of the launch crew' for several -days with great interest, in the belief that they probably had some connection with the Rio. Yesterday morning he sent his son Victor, who is a very intel- ligent lad and famiiiar with scenes | along the sea front, to watch the wreckers during the day. Victor’armed | with a powerful glass, proved a good | observer. His story as told last night is as follows: *““This morning I walked along Vis- cato Beach, northward from Bakers | Beach, toward Fort Point. A steam | launch twenty-five or thirty feet long | was stationed out about 600 or $00 yards from the shore and a quarter of | a mile south of the -point. A small | boat floated at the stern of the launch, which seemed to be anchored or fast to some fixed object, as I could see | her line running into the water. I could not make out the name on the launch, but counted seven men in all on her deck. On the starboard side | was a ladder and 'at the stern of the boat were several things that looked like fire hose, but which I think were tubes running down to a diver below. 1 saw a diver in full armor come up out of the water. then. I remained watching the boat until it returned in the direction of the city at 3 p. m. CARGO FROM THE DEEP. “During this time I siw the men on deck pulling up a number of barrels and boxes. They were busy all day, < this and the deck of the launch was c~vered with boxes, barrels and kegs. These looked quite new. One of the Continued on Page 38, Column 4. many | ., HUSBAND AND HIS FAMILY IN HER ANSWER TO HIS PETI- TION FOR A DIVORCE. One of the most remarkable docu- ments ever put on record in the County | they have not been together for more | be with him_he compelled her to live I reached the beach | treme, though the expected allegations - 9 a. m. and found the launch there | concerning Madden's alleged improper 1 done anything to show that he | Clerk’s office was filed yesterday by | Edith May Madden, defendant in the | suit for divorce brought by Captain John A. Madden, United States army. It purports to be an answer to Cap- tain Madden's complaint, and it is so far as it contains a denial of the charges made by Captain Madden. Otherwise it is a denunciation of the entire Madden family. The document is ~twelve pages in length, and from the first page to the last there is mot a line that does not eontain something that reflects on the honor of the Mad- den' family, particularly Captain Mad- den and his father, Jerome Madden, the capitalist. It closes with a prayer that the court give its protection to a woman hounded by a cruel husband and a bitter father-in-law; “that Cap- | tain John A. Madden be denied a de- cree of divorce and he and his father be compelled to: restore to her arms her one child, who, she says, she loves better than her life, and who if allowed to remain with -the Maddens she fears will have_ his sensibilities blunted and his usefulness as a citizen and a son spoiled.” She also asks that the army | officer be compelled to pay her monthly sufficient money to keep her and her child. PLEADS INNOCENCE. Concerning Captain Madden’s charge that she has been an unfaithful wife and guilty of conduct with Hector A. Robichon unbecoming a good and true woman Mrs. Madden says but little. She simply .denies that she ever for- got her marriage vows or did aught that would bring the blush of shame to her cheeks. But concerning her hus- band’'s conduct ever since their mar- riage at Fort McPherson, Georgia, in 1898, she has a lot to say. She alleges that from the time the ceremony that united them was perfofmed he has been cruel and brutal. She says that they had not been married ten min- utes when, Madden cursed her and her father and the guests at the wedding, and that from then on to the filing of the complaint for divorce he was guilty of “painfully offensive, shocking and humiliating conduct and great conjugal unkindness.” She says he never al- lowed her to follow him from post to post, as she desired ana as she con- sidered as a’ loving and dutiful wife she should do. She says that, though they have been married for six years, | | than two years and four months, and all because Madden refused to allow her to follow the dictates of her heart and join him at the various posts to which he was as a- captain in the United States army assigned to duty. Instead, she says, of allowing her to | alone or with his parents, thus expos. ing hér to unkind comment and to the insults of his father, who, she says. is her bitter enemy and bent upon de- stroying her peace and quiet and good name as 2 woman and leving wife. 'MANY CORRESPONDENTS. Mrs. Madden’s charges against her husband are sensational in the ex- H _l i ary, 1859, to September of the same year he never so much as vouchsafed her a | kind- word. She says that though he! He is and has been during all the time conduct with the wives of army of- ficers are entirely lacking. In ‘their stead” are mentioned the names of women of ill-repute in the Philippines. The other charges preferred by the scorned woman against her army hus- band are equally semsational; but not instance, that he has constantly spurn- ed her affectionate advances and that never during their married life has he had for ——p her any .love. On the contrary, she says, he has ever placed her in hu- millating positions by his conduct, and by -his-gross neglect of her and her child has held her up to ridicule. She says he has denied her his society when at home and otherwise treated her in such a way that she has been affronted by others and made the ob- ject of the scorn of the. public. DUNNED FOR BILLS. She says he never provided her with the common necessaries of life or with sufficient clothing to keep herself warm and that for more than a year he compelled her to live upon the credit given her by tradespeople and then when he had means refused to pay more than half the bills she con- tracted. She says that she has always been dunned because of his neglect and failure to act like a gentleman, not only by the tradespeople, but by his father. The latter, she says, dunned her continually for the cost of her board and lodging incurred while, because of the neglect of his son, she lived at his home. In one of the several closely type- | written pages devoted by Mrs. Madden to her spouse she says that one of the reasons her husband did not provide for her was his conduct in the army. She says that he drank to such a de- gree and so neglected his duties that for several months at a time his salary was retained by the Government. She says that upon his return to this eity in November, 1899, she learned this fact and for a year after his arrival herc he received no salary. She says that during all this time she got what she needed in the way of provisions and clothing on credit. SAYS HE IS UNKEMPT. Mrs. Madden devotes more than a page of her answer to Madden's per- sonal habits. She avers that he is a heavy drinker, that he frequently gets drunk on duty and carouses around with women of little reputation or none at all, and that he is “unkempt and filthy, s0 much so that at times to re- main in the same room with him is more than a person of refined sensibili- ties can stand.” She says his conduct in this respect has outraged her feelings and made her position unbearable and intolerable. Continuing she savs of her husband: ““He refuses to bathe. notwithstand- ing the presence of every convenience for cleanliness. He is slovenly in his dress; instead of wearing the neat, customary uniform of the army he ‘would constantly appear on duty and in public—and thereby humiliate her by general criticism—without a shirt, his collars and cuffs pinn-d to his blouse, his blouse buttoned over a dirty undershirt and his whole dress un- washed and untidy.” Mrs. Madden also alleges that her husband never gave her the kind treat- ment usually accorded a wife by a lov- ing husband. She says that from the time her first child was born, in Febru- knew of the death of the chl'. he never even sent her a message of consolation or a line of sympathy. “He even,” says Mrs. Madden, “delegated to a stranger the task of sending a Christmas pres- ent to me. The stranger sent the pres- ent and also a bill for its cost. He even, when my baby was sick, compelled me to carry wood up two flights of stairs, and once when 1 was convalescing from a serious illness compelled me to walk | along the same lines. She says, for | up the stairs, notwithstanding that he | other is my husband. had received orders from the doctor not to allow me to put my feet upon the The rest of the document is used by [ | ] | the carrier (ITYS CROWTH S MARVELOS Court to| Postoffice Is Hampered for Lack of Larger Foree of Carriers to Do the Work | Arthur G: Fisk Estimates In- crease in Population at Fully Eighty Thousand PSS L8 One of_ the most serious problems | that engrossed the.attention of Post- master Arthur G. Fisk upon his taking charge of the office in this city was delivery The un- precedentedly rapid growth of the city service. since the national census was taken in 1909 has made great de the letter-carrier service been found that a large addition must be made to the force of carriers or all Attempts promptly abandoned. Mr. Fisk lost ne in thoroughly informing himself as to the wants of the department and after considerable investigation and calculation he con- cluded that at least thirty-one carriers should be added to the present force in order to do the work in a passably safisfactory manner. In response to his recommendation the Postmaster to deliver mail General appointed Inspector Fisher of New Orleans, Inspector Flavin of Spo- kane and Inspector Fredericks of Den- ver to visit this city and make a thor- ough investigation here. into the carrier de- livery Their labors were com- pleted a week ago and their re- port is now in the hands of the Post- master neral Postmaster Fisk said yesterday that he had not heard the contents of the report, but he was confident that he had demonstrated beyond question the necessity for the addition of at least thir ne carriers to the present working force. ““The population of this city has in- creased very largely within the iast three years,” he said. “The records of the water company, the railroad com- panies, the gas companies and the California Promotion Committee show that the .population of San Francisco must be very nearly 420,000—being an { increase of 80,000 since the census of 1900. Statistics compiled by the most authentic sources show that the busi- ness area of the city for mail delivery purposes has increased 25 per cent. In 1901 we delivered 145000 pleces of first-class mail matter, mostly letters, a day. In 1903 the average ram up to /199,000 pieces a day. “A large number of big apartment houses have been going up, both north and south of Market street, within the last three years,” resumed Mr. Fisk. “Office buildings have been bullt con- taining from 100 to 200 rooms and the Flood building has as many as 600 rooms. The bulk of the big apart- ment houses are being erected between Mason, Leavenworth, Market and California streets. People residing be- yond Broderick street are very much incommoded by the large amount of mail daily taken back to the Postoffice by the carriers and marked ‘Not de- livered for want of time." In the resi- dence part of the city the volume of first-class mail for delivery has in- creased 30 per cent during the last three years.” ———————— General Court-Martial to Meet. General court-martial will meet at the infantry cantonment at the Pre- sidio at 10 o'clock on Wednesday. The following officers have been detailed to serve on the court: Major Henry B. Moon, Tenth Infantry; Captain James T. Dean, Tenth Infantry; Captain Mar- cus B. Stokes, Tenth Infantry: Cap- | tain John H. Parker, Twenty-eighth | Infantry; Captain William J. Lutz, | Twenty-eighth Infantry; First Lieuten- !ant Walter S. Brown, battalion ad- First Lieu- jutant, Tenth Infantry; tenant Lorenzo D. Gasser, Twenty- | eighth Infantry; Second Lieutenant Charles W. Harris, Twenty-eighth In- fantry; Second Lieutenant Frederick F. Black, Tenth Infantry; First Lieu- tenant Joel R. Lee, Tenth Infantry, judge : lvocate. Major John P. Wisser gave the forces at the Presidio a rest yesterday, but will take up the annual inspection again to-morrow. The coast artillery will receive his attention early in the week. Major William Stephenson’s home has been brightened by the arrival of his two charming sisters from Port- land, Me., Miss Stephenson and Miss Marion Stephenson. General Frank M. Coxe is slowly re- covering from a severe attack of grip at his apartments in the St. Nichelas Lieutenant Nolan V. Eliis, Eleventh | Infantry, reported at headquarters yesterday on leave. S Mrs. Madden to express her regard for i ber father-in-law, Jerome Madden. “He,” she says, “who took my child. whom I love better than my life, from me is unfit to have the care of any child. He is my bitter enemy, and has done and will do everything in his | power to estrange my ghild from me. —§ he has been a father irascible, intoler- | ant, self-sufficient. narrow, obstinate. ! hard and overbearing. He has treated | his own. children in a ccld. harsh and | unnaturally cruel manner. They have no respect for him and are mortally | afraid of him. While they were minors | he never supported them. He drove one of his sons and threatened to drive ! the other from home. One of his sons is a libertine and a gambler and the To leave my ,child with them will biunt his sensi- bilities, weaken his character and de- stroy his usefulness as a citizen and a som.”