The Story of Radio |
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Common terms and phrases
aerial amateurs American antenna apparatus Atlantic beam broadcast called Captain Ranger carry caused channel circuit color communication direction finder distance dots and dashes drum E. F. W. Alexanderson earth electric current ether waves face flashed flying heard Hertz Hertzian waves impulses invisible waves Island Josephine Ford King's Bay land LEE DE FOREST listening-in London Marconi masts ments messages miles motion picture moving Nauen naval night Norge operator Otter Cliffs passed photo-electric cell plane Poldhu Pole radiated RADIO MOVIES radio waves rays reach receiving set receiving station reception revolving sailed screen sending set the ether short wave signal sitter sound space spark speed spot of light static telegraph telephone television televisor tiny tion trans transatlantic transmission transmitter tune vacuum tube vessel vibrations wave length weather Whippany wire wireless words York
Popular passages
Page 131 - There may possibly be a sufficiently conducting layer in the upper air. If so, the waves will, so to speak, catch on to it more or less. Then the guidance will be by the sea on one side and the upper layer on the other.
Page 131 - Sea water, though transparent to light, has quite enough conductivity to make it behave as a conductor for Hertzian waves, and the same is true in a more imperfect manner of the earth. Hence the waves accommodate themselves to the surface of the sea in the same way as waves follow wires.
Page 188 - When he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then did he see it and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
Page 39 - The present is an epoch of astounding activity in physical science. Progress is a thing of months and weeks, almost of days. The long line of isolated ripples of past discovery seem blending into a mighty wave, on the crest of which one begins to discern some oncoming magnificent generalization. The suspense is becoming feverish, at times almost painful. One feels like a boy who has been long strumming on the silent keyboard of a deserted organ, into the chest of which an unseen power begins to blow...
Page 157 - But no one had described and demonstrated a system of wireless telegraph apparatus adapted for the transmission and reception of definite, intelligible signals by such means. This was the state of scientific knowledge and practice when in 1896 Marconi applied for his first patent.
Page 1 - My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distil as the dew ; As the small rain upon the tender grass, And as the showers upon the herb : For I will proclaim the name of the LORD : Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
Page 115 - The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Page 34 - A little after midnight our whole party sat down to a light supper. Behind the cheerful table talk of the young men on the staff, one could feel the tension of an unusual anxiety as the moment approached for which they had worked, and to which they had looked forward so long. It was about ten minutes to one when we left the cottage to proceed to the operating room. I believe I was the first outsider allowed to inspect the building and machinery.
Page 36 - Inside the building, and among its somewhat complicated appliances, the untechnical observer's first impression was that he was among men who understood their work. The machinery was carefully inspected, some adjustments made, and various orders carried out with trained alertness. All put cotton wool in their ears to lessen the force of the electric concussion, which was not unlike the successive explosions of a Maxim gun.
Page 25 - The critical moment had come, for which the way had been prepared by six years of hard and unremitting work, despite the usual criticisms directed at anything new. I was about to test the truth of my belief. "In view of the importance of all that was at stake, I had decided not to trust entirely to the usual arrangement of having the coherer signals record automatically on a paper tape through a relay and Morse instrument, but to use instead...