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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 Excerpt:... mass of the iron, the second, after an interval, through the air. The mere fact then that radio transmission of the voice or a symphony goes over the country in all directions at the same rate as electricity and light indicates that the medium of transmission is no ordinary visible element, but that mysterious body of infinitely small corpuscles which scientists style the "ether". The telephone began to come into practical use in 1879. For several years its range of operation was short and it was subject to violent interferences through induction. Talking across a state was regarded as impossible. In Detroit conversation frequently had to be suspended while an electric car passed through the line of communication, for the roar of the car motors drowned all other sounds. It was not until 1893 or 1894 that long distance communication by phone was opened up between Detroit and New York and Chicago. A return wire circuit did away with ground induction. The old solid carbon Blake transmitters gave place to better instruments which made use of granulated carbon. With these few elementary facts in mind we immediately give rein to our imaginations and begin to speculate upon the future development of radio and its ultimate possibilities and applications. The prospect staggers us, because we realize that all the time we are merely standing upon the threshold of a world of wonders and that we are dealing with an element which only exists as yet in theory but which is supposed to be the basic element of which all created things are composed and to which all created things may be, by some unknown process, again converted. It is the substance of all matter and either the substance, the cause or the medium of all energy. When a sleet storm smote Lower Michigan...