, Edison said recently: "We only transmitted
about two and one-half miles through the kites. What has always puzzled
me since is that I did not think of using the results of my experiments
on 'etheric force' that I made in 1875. I have never been able to
understand how I came to overlook them. If I had made use of my own work
I should have had long-distance wireless telegraphy."

In one of the appendices to this book is given a brief technical account
of Edison's investigations of the phenomena which lie at the root of
modern wireless or "space" telegraphy, and the attention of the reader
is directed particularly to the description and quotations there from
the famous note-books of Edison's experiments in regard to what he
called "etheric force." It will be seen that as early as 1875 Edison
detected and studied certain phenomena--i.e., the production of
electrical effects in non-closed circuits, which for a time made him
think he was on the trail of a new force, as there was no plausible
explanation for them by the then known laws of electricity and
magnetism. Later came the magnificent work of Hertz identifying the
phenomena as "electromagnetic waves" in the ether, and developing a
new world of theory and science based upon them and their production by
disruptive discharges.

Edison's assertions were treated with scepticism by the scientific
world, which was not then ready for the discovery and not sufficiently
furnished with corroborative data. It is singular, to say the least,
to note how Edison's experiments paralleled and proved in advance those
that came later; and even his apparatus such as the "dark box" for
making the tiny sparks visible (as the waves impinged on the receiver)
bears close analogy with similar apparatus employed by Hertz. Indeed, as
Edison sent the dark-box apparatus to the Paris Exposition in 1881,
and let Batchelor repeat there the puzzling experiments, it seems by no
means unlikely that, either directly or on the report of some friend,
Hertz may thus have received from Edison a most valuable suggestion, the
inventor aiding the physicist in opening up a wonderful new realm.
In this connection, indeed, it is very interesting to quote two great
authorities. In May, 1889, at a meeting of the Institution of Electrical
Engineers in London, Dr. (now Sir) Oliver Lodge remarked in a discussion
on a paper of his own on lightning conductors, embracing the Hertzian
waves in its treatment: "Many of the e