eeded
to initiate every tactical evolution in a fleet, and insure an almost
automatic precision in the resulting movements of the ships. The
flashing lantern is superseded at night, flags and the semaphore by day,
or, if these are retained, it is for services purely auxiliary. The
hideous and bewildering shrieks of the steam-siren need no longer be
heard in a fog, and the uncertain system of gun signals will soon become
a thing of the past." The interest of the naval and military strategist
in the Marconi apparatus extends far beyond its communication of
intelligence. Any electrical appliance whatever may be set in motion by
the same wave that actuates a telegraphic sounder. A fuse may be
ignited, or a motor started and directed, by apparatus connected with
the coherer, for all its minuteness. Mr. Walter Jamieson and Mr. John
Trotter have devised means for the direction of torpedoes by ether
waves, such as those set at work in the wireless telegraph. Two rods
projecting above the surface of the water receive the waves, and are in
circuit with a coherer and a relay. At the will of the distant operator
a hollow wire coil bearing a current draws in an iron core either to the
right or to the left, moving the helm accordingly.

As the news of the success of the Marconi telegraph made its way to the
London Stock Exchange there was a fall in the shares of cable companies.
The fear of rivalry from the new invention was baseless. As but fifteen
words a minute are transmissible by the Marconi system, it evidently
does not compete with a cable, such as that between France and England,
which can transmit 2,500 words a minute without difficulty. The Marconi
telegraph comes less as a competitor to old systems than as a mode of
communication which creates a field of its own. We have seen what it may
accomplish in war, far outdoing any feat possible to other apparatus,
acoustic, luminous, or electrical. In quite as striking fashion does it
break new ground in the service of commerce and trade. It enables
lighthouses continually to spell their names, so that receivers aboard
ship may give the steersmen their bearings even in storm and fog. In the
crowded condition of the steamship "lanes" which cross the Atlantic, a
priceless security against collision is afforded the man at the helm.
On November 15, 1899, Marconi telegraphed from the American liner _St.
Paul_ to the Needles, sixty-six nautical miles away. On December 11 and
12, 1901, h