A History of Wireless Telegraphy, 1838–1899 La Télégraphie sans Fils

WIRELESS telegraphy is a subject of absorbing popular interest at the present time. Its sensational possibilities are being gradually demonstrated; and just now a special popular interest arises from its obvious applicability to the amelioration of the state of isolation of our beleaguered garrisons in South Africa. Telegraphy without tangible means of communication has, however, proved an attractive field of inquiry almost since Volta's discovery of the electric current a century ago. And when in later years the submarine cable became a success, the high earning power, and the high cost also, served both to attract and to stimulate many inventors and scientific enthusiasts in their search for a system of telegraphy which would dispense with the ocostly cable.A History of Wireless Telegraphy, 1838–1899.By J. J. Fahie, &c. Pp. xvii + 325. (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons.La Télégraphie sans Fils.Par André Broca. Pp. vii + 202. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1899.)