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the fifteen-hundred-foot Bear's Den and Catoctin Mountains of the Blue Ridge of Virginia, a distance of about twenty miles. He thus demonstrated an effect which he described in a notebook dated February 20, 1864. This year should be recognized as the date of his discovery. In another notebook, he described his October 1866 public demonstration. He wrote: "Two kites were let up—one from each summit—eigh- teen or twenty miles apart. These kites has each a piece of fine copper wire gauze, about fifteen inches square, attached to their underside and connected with the wire, six hundred feet in length, "It is e which held the kites when they were a up. The day was clear and cool in the establish’ month of October, with breeze A enough to hold the kites firmly at a discove anchor when they were flown. Good the wo connection was made with the ground by laying in a wet place a coil persc of wire, one end of which was san secured to the binding post of a gal- vanometer. The equipments and apparatus of both stations were exactly alike, the time-piece of "Dilige both parties having been set have n exactly alike. It was arranged anyone W that at precisely such an hour and minute, the galvanometer at Mahlo! one station should be attached aeria or be in circuit with the ground- ed and kite wires. At the oppo- site station, the ground wire being already fast to the gal- vanometer, three separate and deliberate half-minute connec- tions were made with the kite wire and instruments. This deflected, or moved, the needle at the other station with the same vigor and precision as if it had been attached to an ordinary battery. "After a lapse of five minutes, as previously arranged, the same performance was repeated with the same result tele until the third time. Then fifteen minutes precisely were allowed to elapse, during which time the instrument at the first station was put in circuit with both wires while the opposite one was detached from its upper wire, thus reversing the arrangements at each station. At the expira- tion of fifteen minutes, the message or signals came to the initial station, a perfect duplicate of those sent from it, as by previous arrangement. And although no ‘transmitting key' was made use of nor any 'sounder' key to voice the messages, yet, they were just as pre- cise and distinct as any that ever sped over a wire. A solemn feeling seemed tial to to be impressed upon those who wit - . nessed the performance, as if some redit for grave mystery hovered there around A that simple scene, not withstanding | examine the results confidently expected." ij other It is of utmost importance to 1 the observe that this experiment, as described, was successful: a code ld. system could be used and messages sent. Yet, of the few persons who, during the past one hundred years, arches reviewed the work of Loomis, a high percentage made the grave vealed ‘scientific’ error of concluding intedated that the experiment could not aos succeed because Loomis did not amis In have the Branley coherer and eless therefore he had no means of detecting the signals. This false conclusion weakened seriously the cause of Loomis. In further defense, various persons have repeated his exper- iment and found his report accu- rate. The author has made test experiments and determined that the wave form emerging from the kite wire was a rapidly damping pulse which would give a direct-current instrument, a moving needle galvanometer, a ballistic deflection. A radio frequency component on the pulse would make no difference in the reception, as the two stations were tuned the same. It is essential to establishing credit for a discovery to examine the work of other persons in the same field. Diligent searches have not revealed anyone who antedated Mahlon Loomis in aerial wireless telegraphy. hy." "It is essential to establishing credit for a discovery to examine the work of other persons in the same field. "Diligent searches have not revealed anyone who antedated Mahlon Loomis in aerial wireless telegraphy." establishing credit for a discovery to examine the work of other game field. anyone who antedated Mahlon Loomis in telegraphy." July 8, 1972 19.35-19.52 hours UT frequency (Hz) ——® Figure 1 To understand exactly how Mahlon's system worked, it is nec- essary to understand the place of lightning in generating ELF (extremely low frequency) radio waves in the atmosphere. Young states in his article that "the wave form emerging from the kite wire was a rapidly damping pulse". The pulse was, of course, a surge of current (amps) that caused the needle in the gal- vanometer (ammeter) to deflect. Since there was no battery attached to the circuit but only a meter between ground and the kite wire, where did the current come from and how could Loomis detect it without a radio wave detector? The earliest radio wave detector, called a coherer, was not invented until a few years later. As Young points out, Loomis had the usual problem of being an inventive individual with the stuffed-shirt arrogance of some, not all, of hallowed academia. But such pontificators never leave 56 = NEXUS "It is essential to persons in the "Diligent searches have not revealed aerial wireless FEBRUARY — MARCH 2000