Chapter V
Historical
18. Early Attempts
Attempts to establish communication electrically through a natural medium (that is, without the use of a wire connecting the stations) were made in the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Some inventors worked on the principle of the conducting power of the earth, and others upon the principle of electrostatic or electromagnetic induction. Of these latter types the Phelps and Edison systems were devised with a view of telegraphing to moving trains, while the Preece system was employed to communicate between an island and the mainland, utilizing both of the above principles.
The vertical aerial wire was first employed by Dolbear in 1886 in connection with a peculiar conduction system. Mr. Edison in 1891 proposed to support vertical wires by captive baloons, in connection with an induction telegraph.
Thus it is seen that the antenna (or vertical wire, as39
