Marconi's Parabola

Luxury-loving Inventor Guglielmo Marconi left Rome for London last week with an ultra-short-wave radio kit in his baggage, a query in his mind, and the intention of showing his British scientific friends his latest refinement of radio.

The kit is virtually a duplicate of the set which Inventor Marconi, who is a Papal Marchese as well as an Italian Senator, gave to the Pope. His Holiness now can radio-talk directly with his recently renovated summer home at Castel Gandolfo 14 miles away, and no one can listen in. Cost of operating the equipment is no more than the cost of keeping a 30-watt incandescent bulb alight.

The significant part of the new Marconi short-wave set is the transmitter-receiver. This, he explained last week, consists of four vertical copper rods, curved and placed in such a way that they outline a parabolic basin. A series of short copper rods projects from each vertical rod.

This set-up economizes the energy thrown into the ultra short waves. Theoretically those waves, which approach light waves in rapid brevity, should behave like light and travel only in straight lines. Theoretically such waves cannot bend around Earth's circumference and thus serve to carry messages long distances. But Inventor Marconi has been communicating with them across 180 mi. Says he: ". . . For some reason . . . the waves are deflected and travel further than they should according to theory."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.