between spheres 3 inches in diameter.  At the end of the year 1901 temporary stations at Newfoundland were established and experiments were carried on with aerial wires raised in the air by means of kites.  It was here realized that various refinements in the receiving apparatus were necessary, and instead of the coherer a telephone was inserted in the secondary circuit of the oscillation transformer, and with this device on February 12th the first signals to be transmitted across the Atlantic were heard.  These early experiments were seriously affected by the fact that the antennae or aerial wires were constantly varying in height with the movement of the kites, and it was found that a permanent arrangement of receiving wires, independent of kites or balloons, was essential.  Yet it was demonstrated at this time that the transmission of electric waves and their detection over distances of 2000 miles was distinctly possible.

A more systematic and thorough test occurred in February, 1902, when a receiving station was installed on the steamship Philadelphia, proceeding from Southampton to New York.  The receiving aerial was rigged to the mainmast, the top of which was 197 feet above the level of the sea, and a syntonic receiver was employed, enabling the signals to be recorded on the tape of an ordinary Morse recorder.  On this voyage readable messages were received from Poldhu up to a distance of 1551 miles, and test letters were received as far as 2099 miles.  It was on this voyage that Marconi made the interesting discovery of the effect of sunlight on the propagation of electric waves over great distances.  He found that the waves were absorbed during the daytime much more than at night and he eventually reached the conclusion that the ultraviolet light from the sun ionized the gaseous molecules of the air, and ionized air absorbs the energy of the electric waves, so that the fact was established that clear sunlight and blue skies, though transparent to light, serve as a fog to the powerful Hertzian waves of wireless telegraphy.  For that reason the transmission of messages is carried on with greater facility on the shores of England and Newfoundland across the North Atlantic than in the clearer atmosphere of lower latitudes.  But atmospheric conditions do not affect all forms of waves the same, and long waves with small amplitudes are far less subject to the effect of daylight than those of large amplitude and short wave length, and generators and circuits were arranged to produce the former.  But the difficulty did not prove insuperable, as Marconi found that increasing the energy of the transmitting station during the daytime would more than make up for the loss of range.