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A History of Wireless Telegraphy (2nd edition, revised), J. J. Fahie, 1901, pages 91-94:
PROFESSOR GRAHAM BELL--1882.
Following the lines suggested by Prof. Trowbridge, Prof Bell carried out some successful experiments, an account of which is given in his paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1884.
"A few years ago," he says, "I made a communication on the use of the telephone in tracing equipotential lines and surfaces. I will briefly give the chief points of the experiment, which was based on experiments made by Prof. Adams of King's College, London. Prof. Adams used a galvanometer instead of a telephone.
"In a vessel of water I placed a sheet of paper. At two points on that paper were fastened two ordinary sewing needles, which were also connected with an interrupter that interrupted the circuit about one hundred times a second. Then I had two needles connected with a telephone: one needle I fastened on the paper in the water, and the moment I placed the other needle in the water I heard a musical sound from the telephone. By moving this needle around in the water, I would strike a place where there would be no sound heard. This would be where the electric tension was the same as in the needle; and by experimenting in the water you could trace out with perfect ease an equipotential line around one of the poles in the water.
"It struck me afterwards that this method, which is true on the small, is also true on the large scale, and that it might afford a solution of a method of communicating electrical signals between vessels at sea.
"I made some preliminary experiments in England, and succeeded in sending signals across the river Thames in this way. On one side were two metal plates placed at a distance from each other, and on the other two terminals connected with the telephone. A current was established in the telephone each time a current was established through the galvanic circuit on the opposite side, and if that current was rapidly interrupted you would get a musical tone.
"Urged by Prof. Towbridge, I made some experiments which are of very great value and suggestiveness. The first was made on the Potomac river.
"I had two boats. In one boat we had a Leclanché battery of six elements and an interrupter for interrupting the current very rapidly. Over the bow of the boat we made water connection by a metallic plate, and behind the boat we trailed an insulated wire, with a float at the end carrying a metallic plate, so as to bring these two terminals about 100 feet apart. I then took another boat and sailed off. In this boat we had the same arrangement, but with a telephone in the circuit. In the first boat, which was moored, I kept a man making signals and when my boat was near his I would hear those signals very well--a musical tone, something of this kind: tum, tum, tum. I then rowed my boat down the river, and at a distance of a mile and a quarter, which was the farthest distance I tried, I could still distinguish those signals.
"It is therefore perfectly practicable for steam-vessels with dynamo machines to know of each other's presence in a fog when they come, say, within a couple of miles of one another, or, perhaps, at a still greater distance. I tried the experiment a short time ago in salt water of about 20 fathoms in depth. I used then two sailing-boats, and did not get so great a distance as on the Potomac. The distance, which we estimated by the eye, seemed to be about half a mile but on the Potomac we took the distance accurately on the shore."
Later, in urging a practical trial of his method, Prof. Bell further said: "Most of the passenger steamships have dynamo engines, and are electrically lighted. Suppose, for instance, one of them should trail a wire a mile long, or any length, which is connected with the dynamo engine and electrically charged. The wire would practically have a ground connection by trailing in the water. Suppose you attach a telephone to the end on board. Then your dynamo or telephone end would be positive, and the other end of the wire trailing behind would be negative. All of the water about the ship will be positive within a circle whose radius is one-half of the length of the wire. All of the water about the trailing end will be negative within a circle whose radius is the other half of the wire. If your wire is one mile long, there is then a large area of water about the ship which is affected either positively or negatively by the dynamo engine and the electrically charged wire. It will be impossible for any ship or object to approach within the water so charged in relation to your ship without the telephone telling the whole story to the listening ear. Now, if a ship coming in this area also has a similar apparatus, the two vessels can communicate with each other by their telephones. If they are enveloped in a fog, they can keep out of each other's way. The ship having the telephone can detect other ships in its track, and keep out of the way in a fog or storm. The matter is so simple that I hope out ocean steamships will experiment with it." 58
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58 Public Opinion, January 31, 1886.
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