[QCWA Hotlist] Vic Clark Chapter 91 co-sponsor of historic special event -150 years of wireless

[Lee]

On the weekend of October 14-16 2016 (In two weeks) Vic Clark Chapter 
91 QCWA will co-sponsor with the Vienna Wireless Society special 
event stations K1T and K6L commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the 
fist demonstration of wireless telegraphy - Yes six quarter centuries 
ago the first spark gap transmitter was keyed and the signal received 
21 miles away by a crude galvanometer.   The experimenter was a 
Georgetown DC dentist, Dr Mahlon Loomis.

While the exact locations of Loomis 1866 experiment have been lost to 
history, a sketch prepared by Loomis indicates that he transmitted 
from the second peak to the north on Bears Den Mountain.   The most 
southern peak of the ridge is Mount Weather,  K1T and K6L will be 
transmitter from very near, if not on, the location from which Loomis 
made his transmissions 150 years based on his sketch now in the US 
National Archives which is about 1 mile north of Mount Weather.

Dr. Loomis became captivated by electricity, supposedly attending 
lectures in the 1850s at the Lowell Institute in Boston and 
experimented with effects of electricity on plant growth.  On 
February 20, 1864 Loomis wrote in his journal: "I have been for years 
trying to study out a process by which telegraphic communications may 
be made across the ocean without any wires, and also from point to 
point on the earth, dispensing with wires."

   In October 1866 Loomis demonstrated "Aerial Telegraph" over a 14 
mile path using 600 feet of copper wire attached to kites flown from 
Bear's Den Mountain on the Loudoun-Clark Counties border (VA) and 
"Coshocton" (Furnace) Mountain in Loudoun Co. in the presence of 
witnesses that reportedly included a US Senator and 
Congressman.   Loomis did not understand that the spark from the 
induced static electricity when he keyed the wire to ground on Bear 
Den's Mountain was the source of the RF radiation from the wire that 
was detected by a crude galvanometer connected other antenna on 
Furnace Mountain; but he did appreciate the fact that the transmit 
and receive antennas needed to be the same length (resonant).  Loomis 
believed rather that he had tapped into an electrically conductive 
layer in the atmosphere.  But what he actually did was demonstrate 
"transmissions of RF energy using a crude spark gap transmitter and 
reception of the signal.

Subsequent experiments  (reportedly including communications between 
two ships 2 miles apart on the Chesapeake Bay) were also successful 
and lead to a patent application being filed in 1869 and granted  on 
30 July 1872 (Patent #129,971) for Improvements to 
Telegraphing.  Wherein he claims "of utilizing natural electricity 
and establishing an electrical current or circuit for telegraphic and 
other purposes without the aid of wires, artificial batteries, or 
cables to form such electrical circuit, and yet communicate from one 
continent of the globe to another"

Loomis also tried to commercialize his invention.  Senator Charles 
Sumner introduced a bill into the US Senate on January 13, 1869 for 
an act of incorporation the Loomis Aerial Telegraph Company, and for 
the appropriation of $50,000. Congress did not approve the requested 
funding request but did pass the incorporation.   On 11 January 1873 
President Grant signed a bill incorporating the Loomis Aerial 
Telegraph Company to operate within the District of 
Columbia.   Loomis attempts to commercialize his invention failed due 
to a number if financial disasters, including the 'Black Friday" of 
1869 when many investors interested in Aerial Telegraphy lost their 
fortunes in a scheme to corner the gold market,  another attempt 
which was financed by a group of Chicago bankers abruptly ended in 
October 1871 when the great Chicago fire destroyed the city and then 
again his investors were wiped out in the great financial panic of 1873.

73
Lee, KD4RE
Secretary, Vic Clark Chapter 91