The transmission of
signals demands three organs which all appear indispensable: the
transmitter, the receiver, and, between the two, an intermediary
establishing the communication. This intermediary is generally the
most costly part of the installation and the most difficult to set up,
while it is here that the sensible losses of energy at the expense of
good output occur. And yet our present ideas cause us to consider this
intermediary as more than ever impossible to suppress; since, if we
are definitely quit of the conception of action at a distance, it
becomes inconceivable to us that energy can be communicated from one
point to another without being carried by some intervening medium.
But, practically, the line will be suppressed if, instead of
constructing it artificially, we use to replace it one of the natural
media which separate two points on the earth. These natural media are
divided into two very distinct categories, and from this
classification arise two series of questions to be examined.
Between the two points in question there are, first, the material
media such as the air, the earth, and the water.
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