Mahlon Loomis
Mahlon Loomis was an American dentist and inventor known for proposing a wireless communication and electric power generating system based on his idea that there were electrically charged layers in the Earth's atmosphere.
Loomis' theory was that the Earth's upper atmosphere was divided into discrete voltage layers, rising from zero at ground level to higher voltage with altitude, and that these could be "tapped" using kites fitted with metallic screen conductors and 600 foot long copper cords, flown high above hills and mountains, in order to conduct electricity for use on the ground or to transmit and receive electromagnetic code impulse messages. He claimed that in 1868, he sent wireless telegraphic transmissions between two Virginia hilltops 18 miles apart using apparatus based on his theories. Historians' takes on what he actually did range from his claim being unproven to theories that he may have inadvertently sent electromagnetic wave signals between the two hilltops, despite his impractical ideas about atmospheric electrical charges.
Early life
Mahlon Loomis was born in Oppenheim, New York, the third of eight children born to Nathan and Waitie J. Loomis. The family later moved to Springvale, Virginia. On May 28, 1856, he married Achsah Ashley; they had a daughter, Catherine Ashley, on August 5, 1860. In September 1848 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and studied dentistry under a Dr. Wright, and he began practicing dentistry in Ohio before moving back to Virginia, later residing in Earlville, New York, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Washington, D.C. In 1860–1862 he was listed as a "master mason" within the Free and Accepted Masons fraternal organization, attending the Dawson Lodge.Dentistry
As part of his dentistry practice, Loomis developed a process for making dentures entirely out of porcelain, which he patented in the United States in 1857, as well as in England and France. However, patenting a medical device was controversial, and a New York dental convention deemed the action "unprofessional". In response Loomis took out advertisements in local newspapers defending his dental patent and himself against the "unprofessional" charge, stating: "whether my taking out letters patent be deemed professional or otherwise, I shall still persist in holding and defending my patent, in spite of the divers insinuations and falsehoods of my professional brethren, and shall still continue to manufacture at my different offices, as I have for the past three years, my inimitable and absolutely perfect artificial dentures, and defy any dentist in this or any other country, to produce a similar work of art, to equal in purity, beauty, durability or artistic excellence, my style of teeth, which I am now making; and will further offer A REWARD OF FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, which shall be promptly paid, in case they are so equalled.An historical review of Loomis's patent concluded that he "had great confidence in the ultimate success of his process, and regarded it as easy of manipulation and adaptation. But the profession encountered very great difficulties with it in these directions, principal among them being the almost impossibility of properly governing the shrinkage of the material in firing; and Mr. Loomis's process, although experimented with to some extent, never attained too much importance."
Atmospheric electricity
In the mid-1800s it had been well established that the Earth was surrounded by a significant electrical field, and Loomis felt passionately that this was an overlooked resource of vast potential, both for generating electrical power, and as a conduit that would support worldwide wireless communication.In 1864, Loomis mused in his notebook: "The lightning with its thunder crash seems to be the most powerful and terrible thing in nature. There always seems to be an abundance of this electrical element; and why not use it for various purposes?" In an 1872 lecture he prophesied: "The atmosphere, like the inside of a Leyden jar, or the zinc plate of a galvanic battery, is always highly charged with positive electricity, and the intervening air, like the glass of the Leyden jar, or the separated poles of the galvanic battery, is a perfect non-conductor, thus forming and constituting the most complete and colossal electric battery that ever gave an electric spark, but standing all unused. ... there is one way already demonstrated by experiments by which we can reach, and avail sources of its benefit and value, and that is to seek the highest mountain tops, and thus penetrate this immense and unexplored field, whose virgin soil awaits the plowshare for a fruitful seedtime and harvest". Loomis noted that: "Franklin demonstrated the practicability of drawing electricity from the clouds to the earth, but not one step has since been taken to pursue that fact to a profitable practice." But, once the infrastructure for drawing electrical currents from the upper atmosphere was in place, it would mean that: "mill and factory will then run with a more subtle power, although the waterwheel stands dry and idle. Our dwellings will glow with wholesome heat on wintry days and be illuminated with clear, unwavering light in the night time from the steady and exhaustless flow of this vital element, and the miner of coal shall leave his toil in the shaft for a nobler handicraft among his fellows up in the sunlight and the world. The crude gold of Ophir may lie in the ground, but the pure smelted metal of Omnipotence lies in the stratum over it." In this same lecture Loomis maintained that harnessing atmospheric electricity would someday be used to melt icebergs, result in "malaria cleared from the atmosphere" and eventually be used to make "the entire climates of this our planet toned and tempered".
Another electrical phenomenon that greatly influenced Loomis's theories was the aurora borealis or "Northern Lights". As early as 1839 the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss had correctly speculated that its luminescence was originating in an electrically conducting region of the upper atmosphere, which later became known as ionosphere. Loomis was familiar with the solar storm of 1859, which in addition to a major aurora display produced widespread surging electrical currents which disrupted telegraph lines. However, at this time the exact height of the phenomenon was uncertain. Although it is now known to be located hundreds of kilometers above sea level, Loomis believed it was actually only a few kilometers above the Earth's surface, thus well within the range of the highest mountain summits.
Wireless telegraphy and telephony
Reflecting his belief in the tremendous untapped potential of atmospheric electricity, Loomis declared in a January 1868 letter to his brother Joseph: "Telegraph! That's the least important result I expect to attain". However, virtually all his reported ensuing efforts dealt with attempts to establish long-distance signalling.Loomis believed that, in the absence of disrupting influences like thunderstorms, the atmosphere normally arranged itself into discrete concentric layers, which could be individually accessed in order to provide distant wireless communication. Therefore, transmissions would only be possible when both the sending and receiving conductors were at the same altitude above sea level. There were a number of instances in the years between 1866 and 1879 where Loomis was reported making successful experimental transmissions, ranging from 11 to 400 miles. However, in most cases the details provided were very limited.
Loomis is best known for an entry for October 1866 that he recorded in one of his notebooks, which reads: "From two mountain peaks of the Blue Ridge in Virginia, which are only about two thousand feet above tide-water, two kites were let up—one from each summit—eighteen or twenty miles apart. These kites had each a small piece of fine copper wire gauze about fifteen inches square attached to their under-side and connected also with the wire six hundred feet in length which held the kites when they were up. The day was clear and cool in the month of October, with breeze enough to hold the kites firmly at anchor when they were flown. Good connection was made with the ground by laying in a wet place a coil of wire one end of which was secured to the binding post of a galvanometer. The equipments and apparatus at both stations were exactly alike; it was arranged that at precisely such an hour and minute the galvanometer at one station should be attached, to be in circuit with the ground and kite wires. At the opposite station the ground wire, being already fast to the galvanometer, three separate and deliberate half-minute connections were made with the kite wire and the instrument. This deflected or moved the needle at the other station with the same vigor and precision as if it had been attached to an ordinary battery. After a lapse of five minutes, as previously arranged, the same performance was repeated with the same results until the third time. Then fifteen minutes precisely were allowed to elapse, during which time the instrument at the first station was put in circuit with both wires while the opposite one was detached from its upper wire, thus reversing the arrangements at each station. At the expiration of the fifteen minutes the message or signals came in to the initial station, a perfect duplicate of those sent from it, as by previous agreement. And although no 'transmitting key' was made use of, nor any 'sounder' to voice the messages, yet they were just as exact and distinct as any that ever traveled over a metallic conductor. A solemn feeling seemed to be impressed upon those who witnessed the little performance as if some grave mystery hovered there around the simple scene, notwithstanding the results were confidently expected, although the experiments had been continued for nearly two days before the line would 'work,' and even then it continued to transmit signals only about three hours, when the circuit became suddenly inoperative by the moving away of the upper electric body. Hence it is that high regions must be sought where disturbing influences cannot invade, where statical energy is stored in a vast unbroken element, enabling a line to be worked without interruption or possible failure. No speculation need be indulged as to whether the theory is correct, for theory and speculation must stand aside whether they will or not, and square themselves with the demonstrated truth."
A November 1872 report in the Washington Chronicle stated that, using kites and galvanometers, "Loomis' aërial system has just been tried on lines of different lengths, with variable, but perfectly satisfactory results. On a line of 400 miles lineal distance the tests were perfectly satisfactory at an elevation of 2100 feet. At a mountain elevation of 1200 feet the tests and results that were very strong at a distance of 14 miles." In a January 1873 interview printed in the same paper, Loomis was quoted as saying that during the previous summer he had "telegraphed by my imperfect experiments in the most satisfactory manner", "on the spurs of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Virginia, at a mountain elevation of about thirteen hundred feet, with kites let up with a small copper wire of about five hundred feet in length. The signals were perfect, as indicated with a galvanometer at the two stations, when the connection was made with the earth completing the circuit".
Fifteen years after Mahlon Loomis's death, his older brother George wrote an account about his brother's activities. George Loomis reported that a series of financial setbacks had hindered development. A plan to raise $20,000 to finance a demonstration of the system in the U.S. Cascade Range, spanning the 300 miles between Mount Hood, Oregon, and Mount Shasta, California, had to be canceled due to losses encountered by the backers in the September 1869 Black Friday stock market crash. Alternate financing for this test was then arranged from a group located in Chicago, but this support also was blocked, due to the aftereffects of the October 1871 Great Chicago Fire.
George Loomis's account also related an underwater test performed by his brother: "Pursuing the theories the correctness of which had already been so satisfactorily verified, he conceived the idea of telegraphing between vessels at sea without wire connections. The experiment was tried on the Chesapeake Bay with perfect success, between ships about two miles apart." "On each vessel was a telegraphic apparatus. A wire was attached to the instrument and one end thrown into the water to a moderate depth. Another insulated wire of much greater length was let down to a greater depth into a colder stratum of water. The two strata of water of different temperatures thus connected to the same battery made a complete circuit, and enabled communications to pass between the two vessels without other connections. The experiment resulted in complete success. On the same principle he was led to believe that the warm current of the Gulf Stream, if similarly connected with the adjacent colder water, would afford a means of telegraphing a great distance—perhaps as far as a decided difference in temperature is maintained." This apparently is the only report of Loomis making an underwater trial.