Quite recently Mr. H. M. Macdonald (see _Proc._ Roy. Soc., London, Vol. LXXI., p. 251) has submitted the problem to calculation, and has shown that the power required to send given electric waves 3,000 miles along a meridian of the earth is greater than would be required to send them over the same distance if the sea surface were flat in the ratio of 10 to 3. Hence the rotundity of the earth does introduce a very important reduction factor, although it does not inhibit the transmission. Mr. Macdonald's mathematical argument has, however, been criticised by Lord Rayleigh and by M. H. Poincaré (see _Proc._ Roy. Soc., Vol. LXXII., p. 40, 1903).
The accomplishment of very long distances by Hertzian wave telegraphy is, however, not merely a question of power, it is also a question of wave-length. Having regard, however, to the possibility that the propagation which takes place in Hertzian wave telegraphy is not that simply of a free wave in space, but the transmission of a semi-loop of electric strain with its feet tethered to the earth, it is quite possible that if it were worth while to make the attempt, an ether disturbance could be made in England sufficiently powerful to be felt in New Zealand.
Leaving, however, these hypothetical questions and matters of pure conjecture, we may consider some of the facts which have resulted from Mr. Marconi's long-distance experiments. One of the most interesting of these is the effect of daylight upon the wave propagation. In one of his voyages across the Atlantic, when receiving signals from Poldhu on board the S.S. _Philadelphia_, he noticed that the signals were received by night when they could not be detected by day.[72] In these experiments Mr. Marconi instructed his assistants at Poldhu to send signals at a certain rate from 12 to 1 a.m., from 6 to 7 a.m., from 12 to 1 p.m., and from 6 to 7 p.m., Greenwich mean time, every day for a week. He has stated that on board the _Philadelphia_ he did not notice any apparent difference between the signals received in the day and those received at night until after the vessel had reached a distance of 500 statute miles from Poldhu. At distances of over 700 miles, the signals transmitted during the day failed entirely, while those sent at night remained quite strong up to 1,551 miles, and were clearly decipherable up to a distance of 2,099 miles from Poldhu. Mr. Marconi also noted that at distances of over 700 miles, the signals at 6 a.m., in the week between February 23 and March 1, were quite clear and distinct, whereas by 7 a.m. they had become weak almost to total disappearance. This fact led him at first to conclude that the cause of the weakening was due to the action of the daylight upon the transmitting aerial, and that as the sun rose over Poldhu, so the wave energy radiated, diminished, and he suggested as an explanation the known fact of the dissipating action of light upon a negative charge.