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meability of the iron core (see Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers, United States, vol. iv, April 1916, p. 101 ; a magnetic amplifier for radiotelephony).

The Radio Corporation of America began to build in 1921 a very large wireless station on Long Island which was to have 12 directive aerials, each li m. long, arranged radially around the sta- tion. The waves were to be generated by high frequency alternators. The station would cover an area of nearly 10 sq.m. and be the most powerful in the world (see The Engineering Supplement of The Times, Aug. 1920). Another large U.S. radio station is that at Tuckerton, N.J., containing a Goldschmidt 200 kilowatts high frequency alternator. The radio frequency machine is driven by an electric motor supplied from two direct current generators in Ward Leonard connexion. This station was erected to correspond

I with one near Hanover, Germany. In France there are four very large radio stations; one at Croix d'Hins near Bordeaux, which was erected by the U. S. army during the war to maintain com-

i munications with Washington, contained originally 400-500 kilo- watts Poulsen arc generators but is now partly converted to an

[ alternator station. The aerial is carried on 8 lattice towers 800 ft. high (see fig. 10).

FIG. 10. View of the large French radio station at Bordeaux erected by the American army during the World War for direct communication with the United States.

Another large French radio station at La Dpua, near Lyons, with wave length of 12,000 metres is an arc station; a third exists at Nantes and a fourth is in Paris and employs the Eiffel tower to support its aerial wire.

The French Government began to erect in 1921 two large radio stations at St. Assise, near Paris, for European and world wide radio- telegraphy. These were to be equipped with Bethenod-Latour high frequency alternators and would have 1,500 kilowatts output.

In Germany there is a station at Nauen, near Berlin, which has a range of several thousand miles and wave length of 12,600 metres. This station like that at the Eiffel tower, Paris, sends out time signals at certain hours.

Broadly speaking, we may say that there were in 1921 about a dozen long distance radio stations in the world, which could signal to any part of the world by day or night, making use of wave lengths between 12,000 and 20,000 metres.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. For the full discussion the reader must be referred to special treatises on radiotelegraphy as mentioned below. J. A. Fleming, The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy and Telephony (4th ed. 1919) ; R. Stanley, Text Book on Wireless Telegraphy (2nd ed. 2 vols. 1919) ; W. H. Eccles, Continuous Wave Wireless Telegraphy (1921); J. A. Fleming, The Thermionic Valve in Radiotelegraphy and Telephony (1918); W. H. Eccles, Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony (2nd ed. 1918) ; Bernard Leggett, Wireless Telegraphy, with special reference to the quenched-spark system (1921); J. A. Fleming, The Scientific Problems of Electric Wave Telegraphy, Can- tor Lectures at the Royal Society of Arts (1919) ; also the following articles in the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, United States, are authoritative and useful: vol. ii., 1914, 69, E. E. Mayer, "The Goldschmidt System of Radiotelegraphy"; vol. iii. 1915, 55. A. N. Goldsmith, " Radio Frequency Changers "; vol. iii., 1915, 215, E. H. Armstrong, " The Audion as Detector and Amplifier ; vol. iii., 1915, 261, I. Langmuir, "The Pure Electron Discharge"; vol. iv., 1916, 101, E. F. W. Alexanderson, " A Magnetic Amplifier for Radiotelephony "; vol. vii., 1919, 363, E. F. W. Alexanderson, "Simultaneous Sending and Receiving ; vol. viii., 1920, 3, 87, T. Johnson, " Naval Aircraft Radio " ; vol. viii.. 1920, 220, M. Latour, "Radio Frequency Alternators "; vol. viii., 1920, 263, E. F. W. Alexanderson, "Transoceanic Radio-communication"; vol. ix., 1921, 83, E. F. W. Alexanderson, " Central Stations for Radio- communication "; the following are references to useful papers on the theory of the thermionic valve: The Physical Review',vo\. xii., 1918, p. 171, H. J. Van der Bijl, " Theory of the Thermionic Ampli- fier "; Proc. Inst. Radio Engineers, United States, vol. vii., 1919, 97, 603, H. J. Van der Bijl on the theory and operating characteristics of the thermionic amplifier; Journal of the -Institution of -Electrical Engineers, London, vol. Iviii., 1920, p. 65, C. L; Fortescue, " The Design of Multiple Stage Amplifiers using Three-electrode thermionic valves " ; ibid., p. 670, B. S. Gossling, " Development of Thermionic Valves for Naval Use." For the discussion of the special difficulties introduced by the atmospheric electrical disturbances called "strays," which are vagrant electric waves produced by natural causes, the reader may be referred to a paper by Roy A. Weagant in the Proc. Inst. Radio Engineers, United States, 1919, vol. vii., 207, " Reception through Static and Interference." (J. A. F.)

WIRTH, KARL JOSEPH (1870- ), German statesman, fourth chancellor of the post-war republican Reich, was born at Freiburg in Baden in 1879. The son of a working engineer, he was educated at the university of Freiburg. In 1908 he was appointed to the chair of Economics at the Technical College of that city; and after his election as a municipal councillor in 1911 he devoted himself to financial questions. In 1913 he obtained a seat as a member of the Catholic Centre party in the diet of Baden, and in 1918 was appointed Minister of Finance. In Jan. 1919 he was elected a member of the Constituent Assem- bly of the Reich which sat at Weimar. In March 1920, when the Ministry of the Reich was reconstructed after the Kapp Putsch, he received the portfolio of Finance, which he continued to hold in subsequent ministries. His task was to carry out the system of increased national taxation which one of his predecessors, Erzberger, had induced the Reichstag to adopt. When in May 1921 the Allied ultimatum on Reparation was presented to Germany and the " Sanctions " enforced on the Rhine, the Fehrenbach-Simons Ministry, which had rejected the London terms, resigned, and Dr. Wirth was called upon to form a new Cabinet. He succeeded in obtaining the cooperation of a number of able Democrats, Catholics and Socialists, including the promi- nent industrialist and economist, Dr. Walther Rathenau, as Minister of Reconstructions. Wirth himself retained the port- folio of Finance. The new Ministry then accepted the Allies' Reparation terms 132 milliard marks (6,600,000,000) payable in yearly instalments of 100,000,000 plus the proceeds of a 25 % duty on German exports. By Aug. 31 1921 Germany had paid the first half-yearly instalment of 50,000,000; and in the follow- ing Oct. Dr. Rathenau succeeded in concluding a comprehensive agreement with France for paying reparations in kind for the reconstruction of the devastated regions.

After the assassination of Erzberger on Aug. 26 1921 the conflict between the Government of the Reich and the re- actionary Bavarian Ministry of von Kahr came to a head, von Kahr showing the same recalcitrancy against carrying out the special ordinances of the Reich against reactionary plots as he had previously exhibited in regard to the dissolution of the illegal volunteer force, the Einwohnerwehr. Dr. Wirth stood his ground, and ultimately von Kahr was compelled by his own party in Bavaria to resign and make way for a more conciliatory minister- president. The strife which arose out of this acute internal crisis had hardly abated when the announcement in mid-Oct. of the decision of the League of Nations on the partition of Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland aroused wild excitement throughout Germany, and, among other consequences, sent the exchange value of the mark down (Oct. 17) to 750 to the . Dr. Wirth had not concealed his conviction that the severance from Germany of the rich industrial district of Upper Silesia would fatally affect Germany's capacity to pay further reparation instalments, and the political tension in Berlin again became acute. Eventually Dr. Wirth resigned, but nobody was found able to form a ministry in his place and he resumed office.

WISCONSIN (see 28.740). In 1920 the pop. was 2,632,067, as compared with 2,333,860, in 1910, an increase of 298,207, or 12-8%, the state holding its rank of thirteenth. The density of pop. in 1920 was 47-6 per sq. m.; in 1910 it was 42-2. The proportion of urban pop. increased from 43% in 1910 to 47-3% in 1920. The following table shows the growth of pop. of those cities having 25,000 inhabitants: