Wire
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Wire. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a metallic rod, thread, or filament of small and uniform diameter. The largest size, numbered 0000, of the Birmingham wire-gauge, has a diameter of .454 inch; but smaller sizes even than this, except when drawn out to considerable lengths, are generally known as bars or rods. Lead wire for the manufacture of bullets may considerably exceed the above diameter. Wire is usually cylindrical, but it is also made of various other forms, as oval, half-round, square, and triangular, and of more complicated shapes for small pinions; for forming the pattern on blocks used in calico-printing, and for other purposes. Used absolutely for telegraph wire, and hence, colloquially, applied to the telegraph itself; as, to send a message by wire. Used in hunting language for wire-fencing. Wire of Lapland is a shining slender substance made from the sinews of the reindeer, soaked in water, beaten and spun into thread. Being then coated with tin, it is used by the Laplanders to embroider their clothes. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY AND TELEPHONY. A system of wireless telegraphy has been developed through three different methods, which may be classified as conduction, induction, and wave methods. By the method of conduction, currents are sent through the earth from one electrode to another, at the sending station. By the induction method, use is made of a property passed by alternating currents, of exciting similar currents in neighboring conductors with the aim of obtaining as intense a current as possible in the secondary circuit. The two methods were combined by W. H. Preece, of England. The third method is by the by the use of electromagnetic waves. This was introduced and developed by William Marconi, to whom is generally ascribed the invention of wireless telegraphy. After experiments were carried on through many years, practical use of wireless telegraphy was first demonstrated in the rescue of the steamship "Republic", in 1909, and of the survivors of the steamship "Titanic", in 1912. Both of these vessels were equipped with wireless telegraphy by which notification of disasters was given. Within a short period, all trans-Atlantic steamers and naval vessels were fitted with wireless telegraph apparatus, and wireless stations were erected in many parts of the United States, the British Isles, continental Europe, and other parts of the world. Service between the Eiffel Tower, Paris, and the United States was put into effect in 1911, and in 1913 wireless communication was established between Sayville, L. I., Germany. Direct communiand Nauen, en, cation by wireless telegraphy was established between the United States and Japan in 1915. During the World War practically all war vessels, including submarines, were equipped with wireless ap- Aeroplanes likewise paratus. were equipped with wireless installations and these proved an effective means of locating enemy troops and batteries. Wireless telegraphy was developed to a high state of efficiency during the war. It is also used for commercial purposes and in the transmission of news and mercial matter. The United States has established a widespread system of aerial communication. Stations are established at Arlington, Va., Panama Canal Zone, San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in Samoa, and in the Philippine Islands. Wireless Telephony. - A system of telephone one communication in which the action of the transmitter brings about fluctuations in electric waves which are radiated through space by a high frequency current. These fluctuations are reproduced at the distant station in the form of the original sounds. Wireless telephony differs from wireless telegraphy in that the transmission of waves is continuous instead of interrupted. Wireless telephony has become a practical method of communication between ships at sea and between moving railroad trains. The distance to which sounds can be transmitted is practically limitless. Communication is held between New York and San Francisco, and between Arlington, Va., and Honolulu. The system was developed to a point of great efficiency in aeroplanes during the war. This use was especially notable in the great Meuse-Argonne campaign of 1918, when the American Signal Corps successfully directed operations beyond the lines by the use of wireless telephony. American
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a thread, or small rod of metal. The making of wire depends on a property of metals known as ductility. In production, a piece of metal is drawn through a series of holes in a hardened steel plate. A rod or bar once formed is drawn through a succession of holes each smaller in diameter than its predecessor. In this way, even the finest wires may be made. Gold, silver, platinum, iron, copper, zinc, tin, lead, and nickel may be made into wires. Platinum has been drawn into wire 0.000165 inch in diameter, so fine as to be scarcely visible to the unaided eye. Fine gold wire, known as gold thread, was much used by the ancients for purposes of embroidery. It was made by a process of hammering and dividing. The earliest wire making by drawing rods through holes without the aid of the hammer, was first practiced, so far as known, at Augsburg and Nuremberg about the middle of the fourteenth century. Wire is known in the trade by number, according to its diameter. A number twelve piano wire is 0.029 inch in diameter. A well made steel wire has wonderful strength. The number twelve wire mentioned is able to support a weight of 225 pounds, equivalent to 1,000 tons per square inch of section. Wire is now applied to many uses. In the United States alone about half a million tons are converted annually into wire nails. Wire is used in the construction of cables and of ropes requiring great strength where flexibility is not necessary. Suspension bridges are hung on wire cables. An immense amount of steel, copper, and aluminum wire is used to transmit electricity. Since the Civil War, wire, both barbed and smooth, has taken the place very largely of wooden fencing. There are in the United States alone 597 wire-making establishments, having an annual output valued at nearly $20,000,000. Stated in terms of weight, the annual output of the American mills (1905) is not far from 2,000,000 tons a year. It is stated that out of every ten pounds of steel produced one pound is made into wire.
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
In order that a wire may be drawn, it is necessary that the metal should be ductile. Gold, silver, steel, iron, copper, and their several compounds have this property. Iron is prepared by heating the rods and re-rolling down to a size suitable for the draw-plate, consisting of an oblong piece of hard steel pierced with conical holes, progressively smaller and smaller. the pointed end of the metal, being passed through one of them, is forcibly withdrawn by strong pincers, or by means of a reel which contains the wire to be drawn, from which it is forcibly unwound by a conical drum having a hook to receive the previously reduced end of the wire after it has been passed through the draw-plate. The drum is made to revolve by suitable machinery. For some very fine and accurate purposes jewelled holes are prepared in the plates consisting of rubies and similar hard stones. See TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WIRE.