The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-21
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.
The Retired Operator Has a Burst of
Confidence.

The Retired Operator Has Burst of
Confidence.
Great Falls, May 2O-Some readers
| OF this column may recall the scheme
advanced by the retired telegraph oper-
ator for the production of all kinds of
writing, fiction, scientific, philosophical,
all kinds, without mental wear and
tear by the mere Geographic transla-
ton of the clatter of a typewriting ma
chine. That idea was advanced over
year ago and the originator had nearly
completed his method and was about to
seek capital and contracts with the
newspaper syndicates when the war
broke out. That killed the whole thing.
There were SO many heroes who We're
anxious to make their heroism perma-
nent by photographed sketches in
the magazines that writing, save from
these sources, became almost a drug
in the market, and the r. I. O. threw
UP his idea in disgust.
l. The other day he came into the Stan
dard office for one of his occasional
chats, and the conversation turned
upon the new system Of wireless tel
egraphy lately perfected by Mareoni.
The r. 7. o. had been reading the
newspaper accounts of the experiment
very carefully, for it interested him.
Its going to be all right" said he.
There is no doubt of its final success
VI I'll ItS Dul tIlS 1Qea which
some people have that it will drive all
of the old companies, with their thous-
ands of miles of wires, out of the BUSH
ness is all rot. Did the electric light
kill the profit in gas plants or the cleo
trio street railway and the motor wag-
ons put an end. to the demand for
horses? When the telephone for long
distance communication was put in. ev-
cry one said the man with the Morse
alphabet at his fingers ends had better
apply for Hello, CENTRAL job, but he
didn't do it and he won't have to right
away either. Then they got up the ma
chine where the man at one end sits
down to piano and plays a selection,
Chopin Nocturne without notes or
tones, and it comes out a two column,
double loaded murder story at the other
end all ready for the compositor, and
again the dot and dash man was to
hunt another job. Again the wise peo-
pie were fooled, and all of the other
new inventions have fooled the croak-
ers. The old boy with the paralyzed
finger tips stays right by his ticker
and will to the end of his days. The
Marconi system won't phase him or his
company a little bit
by the way, did it ever occur to you
that telegraphy, and all other kinds of
electrical devices SO far as that goes,
is only the practical use of an an
it is divided house, and when you
| separate the elements and send them
out in different directions they merely
hustle to get back to have the squabble
out again. like the parties to a tene-
ment house scrap. Now, there is moth
ing save our own thick heads to pre-
vent the use in communication over
long distances of every strong feeling,
every antipathy to which humanity is
subject. If one could focalize the ha-
tired which exists between two sraelite
merchants in the same line of business
on the same street and lead it onto
the wire, he could send messages with
it. Had some one solved this problem
in practical way, General Eagan's
hatred of General Miles could have
served to wire his dirty talk to every
newspaper in the land without the ex-
penditure Of cent for blue vitriol.
Reeds meeting with Mckinley on
Jekyll island is another instance of it,
and in fact there is no end to them,
but it will take greater man than
Marconi to find the secret.
While that is meant in all serious
ness, neither you nor | will live to see
the day. But we will live to see the
Marconi system in active operation. I
suppose they will find it has just the
same little weaknesses as the wire
Perhaps it will develop some new ones
and it may not have all of the old ones
Did you know that this northern lati
tude is the worst in the world for tel
esraphy? Well, it is. There is too
much electricity running around on
which the operator has no cinch and
which costs his company nothing ex-
cept for repairs. The electric storms
are bad enough, but they only last a
short time and don't cause one-tenth
the mischief that the northern lights
do. Back East we used to think that
the lights came only in the winter time
but out here have. noticed that they
are stronger in influence and more fire.
quent in summer The worst I ever
saw was in August. '94 I was working
up the line and one night had some
business with st. Paul. I caught the
line and after working for a minute
my current. For ~ minutes the wire
was as strong as a man could wish,
ana tnen II Went down and never came
up again that night. The next day I