The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-12-06
MARCONI'S SYSTEM.
Congress Will Be Asked to Make an
Appropriation.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19.-Rear Adj
miral Bradford says he will ask Con-
gress to authorize a further trial of the
Marconi system under conditions of
actual practice in the navy. While the
system has it's shortcomings, and in
the tests on the New York and the
Massachusetts at sea operated disap-
pointingly in comparison with all that
naval officers had been led to expect
from accounts of its success abroad
and at the yacht races, it certainly
demonstrated its great value as an
auxiliary equipment to warships in
squadron work and as a means of ex-
tending the outer line of defence many
miles beyond the ordinary limits of
vision at present utilized.
The members of the Naval Board
which conducted the trials were salts
fed that the skilful inventor will find
means speedily to overcome the mani
fest deficiencies in his apparatus, and
their opinion is shared by the higher
Naval Bureau officials, although the
army experts continue to be skeptical
regarding Marconi's methods and are
trying to find other solutions OF the
wireless telegraphy problem. While
Admiral Bradford is convinced that the
system as now operated will be grad
ually and in all probability rapidly i'm
proved, he is reasonably satisfied that
even i'll its present condition it ought
TO be installed on large number of
vessels, where it's value would be in
disputable in maintaining free COM
munication between Warships in prox
unity TO each other. though too far
apart to communicate readily by WIS.,
ible signals. Marconi's proposition to
the Navy Department involves an adj
vance payment of $4,000 and an an
nual royalty of at least $4,000 after the
first year. He stipulates that twenty
sets of apparatus for which he is to be
paid $500 for each set shall be taken,
and that a rental of $500 a year for
each set shall be paid as long as the
system is utilized He promises to give
to the navy the benefit of all the i'm
provements he makes, and to replace
the instruments by later patterns as
often as may be necessary for their
more efficient operation, but the navy
will have to pay for all repairs and
meet the actual cost of all changes.
The royalty portion of the contract
he proposes is similar to that of the
telephone rental plan. As no such
amount of money is available for meet
ing such expenses, the necessity arises
for submitting the matter to Congress.
THE SYSTEMS WORTH.
On the New massachusetts
cruising trials Marconi had two types
of apparatus. one representing mate
rial advances over the other. The IA
vorable report of the Trial Board was
based on the performance of the better
of these instruments, except where the
reverse has been specifically noted.
Among the weaknesses enumerated in
the boards conclusions were the fol-
lowing:
The greatest distance of communica-
ton with Navesink was five and one
half miles Communication may be
interrupted altogether when tall build
ings with iron framing intervene; the
rapidity is not greater than twelve
words a minute for skilled operators;
the shock from the sending coil may
be quite severe and even dangerous to
a person with weak heart; the send
ing instrument and wire would injuri-
ously affect a compass If placed near 1t,
and most important rational messages
are rendered impossible between two
stations if another station within their
influences sends unintelligible or dis
turbing signals. The liability TO acct
dent from lightning was not ascer-
tanned, nor was the effect of extreme
dampness fully determined
The most obvious. advantages of the
system as it now operates were as fol-
, lows:
Ships in squadron can signal in rain,
> fog, darkness and in heavy seaWay: