The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-09-07
WORK
TO Be DONE
MarconiSystem Not Yet
Finished.
MOUNTAINS INTERFERE
Manager Cross Explains Why the
Wireless Telegraph Line
Is Incomplete.

by the First of Observation-Disclosures
were to have matchiess plant in OPP
Grafton by which jewellers in benighted
Hilo might order their marketing an
hour before the boat left Honolulu and
view the realities when the vessel ar
rived the next morning.
Is ii all pau?
These were some of the questions ask
ed Manager Cross of the Wireless Tele-
graph Company yesterday.
we need two things to perfect our
system in Hawaii" said Mr.. Cross.
First we need more money; then we
need time. We have worked hard since
we began the installation of the plant
and have not yet succeeded as we ex-
pected. But we will succeed surely and
those who are interested in our accom-
plishments must not despair. If the
wireless system fails here then it is a
failure all over the world and as it has
been proved all right elsewhere we have
right to look for success here.
The high mountains have interfered
with US. They have a condensing eff
feet on the electrical waves so that
while we receive the messages they are
not ineligible. Marconi has instru-
ments called screens which overcome
this difficulty, but his experts did not
bring them to Hawaii.
I'VE have sent for them and they are
on the way now. My original idea was
to erect stations on both sides of each
channel about the Islands and had we
done this we would have been success
full already. 1 told Marconi this when
I saw him some months ago but he
thought that we could save money both
in the original plant and in the expense
of operation by having only the sta
lions which We have now. These are
at Kaimuki on this Island, at Makena,
on Maui at Maunalei, on Lanai. at the
! lighthouse on Molokai and at MANU-
kona, on Hawaii.
I'VE erected these stations and tried
to send messages. We found that they
were not plain and that the peculiar
/ effect of the mountains on the wave
n must be overcome. If the screens
which are coming should not effect
what we think they will, we will follow
my original plan of erecting poles or
both sides of the channels between the
Islands. 1t is true that the stockhold-
ers are discouraged. Many expected tC
company was Incorporated for $4,000
and fifteen per cent of this amount wa:
paid in. Then an assessment Of 20 pei
cent was levied, but has not all beer
paid Altogether about S12, 600 has beer
received by the company and We nee'
more. The stockholders who have no
paid the twenty per cent assessmen
should come to time at once as TIL
money Is wanted TO push on the work
The last issue of the Electrical
World and Engineer has a communica
ton from an expert which is pertinen
in the matter and as follows:
You had an editorial reference re
Gently to wireless biography, and
in commenting upon the situation
in China and South Africa suggest
ed that IL was time some use was
made OF wireless kilograms. II the
system was any good. you thought
it time that the advocates and in
ventOrs of wireless telegraphy were
. heard from and proved their claims.
: This is pertinent and just.
When Signor Marconi was in the
r United States last fall he had the
opportunity of testing his wireless
biography at the yacht races for
r. the america cup. and the success
obtained then in times of peace in
duced him 10 remark. I'D like to
try the system in war. His sec
ond visit 10 this country now comes
after an interval OF six months of
severe fighting in South Africa,
where his system OF wireless teleg-
raphy has been in use on land and
sea. The test in time of war has
proved even more interesting and
: important than in the international
yacht races off Sandy Hook.
A Signor Marconi did not go to
South Africa personally, but sew
d eral Of his assistants went there
with several outfits of wireless
telegraphy. and they operated in
=, conjunction with the fleet patrolling
IL the coast. They confined their at
tentiOn exclusively to sending mes
sages between the several warships
and between the fleet and the shore
A. Delagoa bay the British admira
sent messages a distance Of eighty
miles to the fleet off shore. The
British battleship Hannibal also
sent and received messages to and
r from the battleship Jupiter, wher
under way. over distance OF thir
- ty-two miles. One message wa.
- sentf0O miles, the greatest distanc'
[ successfully covered
While there were none of his as
sistants with the land forces il
| SOuth Africa, his system OF telegra
ply was used by Lord Roberts, an
modification OF it by Genera
Baden-Powell. Generals White
Butler and other English officer
did not take kindly to the new in
= vention, and instead of using tn
- instruments sent to them for a.
they were worth. they relied upoi
the old-time heIiograph. 1t wa
this prejudice against the new in
xr-ir ea1G4 rsa1s4 cr-1
ply so much in the backgroun
during the early stages Of the cam
paign. and 1t is possible that
would have received scant notice
= the South African campaign ha
not Lord Roberts assumed com
mand- He was not a kind TO kee
anything that would serve his pun
pose in the background simply be
cause it had never been tested
the past. Upon assuming comman
in South Africa he summoned
body OF wireless teIegrapherS an