Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-30
WIRELESS TELEGRAPH
To Connect Fort Washington
and T2r. Myer.
NOT WORKING AS YET
MESSAGES ARE SENT FROM NAVY
YARD TO ANNAPOLIS.
Description Of the Apparatus at Former
Station-Scientists Believe
It Practical.


rear Of the Commandments office. at the
navy yard. stands tall pole. and from
the pole run thin wires which terminate
in a little building formerly used as a
scale house. This is the Washington end
Of the naval wireless telegraph system,
over which messages are sent with more
or less success to the Naval Academy at
Annapolis. The signal corps OF the army
is also trying to harness the electric cur
rents in the air, and stations have been
established at Fort Washington. Nd, and
at Fort Myer. on the Virginia hills. be-
yond Georgetown. 1t is proposed to hold
communication from one army post to the
other by the wireless telegraph.
The station at Fort Washington has been
established in the sally-port of the old dis
used stone fort. Above it's gray walls a
pole has been erected sixty feet high. and
from an arm swinging at its top run three
wires. These wires end in the Instruments
on the operators table in the room below.
In charge of Sergt. Peters of the Signal
Corps.
The system used is that Of Prof. Fessen-
den, and the equipment of the stations at
Fort Washington and Fort Myer Is as
complete as science and present knowl-
edge of wireless telegraphy can make It..
In the little room on the left-hand side OF
the sally-port are the Instruments, which
are MUCH more complicated IMAM IQOS6 OI
the ordinary telegraph station.
Sending a Message.
In the sending machine q regular telegraph
key, is used. A powerful Rumkoff coil, to
charge which eighteen storage cells are
used, causes an electric spark to jump from
one point to the other Of copper wire held
about one inch apart. These sparks are
made long or short, quick or slow, as the
TOW ov,fD ,1,&1 fDrv
letters of the Morse alphabet. These dots
and dashes of lightning are supposed to go
to the end of the wire on the pole, them
launching themselves into space, find their
way to the receiving instrument at Fort
Myer.
When the message comes in, little bell
rings to warn the operator of its presence,
and using an ordinary telephone receiver,
he notes the dots and dashes and writes
out the message. This is in theory, for the
Forts Washington-Myer system has not yet
been made to work.
The station at Fort Washington has been
in operation for about ten days. but be-
yond getting a few signals, single letters
from Fort Myer, no intelligent communica-
ton has been established, though the Off
GERS and men of the Signal Corps spend sew
eral hours each day working over it.
The trouble with the army system Is, as
one Of the electricians stated to Star re-
porter, in the receiving instruments. They
are so delicately adjusted that the force of
the sound waves have strength enough to
break them, and the scientists have not
been able to overcome this difficulty. If
they make the mechanism Of the receiving
machine stronger, 1t is too strong to be set
in vibration by the sound waves, and they
are now trying to strike the happy me-
dunn
There is strong undercurrent of opin-
ion among the signal corps that there may
be something in wireless biography, but
as yet nothing has been accomplished to
show that If ha of
ate commercial value. 1t is yet scientific
toy, they say, which has not been confined
to fixed rules, but which may become So
and it is only matter of time, they be-
lieve, before 1t will be as well understood
as is the wire telegraph of today.
A School CONSTRUCTION.
The stations at Fort Myer and Fort
Washington were built primarily as a
school Of instruction for the men Of the
signal corps in wireless biography, but it
is proposed to use the line in the ordinary
business between the posts and If the sys-
tenn Is a success it Will eventually be es-
tablished at Fort Hunt also.
The system was established at Fort
Washington by Sergt. Peters, under the
direction of Capt. Wildman of the signal
corps. The sergeant has had long exper-
fence in electrical work and equipped and
operated one Of the first wireless systems
in use in the country between two army
posts in San francisco bay about four
miles apart. Here messages were sent and
received daily with clearness and without
trouble.
That the newly established stations will
be able to exchange messages sooner or
later there is no doubt. The best minds in
the Signal Corps of the army are working
on the problem, but as yet it is not great
success.
Within the past month Fort WASHINGTON
has been equipped with complete tele-
phone service. Communication has been
had between the fort and this CITY. but
new phones have been put in in all the
offices about the fort.