The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-03
BY r. NJ. Larner.


Washington, July 1.-The closing of
the contract between the government
and the American De Forest Wirless
Telegraph Company this week, for
service in the West Indies and at
Panama, marks long step forward in
the history of this marvellous method
of communication and makes it pos
sible TO send a wireless message from
ship at sea off the New England
coast, through a chain of stations ex-
tending to Japan. China or the Philip
pines. This contract is especially no
table as the largest of its kind ever
executed, and the guarantee of the
company to maintain at an times COM
muncation, and under all atmospheric
conditions, between stations 1000
miles apart gives assurance that OBJ
stacles which have hitherto stood in
the path of progress in the successful
application of this invention or dis
covery to the commercial needs of the
world, have at least been surmount-
ed.
The new circuit will be from Key
West to Panama, Porto Rico to Key
West Souts Cuban coast to Panama,
Pensacola to Key West and South
Cuba to Porto Rico, distances of from
$50 to 1000 miles. Between the points,
large bodies of land intervene, and the
currents cross and recross each other
so that under such conditions the sue
cessful maintenance of communication
between the stations will demonstrate,
beyond cavil of doubt, the ability of
the De Forest instruments to operate
under any and all conditions.
The Wei Hal Wei station.
Like the wire telegraph the wireless
owes much to the government which
was quick to realize the benefits to be
derived from it's success. The Wei
Hal Wei station, which has been in
successful operation for five months,
has been repeatedly utilized in the
transmission of intelligence of the
progress of the war in the Far East
when other means of communication
would have been entirely without avail
The equipment of the Japanese ships
for wireless biography has enabled
them to keep in close communication
with each other and with their home
ports and governments, ana the infor-
nation thus conveyed has been directly
responsible for some of the most tell
ing blows struck by Admiral Togo.
The tremendous disadvantage at which
the Russians have thus been placed is
too obvious to require comment.
A Necessity for the Navy.
TIC nav al ailu war dulIOIllleS OF the
United States had no mind to be caught
in a similar trap and the strategic
Importance of the American possess
sions in the East Indies and at Pana-
ma made it a paramount necessity
that at the earliest possible moment
means of wireless communication
should be established there OF
scarcely secondary Importance was the
requisite that the possibility of the
int att, -
other nations, or of intermediary sta
tons not controlled by this govern
ment should be absolutely obViated.
With the greatest care the government
experts conducted most rigid tests and
reported that the De Forest system
already executing government con-
tracts on a smaller scale, was the one
which offered the best service, al
though its terms were higher than
those of other companies. During the
tests which extended over a period
of several months. seven wireless sta
tions were in simultaneous operation
in the same magnetic field and yet long
messages were successfully transmitted
and received.
SyntOnic AerOEraphy.
This achievement, regarded by the
government experts as the greatest in
the history of the science, was posi-
bic only by the utilization of "Sys-
tonic typography in which the De
Forest attuning apparatus is employed.
IT is source of pardonable patriotic
pride that this remarkable instrument
is the product of the inventive genius
of Lee De Forest of Yale, young
American, who has been responsible
for so much of the wonderful progress
made in wireless work within the past
ten years. In the war maneuvers of
1902. and again in 1908, the govern
ment experts reported that this was
the only system that operated under
all the difficulties attendant on the