Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-09-16
WIRELESS WAR NEWS.
Service Tn the Far East Mar
 vel In Science.
A FEAT OF THE NEW CENTURY.

The wireless telegraph service in the far east organized by the London Times is described by a correspondent recounting the various obstacles that had to be overcome before the details of the system could be perfected the correspondent says in effect:
 "The splendid efficiency of the De Forest system, the invention of an American, used throughout the period of the press boat Haimun's activity, was demonstrated by the frequent dispatch messages 75, 100, 150 and POO miles over sea, sometimes with stretches of land intervening. The longest distance through which mes sage was> successfully sent was 21O nautical miles from point outside Chemulpo, when the distance was bro- ken by the islands of the Prince Im- perial archipelago. A small portion of this message was not ineligible, due to the fact that at the moment of send ing a British war vessel was entering Chemulpho and using wireless arrange ments actually as 1t was passing with in cables length of the Haimun. The near proximity of this rival machine destroyed for moment one of the most sensitive parts of the apparatus, and some twenty five words were bun gled."
 Of an important development of this period the correspondent adds:
 "Our apparatus was now working so well that we were beginning to make other uses of 1t than merely for trans mitting news from the theater of the sea operations. We were now able to receive both Russian and Japanese messages. These messages, of course, came in cipher, and as we possessed no key it was impossible for us to make any improper uses of messages thus received, but we could easily rec ognize the difference in the systems employed, and by this means and here another very important thing in favor of our system was proved-we were able approximately to tell the distance we were from the various ships. More over, our operator, who was extremely expert, began to recognize the notes of various ships that is to say, he could tell if a Russian ship was at sea by listening for the answering communi- cation from the shore.
 He could also detect whether the mitted by relay to the naval base or whether the fleet itself was at sea. This, of course, was to us possibly of more value than if we had been able to decipher the actual messages sent, and during the period that the Haimun was in operation during April our most successful issues resulted from care full listening for the wireless telegra- phy of the opposing fleets. We lis- tened and came to conclusions which invariably correctly guided us in our movements.
 "For instance, if for space of six Iutely silent we knew that Togo had taken to the sea, for invariably when he entered upon some enterprise for the time being all wireless communf- cation ceased This being the case, we knew exactly what course to steer.
 ''The Haimun was near spectator of the late Admiral Makaroff's sortie from Port Arthur April 12, when the Russian feet after hot running fight, was forced to double on its course and take refuge in Port Arthur. The dis patch steamship made hazardous dash through the tortuous entrance to Chemulpo late on April Il, and in the morning found itself trailing Admiral Togo's squadron in its dash toward Port Arthur, a wireless message hav- ing informed the admiral of the Rus sian sortie. The story of that running fight, as reported from the Haimun, over 15O nautical miles, was received in London, New York and Philadel- phia eight hours ahead of any other news of the fight. The report would have been absolutely exclusive but for the fact that the British sloop Espie gle, returning to Weihaiwei after win tering at Newchwang, passed Port Ar thur on the morning of the battle, and her officers gave meager accounts to correspondents at WeihaiWei.
 Of the experiences on board the Hai- nun on that occasion the correspond ent says:
 'It may be readily understood that we were very careful not to use our wireless telegraphy until the battle ships themselves were engaged with the Port Arthur batteries. The reason for this is obvious If we had com menced to send news of the position of the rival fleets we should have at once interfered with the wireless telegraphy of both belligerents. This would cer- tainly have been an unfriendly act, but, although we did not use our own instruments for sending, we listened attentively.
 'The Russians were hard at work. They were just repeating the alphabet over and over again in order to queer the Japanese recording instruments.
 ."In fact, am not sure it was not the constant use made by the Russians of their shore stations that prevented To- go from coming up in time to catch Makaroff's squadron outside. There is some discrepancy in the times given when the Japanese decoy squadron sent its messages to Togo and when Maka- rolf decided that he was too far out at
 sea and reshaped his course toward
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