Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-19
FEATS OF TELECRAPHY
Great Progress In Wireless
 Work by Signal Corps.
KITES AND BALLOONS ARE USED

Details of One Company's Experi-
 ments at Fort Leavenworth, In
 Kansas - First Messages Were Re-
 ceivcd From Kansas City, Then St.
 Louis, Chicago and Then From Gulf
 of Mexico-Tests to Explode Mines.
 The signal corps of the United States army, the least known to the public and the least spectacular, has stepped into prominence, and its work is being heralded throughout the country be- cause of the remarkable progress in wireless telegraphy by one company stationed at Fort Leavenworth, says a New York Herald correspondent. A few men of this company, under the direction of Captain William Mitchell, are making wireless experiments.
 While Major George Squier, chief of the signal school for officers, and Cap tain Mitchell were flying kites seven feet high and five feet broad, connected with wireless instrument, they inter- cepted a message sent from President Roosevelt on board the West Virginia going from New Orleans to Washing ton. 2, ,250 miles from Fort Leavenworth.
 The wireless operators caught mes sage the same evening from Il young woman on the Concho of the Mallory line in the gulf of Mexico. It was in tended for the wireless receiving sta ton in Galveston, Tex, and was to be forwarded fror there to Austin.
 Their greatest feat was intercepting a message from the Standard Oil com pany steamship Maverick, sent when that vessel was off the coast of Porto Rico The signal corps men would not believe they had intercepted message from so great distance until they had written to New York and learned that such dispatch had been sent.
 When wireless telegraphy experi- ments were begun in the signal corps the officers knew practically nothing of it. They received instruments, both receiving and transmitting, and began work Captain Mitchell rigged up sev- eral telephone wires in front of the company's barracks running up to the roof, but soon learned that the main thing was to get the wires higher into the air. Stations were built on the high hills surrounding the fort, and messages were received from as far as Parkville, Mo-, fifteen miles distant. Two stations were necessary to com municate with the De Forest station, in Kansas City, Mo.
 A pole was constructed later that could be taken down and loaded into a wagon, but this was not satisfactory. Sergeant King of Company A then be gan experimenting with kites. These were made of Japanese silk stitched to bamboo frames seven feet high and five feet broad The whole weight of such a kite is less than two pounds. The kites are used singly or in pairs, or three together, in proportion to the wind. In five or six mile wind one or two kites are used. They can be used in a wind of only two miles an hour and will elevate the buzzer wire to any height desired.
 The difficult feature of the new ap- paratus was to obtain wire light enough to be raised in the air to trans init the wireless waves successfully and under all conditions. Wire weigh ing only six pounds to the mile was tried with success When there is no wind small balloons are used. After kites were used messages were re- ceived from Kansas City, later from St. Louis, then from Chicago; later still from the gulf of Mexico, and now the officers place no limit upon the dis tance. especially since message was intercepted from Porto Rico.
 Cities having wireless stations have towers of steel and apparatus costing thousands of dollars. At Fort Leaven- worth the entire wireless apparatus is carried upon the back of an army mule
 Experiments at Fort Leavenworth are confined to what is called field work-that is, with portable apparatus for what practical use the army corps can make of wireless messages in time of war will be dependent upon their ability to set up their stations wherever they may chance to be. Un- til few weeks ago it required three wagons and eighteen mules to carry the signaling apparatus. Now, after much experimenting, Captain Mitchell has perfected the arrangement which permits 1t to be carried upon a mule.
 Company A is equipped for establish Ing lines of information, such as tele- graph and telephone lines, with an. ar my in the field. Heliographs, aceylens night lights, rockets. bombs and all similar appliances for communication depend for their successful operation on wires. light or favorable conditions of the weather. The heliograph re- quires the sun. and in heavy fogs the lamps and rockets are useless. The company is now equipped with pack train. field train and an automobile. It has wagons to carry twenty-five miles of wire and two complete telegraphing outfits. The field train of the company can keep up with an army marching fifteen miles a day.
 At present the members of the com Dany are experimenting on q plan to explode mines by wireless apparatus. The firing of mines by a direct electric wire connection is old and easy to do. but to explode one a long distance