The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-03-23
Point Iona, Calf, Opera
tor Talks Regarding
Receiving Wireless
Message.
WHICH WAS BEING SENT FROM
PENSACOLA TO THE BATTLE.
SHIP CONNECTICUT = ATMos-
PHERIc CONDITIONS PLAYED
PROMINENT PART.

The sending of a wireless mes
sage from the Pensacola navy yard
to Point Iona, Calf, which is the
worlds record in wireless work over
land, is still being discussed in
papers in all sections. The following
from Point Iona recently appeared
in the Los Angeles Examiner regard
ing the matter:
How was / able % hear the sig
nails from Pensacola and Washing
ton? Really, the one experience
would not justify an off-hand answer.
Atmospheric conditions, however, had
much to do with the feat.
This was the first response Of
Government Wireless Operator A. J..
MilliSon, TO a question from an Exam
liner reporter concerning his remark
able feat in long distance wireless
telegraphy ON Sunday night, last.
As was told in the Examiner at the
time, Operator Millison succeeded in
attuning his receiving instruments to
coincide with the signals being used
between Washington sd Pesacola,
and later heard the battleship Con-
necticut, then some 800 miles at sea
In the Atlantic, receive and respond
to messages repeated by the Pensa-
cola station.
To hear Pensacola alone would
have been remarkable performance
for the reason that the electric-mag-
netic wave must traverse atmos-
pheTes of varying density, over low.
lands and mountains Wireless teleg-
raphy over land always has been diff
fcult when long distances separated
,&o {xAa nd
mountains, scientists have explained,
are the causes for this. Numerous
| high-power electric circuits, running
to and fro in all directions. too, have
| initiated against the accomplish.
ment of long jumps by the tiny wire,
| less wave.
| Operator MilIison, however, like q
great many other practical working
wireless manipulators, has not &C
cepted in toto the dictum Of the scien.
lists He has had ideas of his own
and one of these ideas has been that
| atmospheric conditions had a great
i deal to do with the successful opera
ton of wireless apparatus. He has
maintained that, given propitious con.
ditions, there is practically no limit
to the possibilities of the wireless.
He believes, with a few other free
thinkers, that the wave seeks it OWL
level; with regard to the earths sur
face from the time 1t is sent pulsat
ing into the ether by the depression
of the sending key until it Is inter
cepted by the receiving station fol
which it is intended And the Pen
sacola- Washington Connecticut feat
Mr.. Millison declares. is a partial
proof of his assertions.
instruments Kept Secret.
II Adding to the success OF the pick
/ ing up of the far-distant signals
however are. new instruments-the
result of Mr.. Millison's own research
/ which have recently been installed
at Point Iona Owing TO navy regu
lations, these instruments may bs
only generally described Exact de
tails Of their construction may not BIZ
4 given out The methods employed By
the government in signalling by wire
less are as secret as are the dis
patches which are sent out to the
commanders of the various vessels
by the department heads at Washing
ton. A full report, covering not only
the remarkable feat of last Sunday
night, but every detail of the i'm
/ provement in the receiving instru
ment which contributed so largely II
its success, has been made to Com
m6nder II. C. Gearing, of the Mare
Island navy yard, who has charge Of
all the wireless stations on the Pa