New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-09-09
BOY WIZARDS FEAT,
lnvents Device to Catch Wireless
Telephone Messages.
VOICES FROM AFFAIR HEARD.


Twelve year old Youngster Amazes
Electricians by His Receiving Box"
Contrivance to Reproduce Words.
Worked It Out Alone on Hotel Roof.
William e. D. Stokes, Jr., twelve
years old. son of the proprietor of an
apartment hotel in New York city, has
astounded experts in wireless trans
mission of messages by electrical en-
ergy by designing what he calls ire
ceiying box" His continuance not
only catches dispatches sent in the or
binary code used by the Marconi and
De Forest systems, but reproduces the
words and sounds Of wireless telephony
in volume deep enough to be heard at
distance of four feet from the ap-
| paratus.
Working alone and concealing the
| secret of his invention from his father,
| the boy stuck to the completion Of bis
task all of a recent day and well into
the night. The next day about noon
he had perfected the last coil In the
mysterious ''box'' and ran down from
| the roof to his fathers Office on the
sixteenth floor, shouting:
"Come up, pop! Come up! She's
talking all right! Come and listen!'
Stokes senior had INDUCED his son
| for more than a year with electrical
devices of different characters and
had permitted him to string wires be-
| tween the two towers on the roof Of
the building and connect them with q
dynamo in the dynamo room of the
building. The father had heard the
click Of the dot and dash snatched
from the air, which was not entirely
new, but he was wholly unprepared,
says the New York World, for the
demonstration that greeted him when
he was called to the roof by the eager
youngster.
"Just wait minute" exclaimed w.
E. D. junior as he opened a square re-
ceptacle and turned lever. Instant
ly there came the sound of human
voice with a metallic twang.
'Do you catch my signal?" were the
words. SIS that right? Say
There was a break and an indistinct
buzz on the wire. The young inventor
moved his lever the fraction Of an
inch.
Il won't stand for this" was the
message roared out "You go to that
frehouse and see if you can't get bet
ter connection
The elder Stokes was speechless
dication Of where the messages came
from. The first was presumed to be
from Philadelphia, where secret ex-
periments are being made in wireless
telephoning to connect with the tower
of the Metropolitan Life building in
New York city. This superstition was
borne out by another message that
to the point it first covered. The tone
and infection Of the voice were the
same:
"Mr. Polliton, don't you get mel
What's the matter, Mr.. Pollitony'
do you understand that, pop? ?
asked the boy. TT sounds like Mr.
Polliton, because the conditions am
not good. I'll tell you what he is try
ing to say. It is Metropolitan. They
are trying to call Metropolitan. Herr
is another"
The delicate metal guide was SHIFTED
again, and clear, high baritone called
''It will be fifteen thousand on ma
chinery-ffteen thousand-burr, burr
Brant Rock, Boston''-and then silence
Once more the lever was turned, ant
a Wailing voice broke in:
'Oh, that sauerkraut was tough! n
more for me. This isn't the time TO
sauerkraut-not on your life"
Then came fragments Of a rollickin
chorus, deep bass recitation and
series of words and phrases in hig
s and low key, just as the apparatu
3 was attuned by the shifting Of th
e lever to seize and reproduce the fyin
i sounds.
d The young inventor has figured OF
j that the clear and distinct words enu1
1T ciated through the receiving box com
!" either from Philadelphia or frol
g within, 100 miles Of New York and ths
A. the sounds Of lesser clarity are pr
t. jected from Boston or thereabout
T. The weaker sounds, he calculates, b
comparative reasoning must come
i'd distance Of from 700 to 1000 mile
:, He has not attempted to design
80 transmitter to send wireless telephon
messages, but he can transmit the
binary Geographic code and captu1
messages on the wing as well as
expert.
The boy has thought out and desig
q ed the apparatus without help. He n
been student of electrical scien
OF since he was ten years old. He is.
pupil Of school in New York and
common with other boys of his oN
~ age and older has had object lesso7
- in mechanical devices in visits Of t
It, class to industrial establishments Tl