The San Francisco call., 1908-07-09
PHONE MAGNATE
BARS WIRELESS
/. FROM STANFORD
Trustee Hopkins Orders Experi-
menter From Laboratory
When Voices Sound
Stock Holder in Commercial
System Resents SOrdid
Spirit of Worker
Brave Professor Comes to Aid
of Young Scientist With
Offer of Barn

When advancement of learning leads
to sordid gain should it be frowned
upon by university? Trustee limo
thy Hokins of Stanford, the temporary
business manager of the institution
while Treasurer Charles G. Lathrop is
away, has answered this question en-
phatically in the affirmative by with
holding the privileges of the labora-
tories from brilliant young graduate
of the cardinal institution, who has
lately developed some startling i'm.
provements in wireless telephony.
Dr.tC. D. Marx, head of the depart
ment of civil engineering and mem
Der of the commission of engineers. en-
gagged in the rebuilding of the uni
versity. has answered the question just
as emphatically in the negative by in
stalIing the apparatus of the young in
ventor in his spacious barn, where it
is said that the system has proven so
successful that the professors live
stock have been driven into a panic of
fear by the mysterious voices in the
loft of their home.
Is HEAVY STOCK HOLDER
Friends of c. F. Elwell. the inventor
in the case, have been unkind enough to
suggest that Hopkins was moved to is
sue his ukase by the fact that he is
heavy stock holder and member of
the executive board of the Pacific States
telephone and telegraph company They
point to the significant fact that the ap-
paratus on the big steel tower of the
h,,iI dsy1c al fn
remain undisturbed as long as the uni
versity authorities believed that it was
there to catch dots and dashes and not
vocal sounds.
? Elwen has become well known for his
original work in electrical engineering
and long before his graduation he was
made an assistant in that department at
Stanford. Last year his work attracted
the attention of the men who are trying
to sell a wireless telephone system to
the government, and the young engineer
was appointed TO conduct experiments
for the company on this coast. The
hackers of the enterprise supplied him
with $4,000 worth of apparatus, and
while college was still open he used
this in conjunction with the electrical
and chemical laboratories Of the univer-
sity.
OVERLOOK PHONE SIDE
AS soon as Stanford closed for the
summer he applied TO Hopkins for the
privilege OF using the laboratories dur
ing the vacation period, and 1t is said
that the business manager, still labor
ing under the delusion that the expert
ments were concerned with wireless
telegraphy alone, granted the required
permission without question.
The secret was well kept for time.
but the voices in the tower swore at
central one day, and Hopkins must
have been passing at the time. for the
inventor was summoned to his office
and ordered to remove himself and his
apparatus from the campus
Asked for a reason for this order. the
business manager declared that the pro-
ject was purely commercial affair, and
as such should be given neither the aid
nor the sanction of the university.
With no place to take his expensive ap-
paratus, Elwell was in despair until
Marx came forward with his offer of a
refuge.