Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-08
'AEROGRAMS'
TRAVEL FAR
WIRELESS TELEGRAPH EXPERT
INTERVIEWED
GIVES ILLUSTRATIONS OF NEW
METHODS
Exneots 70 Be In Constant COMMUNE
cation with Battleshlp Fleet
While II Is in Maada-
lena Bay

Many people have doubtless Won
dered at the long pole on top or the
Paeitfc Electric building at Sixth and
Main streets. Tt is the United wireless
telegraph company station, and the
company not only controls that put
about all the wireless biography IN
the United States.
TT Fl. Stowe and his assistant, Rece,
are in charge of the local office, room
642. Pacific Electric building, WINE
II. L. BIeakney has the practical work
in his charge for all of Southern Cali
fornia.
At the head Offices of this company
is g. G, Wilson. a we'll known business
man. whose headquarters are at AZ
Broadway, New York city.
The local branch of this vast COM
many is interesting. Up the elevator 10
the ninth floor of the great Paclilc
Electric building and then out on the
roof. where the 150-foot pole OF tne
wireless points skyward, is found the
little station" where the receiving ana
transmitting apparatus is contained
while inside that, regulating the ma
chinery, are Mr.. Bleakney and his OPP
erafor. Gurdon Parker. an old time
Western Union operator.
Specially Arranged WiFes
"Our aerials," said Mr.. Bleakney,
''are those topped wires suspended from
the huge pole at an angle OF 40 de-
grees. entering our office here. Usually
they are placed in ran shape, pul
they are more conveniently placed tllls
wav for buildings. That is q 150-foot
pole from which they are connected.
eft is from these aerials that we get
the name for our messages, which are
called aerograms."
A blue, smudgy line, curV1ng up over
the horizon. is pointed out as Catalina
always clearer on a gray day tnah
on n sunny one, it is said. The COM
many has a station there, located above
the Grand View hotel, Avalon.
"There are two bills pending in con-
gress which are of the greatest inter.
EST to the United Wireless company. .
explained Mr.. Bleakney zone is aimed
at preventing the interference by pri-
vate parties with the commercial com
NAMES doing wireless telegraph busl-
ness.
"Another is a law compelling all pas
senger steamers to be fitted out with
wireless apparatus.
Proposed Laws OF Value
"Now YOU will see of how much i'm
nortance those two measures are to us
when YOU recol1ect the extent of our
business We reach from the Atlantlc
IN fine Pacific with our stations and
north and south from Canada to Mex
leo. as we'll as into Alaska. we nave
practically the entire field within that
territory-United States. We expect
soon to be operating a station in san
Diego. i.
"Resides this we have 95 per cent of
the United States warships fitted out
with the United Wireless apparatus,
while we have numerous private steam
ers For instance, on the Pacific coast
we have the Matson line equipped with
our instruments. Those steamers run
from San Francisco to Honolulu The
wireless telephone in Admiral Evans
cabin on the flagship Connecticut-her
call in our code is D Cts the invention
of DIR. Lee DeForest who also is the
inventor of the other wireless phones
used on the fleet and patented by US.
Then this expert in electricity. who
is chauffeur of mechanism which pull
safes through the air culling messages
from the decks of steamers hundred
miles away or from cities hull down
on the horizon" went on to explain the.
workings of the station for the benefit
of 1.-The man in the street
Register Ether Waves Only
sour Instruments register electro
magnetic waves only, or ether waves,
as they are called. These impulses
travel at the rate of $4,000 miles per
second. the same as light travels.
"Our power in the station on the
roof here is 40 volts alternating cur
rent. the same as used for electric
lights in offices.
This current is run through a step
up transformer and from that to con-
densers through the helix, which de-
termines the wave force transmitted
by arrangement of clips placed there
on, to the aerials-those wire loops
seen suspended from the high pole Wis
ible from the street. 1t is the Leyden
Jars which give the current the wave
motion, or oscillation, which determine
the wave force transmitted.
"And this is the measure by which
we regulate the tuning for the different
stations and ships. For we must get
our instruments in tune with the ship
or station from which we wish to get
a message or to which we wish to
send one.
"This station is of two kilowatt ca
pacity, while the one l was with at
Denver, operated by the United Wire
less company was of forty kilowatt
capacity.
STATION is NOISY
1.-THE noise made in this station is
nothing compared to the racket in the
Denver station when a message was
being sent. One of the static waves
from the latter was felt a hundred feet
away by a woman who felt queer
sensation where her hatpin touched her
head.
"There is no limit to the carrying
capacity of our instruments when they
are in perfect attunement.
AT Denver ] used to get messages
from Galveston, 1900 land miles distant.
and also from boats in the gulf Of
Mexico, while I also got some from
Key West Fla, only ninety miles from
Havana Cuba. Our New York office at
AZ Broadway is in daily communication
with ships en- route from New York to
cuba and Porto Rico
II have here a message received by
our station at Russian hill, San Fran
cisco from the steamer Enterprise.
which reads: 'On board steamship En-
terprise, p. m: We are 900 miles from
San Francisco. Weather calm all the
way. All Well
THAT. is but one of many.
by means of our tuner we are
able to cut out any number of stations,
thereby eliminating any Interference.
Reaches MsgdaIena Bay
THE other day-Thursday it VAST
was in communication with boats in
Magdalena bay where the battleship
fleet will be in a short time. We ex
pect. by the way, to be in constant
touch with that fleet when il arrives
within our zone of communication We
have calls for ninety-seven warshins
in the United States navy, so that We