The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-07-23
FROM MULES BACK
Device 10 be Tried at American Lake
May Revolutionize communities
ton.

tloH.
Seattle. July 23.-Commuication
on the battlefield will be revolution
lied by new wireless telegraph Kit,
which will be tried for the first time
in the west at American lake in Au-
gust Complete wireless Instruments
are to be carried on the back of
two mules. The device has been per-
fected to such degree that opera
tors can begin sending messages
within half a minute from the time
the mules are stopped and the pack
ers begin to unload the outfit.
The device is to be tried under the
personal direction of Col. Richard E.
Thompson of Seattle, the chief signal
officer of the department of the Col
umbia The kit consists of receivers,
transformers, and one-eighth kilo-
watt generator. There is also a small
telescope pole, which by means of
hidden springs can be erected to a
heighth of sixty feet in the air, with
all the necessary wires and applian-
ces connected in the fraction of
minute.
The difficulty found in the device
in previous trials has been that it
was not powerful enough to send or
receive messages for distance great
er than eight or ten miles. New
methods and slight changes will be
tried at the American Lake encamp-
ment, and it is hoped that the COM
municating distance can be increas-
ed to fifteen miles.
Two signal corps men and pack
er accompany each outfit. The de-
vice is so carefully planned and the
men so thoroughly trained that in
one eastern trial the operator began
to send messages in fifteen seconds
from the time the mule halted. These
trials have all been made in the east.
At each big maneuver encampment
some problem is given to the signal
corps men and the perfecting of this
device has been assigned to the men
at American Lake. In the big eastern
camps this year the balloon and
automobile problems are to be work
ed out.
A signal corps company of rs men
and three offlcers is to come from
San Francisco tomorrow to make ar
rangements for telephone and tele-
graph services on the ground. A
switchboard is to be installed in the
headquarters tent, and telephone in
struments will bring into communi-
cation every regiment, the quarter
department, the hospital the engi-
neers and the signal corps.
A telegraph station, to be operated
in connection with a Western Union
wire. has already been established at
Murray.
At no time during the maneuvers
will the different regiments be out
of communication with each other,
If the plans of the signal corps are
successfully worked out Even when
marching, the signal corps men will
be expected to have all organizations
connected. In addition to the wire
less outfits ground wires will be laid
over the entire grounds. Wherever
there are fence wires these will be
utilized. The steel rails of the North
ern Pacific and Of the electric lines
will also be utilized for telegraph
ing wherever available.
Every man of the IS in the COM
pany is good either as an electrician,
an operator or a lineman. The work
will be carefully mapped out in adj
vance, and each man will have some
certain line. Some will be assigned
to the wireless work, others to the
telephone and others to the tele-
graph. Certain men will be assigned
also, to each detachment of soldiers
in the field.
The officers and non-commissioned
officers of company A, signal corps
National Guard of Washington, will
be CHARTERED with the regular signal
corps company, and will gain the
benefit Of this training.