Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-10-01
BOY WIZARDS FEAT !
lnyents Device to Catch Wireless
Telephone Messages.
VOICES FROM AFFAIR HEARD.

Twelve ear-o old Youngstsr Arnaxes
Electricians BY His Receiving Box
contrivanee 20 Reproduce Words. I
Worked II Out Alone on Hotel Roof.
William q. D. Stokes, Jr., twelve
years old, son Of the proprietor Of an
apartment hotel In New York city, has
3astounded experts in wireless trans u
mission Of messages by electrical en-
1ergy by designing what he calls ire 4
iceivfng box His contrivance not
only catches dispatches sent in the or !
binary code used by the Marconi and
De Forest systems. but reproduces the
swordstand sounds of wireless telephony
inHvolume deep enough to be- heard at I
a distance Of four feet from the ap-
yparatus. i5E
( Working alone and concealing the
the boy stuck to the completion Of his /
task all Of 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 Il
the lr0of to his fathers Office on the
sixteenth floor. shouting:
Come up, popl Come up! She's
talking all right! Come and listen!''
Stokes senior had indnlged 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 a I
dynamo In the dynamo room Of the
building. The father had heard the
click Of thes dot and dash snatcheds
from the. air, which was mot entirely
new. but he was wholly unprepared,
says the New York World, for the h
demonstration that greeted him when
he was called to the roof BY the. eager
youngster. ..E j, n a5ssis
Just wait a minute" exclaimed W.
e. D. junior as he opened square re-
ceptacle and turned q lever. Instant
" there came the sound OF a human
voice with ametallic twang. ss &.
''Do you catch my signal n were the
words. rs thatsright2 Say &.
There was a break and an indistinct
buzz on the wire. The young inventor
moved his lever the fraction ~, an
inch. sys, Il "a sis II III is n 81
!, II won't stand for thls,'' was the
message roared out You go to that
firehouse and see IL you can't get a bet.
ter connection, .3:'
The elder Stokes was speechlesss
with establishment There was no I'm
dication of where the messages came
from The Sdrst was presumed to bass
from Philadelphia. where secret ex@
periments are being made in wireless
teleph onlng 70 connect with the tower
Of the Metropolitan Life building III
New York city. This supposition was
borne ont BY another message that
came when the lever was moved back
to the point It first covered. !. The tone
and infection Of the voice were the
same: 81 II G5, .'s,5 $SS5
\ "Mr. Polliton, don't you get me7
What's the matter, Mr.. PolIiton m
"Do you understand that, pop?'
asked the boy. ut sounds like Mr..
PolIiton, because the conditions are
not good. TIL tell you what he Is stry-s5
ing to say. 1t Is Metropo litan.. They
are trying to call Metropolitan. Here
Is another" AXIS sa3 i is.ss
The delicate metal guide was shifted
again. and q clear high baritone called:
ut win be fifteen Thousand on ma
chinery- fifteen thousand burr. burr.
Brant Rock, Boston and then silence.
Once more the lever was turned. and
IA wailing voice broke In: z$t3s
oh, that sauerkraut was tough! No
more for me. This isn't the time for
sauerkraut not on your Il fs y 81 3f "
Then came agments OF rollicking
chorus, a deep bass recitation and e.
series of words and phrases in high
and low key, just as the apparatus
was attuned BY the shifting Of the
lever TO seize and reproduce the dying
sounds ss iS 4s IN lis
The young inventor has figured ont
that the clear and distinct words enuns
ciated through the receiving box come
either from Philadelphia or from
| within 100 miles OF New York and that
the sounds OF lesser clarity are pro-
! jected from Boston or thereabouts.
The weaker sounds, he calculates, by
comparative reasoning must come aa
distance Of from 700 to 1000 miles.
He has mot attempted to design sa
4 transmitter to- send wireless teiephonsc
messages but lie can transmit the or
binary telegraphic code and capture
4 messages on the wing as well as an
/ expert. Ell
| The boy has thought out and design,
led the apparatus without help He has
been a student De electrical science
since he was ten years old. He ID ID
pupil Of d school In New York and III
common with other boys OF his own
age and older has had object lessons
in#mechanical devices In visits OF the
class to industrial establishments. The
only branch that interested him was
electricity. and In that he has display
ed precocity which one OF the lead-
II 10 aYnorfu n, vvi7nlnss tale e.o ,,l,xv uss,n