The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-10-20

More than two years have elapsed
since Honolulu was electrified early one
morning by the news that the big Pa
cific Mail steamship Manchuria was a
wreck on the rocks of Waimanalo Bay,
and that the captain had steamed his
vessel into that crescent shaped local
ity through installing Rabbit Island
and Makapuu Point for Koko Head.
When the Manchuria went on the rocks
it was at an early hour in the morn
ing and raining and the ominous warn
ings of the surf could not be heard on
the coral and lava bluffs seen through
the msts. The cry went up that a
great beacon was needed on Rabbit Is
land or Makapuu Point to warn mari
ners of the forbidding rocks there and
to cause them to go further south.
The army engineers office took up
the matter promptly and through per-
sonal effort by Captain Slattery and
Captain Orwell, both of the Engineer
Corps, U. S. A., and others, an appro-
priation was secured for lighthouse,
The engineers selected Makapuu Point
as the most favorable location, where
quarters for the keepers could be erect
ed and to which supplies could be taken
more easily than if the light was locat
ed on the island where, during stormy
weather, neither supplies nor other aiC
might be given in case it became neces
, sary.
Since the Manchuria disaster Their
has arisen on the point tower oil
which will be placed the lantern AM
the great lens. The cottages for tn
keeper and assistants are already con
structed.
Makapuu is rocky, barren and a,
1 most uninhabitable promontory abou
" - " ~ " y ~ ~ " " y ~ " " ~ y y
t ceiving mechanism. The connecting lin
s is the imponderable ether. The tram
h former which converts 10 volts {
8 electric current into $4,000 volts of hig
frequency and great amplitude of o
e cillation. That is enough said for tn;
e part, for to go farther would be
a delve into the mysteries of the Nele
IS trical science where even the eXper
II often are puzzled. Suffice it to s.
N that these $4,000 volts sent off into Il
re air set up some immense waves in Il
W ether which oscilate with very his
"a frequency. So powerful ana wide a
II these vibrations that they are enabl'
a to travel over immense distances. T.
II receiving apparatus consists of t
~ "antennae, the six copper wires ST
H. pended from the top of the 2O0-fo
~ mast, "tuner" and a condenser, a
IS the telephone headpiece worn by t
en- operator.
lie The tuner is the secret of the 81
he cess of the wireless telegraphy. Up
ne its perfection depends the~ultimate II
co Iversal use and commercial value of Il
IT, latest means of communication. One
the hardest problems that wireless {
es perts have had to solve has been
no separate the numberless messages til
OIL fill the air when several stations 9
NJ operating at once. This is done
nd means of the "tuner. - This instrume
ul which is too complicated to describe
ne the ordinary reader, keys up the
Gu ceiving apparatus so that the MESA
us which it is desired to receive may
mt the only one heard. The messages co
op in in varying degrees of intensity,
ng pending on the distance which they /;
ue sent, and the tuner tones down Tho
nd not wanted so that they are practica
eliminated, only the one desired bel
heard by the operator.
os' The "tuner" is not quite what
is ought to be yet. Inventors are at We
is, on it, however, and confidently exp
re- to nave a perfect instrument soon.
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