Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-05-20

wires HleTIdCSu IKE q gigantic DGQ
spring. At their feet is a small building in which are
housed two great engines and mighty dynamos, a room
flu of powerful batteries and a lot of instruments which
few people could understand.
This is the high power station of the Marconi wire
less-the station from which messages can be sent
$500 miles to sea. 1t matters not-press dispatches,
commercial messages, love words from a woman to her
sweetheart or husband far out on the bosom of the
ocean. stock quotations to the business man; this is
the place from which they are sent to the last limit
where the wireless from the shore can be picked up at
sea. 1t is the jumping off place for the United States.
In a bungalow, in the shadow of the mighty towers,
dwell five men-the me nwho make it possible to reach
ships at sea, the men who can save life by imparting
the information they have about a disaster and calling
other ships to the rescue.
/. Two of them are perators-Marcon operators-and
two of them electric en~gineers-Ginman and Simpson;
Campbell and Nickerson. The fifth man is the steward,
who cooks the meals for these lonely men so far from
home, and makes their beds. There is a sixth man,
H. G. Welby, who, prior to this time, was in charge of
the station, but he is going to Seattle to erect another
station there, just as he went to Jolo, in the Philippines,
several years ago to put up one which the United States
needed to get in touch with Manila.
But the chief of them there now is Ginman-A. H. Gin
man, the man who got the famous &c. @. D" from Jack
Binns of the Republic, and got to work to get help from
ships far out at sea.
Everybody takes his hat off to Binns, who stuck to his
ship to the last, calling for aid. But had it not been
for Gilman, who kept his wits, the news would never
have reached the land nor would the ships that started
at once to the rescue have heard the danger call, &c.
@. D."
Mr.. Gilman is just back from a well merited vacation
in England, whence he halls. 1t was he who received the
famous &c. @. D." at Siasconset, on the end of Nam
tucket island, which resulted in the saving of every soul
aboard the Republic.
To him it was nothing-it is his business. To him
the mere sending of a message out to sea is nothing
more nor less than pumping at a big telegraph key for
a few moments. To the layman it is a marvellous mys-
terry.
A representative of the press saw Gilman at work and
spent the night in the Office with him-the first person
ever permitted within the bounds OF this station, the Dig
gest in the United States.
What are we doing?" laughed Gilman. why, we are
manufacturing lightning, that's all! That's what long
distance wireless really means"
And then he led the way to this little station on the
bleak confines of Cape Cod, to show how it is done.
The big plant is surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
Nobody may enter except the employees. Summer Wis
itors may come to the edge of the fence, because nobody
can buy up the ocean front, but they can't come in.
Nobody can stop them from gazing at the four big tow
ers, which can be seen for miles around the desolate,
flat country, but there can they go and no further.
How Marconi men send their short distance messages
-250 miles or less-is no secret. That much of the pro-
cess Gilman could explain. But what is done when
words are flashed to ships half way across the ocean
the Marconi men are the only ones who can do it's a
real secret.
There are four rooms in this little building which has
so much to do with the ways of the world. One is filled
with engines and dynamos. Another is crowded with
batteries. A third holds the long distance apparatus
and a fourth is where the operator sends his messages
and receives them.
IL IL ptllNG dDSAAS bN H@tNNt DN ~-I "
a smile, ito allow any one to see how we work the long
distance. But let me show you the short distance work.
Well let you hear us work the long distance-thats all.
Here we are!"
He led the way into a tiny room with a desk and a
table. On the table was a telegraph key, ten times mag
nifed, and a switch, just as large. Attached to two
wires we're two telephone enthusiastically the same
things that any Office boy might put to his ears in an
Office which had a private branch exchange.
To the left was an induction coil capable of a ten
inch spark and a mahogany box in which was fixed a
small clockwork motor, surmounted by two small vut
canite disks connected by a band Of iron wire.
aNow,n explained Gilman, this is our short distance
apparatus. With this we can send and receive for 25O
miles in any direction. AS a matter of fact, this is a
long distance station, and we are called upon to send
very few messages for short distance. Our business is
TO reach ships far out at sea.
Nov, let me show you. / will call up Siasconset, on
Nantucket island, so miles away, and get him to send
YOU the famous letter S, the first letter which Mr.. Mar
conf managed to send clear across the Atlantic, from the
coast OF Ireland to the coast of Nova Scotia"
Gilman pulled down the switch, turned a lever which
got him lin tune" with Nantucket and began to send
The great induction coil shot out its spark in blue