New-York tribune., 1909-02-21
orrLooK FoR WIRELEss TELEPHONY.


According to recent press dispatch from
Washington the experiments made on vessels of
the Atlantic feet with the wireless telephone
have shown the apparatus 10 be Of little service
The announcement is not Official, but evidently
has some basis in fact, and It helps TO answer a
question which has arisen in many minds con-
Cerning the future Of an interesting invention
While the fate Of the wireless telephone Is not
of course settled forever by the disappointment
now expressed its unsatisfactory behavior Is
not without significance. Perhaps the strongest
recommendation of the new system Of conmuni-
cation would be q demonstration that. under
certain circumstances. the officer in command OF
a feet might find II more convenient than wire
less telegraphy If, for instance. time could be
saved by talking directly with the captains under
him. instead Of debating dispatch for trans
mission by an operator. there would seem TO be
distinct advantage In its adoption No evil
dence of any marked superiority of this sort has
yet been offered. On the other hand, the range
of wireless telephony has thus far been very
much shorter than that of wireless telegraphy,
and in the trials hitherto made it has been i'm
practica bic to use both at the same time.
However, wireless telephony is yet in a more
rudlmentary stage of Development than wireless
telegraphy. Both have their defects and are
greatly in need OF Improvement. Moreover in
the one field Of experiment, as In the other. sev
eral inventors are at work. 1t Is conceiNaDle
that in a few years better devices may be en-
pioyed than those tried on the Atlantic feet
Should the susceptibility TO Interference. acci-
dental and calculated. be reduced to n low mini
mum, or averted altogether. teegraphy and tel
ephony by means OF Hertz waves would GER
tainly have a stronger claim TO favor than either
has at present. Just now, imperfect as It is,
telegraphy is distinctly in the lead. To deny
that telephony will ever catch up with it would
be presuming too far, perhaps but IL is difficult
to detect signs of any such equality.
question which has frequently been asked
in regard to wireless telegraphy relates to the
number OF messages which can be received at
one point at the same tine. A satisfactory an
swer has not yet been given, because no one
seems to have determined with certainty how
many wave lengths can be in service slmultane-
ously in a given neighborhood without confusion.
At present, with tuned Instruments, two or three
can easily be used and it is probable that con-
siderably more may be eventually. In like man.
ner, before wireless telephony can be a practical
success its champions must show how many
converse tons 1t Will be feasible to hold at the
same moment Obviously, anything at all corre-
| spending 10 the older system Of telephony is out
OF the question In this city the company which
represents the Bell interests has something like
10000 or 10000 subscribers, many OF whom
employ from dozen to a score OF branch wires
The number of instruments thus made available
can scarcely be less than 100000 Now if in
this great centre of population wireless telephony
could serve not more than fifteen or twenty Gus
toners at Once-and that looks like a liberal
estimate-wOuld it pay to install the requisite
plant? Would rot the investment be risky in
the extreme?