Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-18
NAVY UNDER THUMB
New Wireless Station to
Evolve New Conditions.
TOWER CONTRACTED FOR
Site for Structure, $50 Feet High,
Not Yet Selected.
TO BE NEEDLE.LIKE SHAFT
Sending Of Messages 5000 Miles or
More to Keep Department Always
in Touch With Warships.


Where the navy will locate the new
| wireless station that is to fash messages
| 3.0O0 miles and put all the commercial
| companies either out Of business or In
the deep shade has not yet been deter
mined.
The contract has been let by the Navy
Department, however. The work Of in
stdllatton will be done by a Pittsburg
concern under the direction Of the bureau
| of equipment.
| The most impressive thing about the
work to the layman is that it will necessi-
tate the use of a tower $50 feet high.
| which will be by all odds the highest
structure in the world. except the Eiffel
| tower. But the new tower will be solid.
| Il is to be Of concrete and will make
| the Washington Monument look squatty
! by comparison. 1t will scarcely seem a
tower at all, being only fifty feet at the
| base and eight at the top. II will be
| more like an exaggerated chimney or a
concrete mast, but 1t will be hollow and
of an immense umbrella frame at the
| top
No Elevator in Shaft.
| The top of the tower. it is believed. will
| not be much Of a resort for sightseers.
even should they be allowed the priv
| ilege. There will be no elevator. and
any one who wants to ascend for the
view Will have to walk.
The Navy Department wanted to use
the Washington Monument for wire
| less tower on account of its height. Per-
! mission to turn the great shaft to utili-
tartan purposes could not be obtained.
The taller. thinner tower is the alterna-
| tive.
| IT will convey some fmpression of the
| height of the tower to compare it with
the monument. That is 555 feet high,
| fifty-five feet at the base and twenty
| five feet at the top. The cement tower.
| which will be reinforced with concrete.
| will be only fifty feet at the base and
eight feet on top. though it will be 600
feet high.
The aerial frame will spread from the
top like umbrella ribs 200 feet long and
insulated at the tips and connected with
guy wires that will run to the ground
and keep them extended. The wires from
the aerial frame will run inside the tower
from the top to the ground. The cur
rent will be 100 horsepower, about thirty
times as strong as anything now In use.
There is not anything too much known
about the possibilities Of long-distance
thought that with the outfit proposed
wireless messages can be sent 1900 miles.
Expect Positive Results.
The department now gets occasional
wireless messages over 1900 miles and
sometimes nearly 5000 miles away
These are regarded as freak messages;
but experts consider that IL this sort Of
sending is possible by a low-powered
station a bigger one will be able
to accomplish the same thing positively
Several ships of the navy will be equip
ped under the same contract with out
fits capable of sending up to 1000 miles.
1t will be impossible to install as effec-
tive sending stations on shipboard as will
be the great station at Washington, but
there are few places where a ship with
a one-thousand- mile sending radius can
not pick up some shore station so as to
get message relayed to Washington.
1t will be a great thing for the Secre-
tary Of the Navy to Sit at his Desk ana
be able to converse with the commander
of warship at any spot on the globe
Just how the commanders will look at
| it is another question.
| 1t used to be that the captain of a bat
tleship was little car on a floating is
| land. He had the power OF life and
death and diplomatic discretion beyond
that of any minister or ambassador: once
| he had cut loose from his shore commune
| cations.
| The submarine cable changes that to a
large extent. Some old seadogs. in fact.
say that the submarine cable ruined the
navy. but the cable will not be a cir
cumstance to the way the big wireless
station will tie the commander to the
apron strings of the Navy Department.
| The chances are that the Navy De-
partment will install its own generating
plant, though 1t may take its current
| from some of the commercial plants or
| from some Of the navy stations.
| The new tower has possible mission
not exactly connected with science. 1t
will give Charley" Street or some other
operator a chance to break the record he
esta blished in catching base ball dropped
off the top of the Washington Monu-
ment.