The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-17
With Those Who Watch Ger the Ships on the Sea


Crash Bang! Crash. comes the deaf
ening report as the 40,900-volt current
jumps through the rotary spark gap.
The air is Illuminated with binding
flashes as of rnearthly lightning, and
far out at sea an operator, sitting in
his tiny den on a storm-tossed ship,
with receivers strapped to his head,
hears the faint click, which tells him
that he is in wireless communication
with land.
It matters not that 1000 miles of rag
ing water rolls and losses in the inter
vening space; clear, sharp and accurate
come the words which tell to the man
of the sea that some one on shore is
thinking of him, is watching for his
safe return.
With the perfection of wireless tele-
graphy much of the awful mystery of
the sea has become thing of the past.
No longer is the fate of vessel I'M
known between the time that she sails
from her home port and arrives at her
destination. If she be equipped with
wireless telegraphy there is never a
minute when she can not get into COM
munication with some one somewhere.
A broken propeller shaft does not
mean days and possibly weeks of help
less drifting; at the captain s orders
the spark which annihilates space is
sent crashing through the air, the story
of the mishap is told and soon relief
is on the way.
Wireless teIegraphy is to the men
who go down to the sea in ships all
that Marse IS invention has proven TO
the landsman, and more The landsman
is dependent upon his poles and wires,
he dare not venture from his station
would he keep in constant communica-
ton. Not so with the man of the sea-
Drifting about on the bosom of Mother
Ocean he carries with him his tall pole.
and from that pole shoots the mysr
FERROUS spark that forms his one con
Meeting link with the world.
With the perfection of wireless tele-
graphy, and its installation on ships,
has come the necessity for equipping
land stations, that communication may
be preserved. Great, powerful stations,
with machinery which enables the
operator to disregard distance entirely
and fash the signals to any place with
in a radius of several thousand miles,
have sprung up on lonely promontories
by the ocean, The occupants of these
stations are the watchers o Ter the sea.
A Lonely Life.
A lonely life it is, eooped up in a
bleak tower on the bluffs overlooking a
rock-bound coast. Mayhap the opera
tor and his assistant are alone for
months at a time, seeing strangers only
when the tender brings supplies. The
cable operators at Midway lead life
of continuous social pleasures compared
with that which falls to the lot of the
wireless operator perched in a tower
on the summit of a seabound rock.
No place is more Invaluable in pre-
serving wireless communication on the
Pacific Ocean than is Hawaii. Placed
in the middle of the vast Pacific, Sand
witch Islands in fact as well as in name,
Hawaii offers wonderful opportunities
in the wireless field; and those oppor-
tunities have not been neglected.
Out on the beach at Kahuku, so close
to the water that the rushing breakers
all but wash the foot of the giant mast,
stands the long-distance wireless station
of the Mutual Telephone Company.
Within the little buildings, which
house the plant, is machinery which
can not be surpassed by any pos
sessed by Pacific Coast wire
less station. From Kahuku sta
tion messages can be sent to Alaska,
to Vancouver or to Southern California.
Even far Japan has been communicated
with before now, and soon series of
experiments will oe undertaken to learn
Just what can be done in the way of
wireless conversation between Hawaii
and the land of the Mikado.
1t is at night, when all is still, that
Kahuku talks with the ships at sea and
with the mainland. During the day
time interisland messages only are
handled, but at night all must give way
to long distance work.
Ever on the Alert
Through the still watches of the night
the operator sits at his desk. Clasped
to his head are the receivers, two little
instruments such as are used to listen
to the message which passes over tele-
phone wire. Always must the watcher
be on the alert, for the spark from a
ship, hundreds of miles away, may come
but family through the distance.
Suddenly a faint clicking sound is
heard. Slowly and oft repeated come
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