Omaha daily bee., 1909-07-17
The Need of Being shown.


The Need of Being shown.
This company has an experimental sta
ton at Brandt Rock, Mass, and Eccom-
panying it's bid vas a statement that 1t
was successfully sending messages across
the Atlantic ocean to a station on the west
coast of Scotland and that messages from
that station were being successfully re-
ceived in this country. This statement was
backed up by personal statements made
by representatives Of the company.
The naval authorities decided that they'd
like to be Shown" and 80 Secretary
Meyer decided to defer action on the bid
until the company demonstrated it's ability
to do what it claimed. The bid was not
rejected. II was merely held up. The COM
pany Expressed it's entire willingness to
demonstrate to the complete satisfaction
of the department that 1t could make good
its promises, and during the summer, prob
ably in August, an exhaustive series of tests
will be made under the personal super
vision of two of the wireless experts Of
the navy, Lieutenant Commander Cleland
Davis and Lieutenant George C. Sweet.
Two scout cruisers will be equipped by
the National Electrical company will the
Fessenden instruments, and messages will
be sent to them from the station at Brandt
Rock. Under a schedule to be decided
upon later they will receive messages from
this station at distances varying from 100
to 5000 miles.
The specification requires that the ships
must be able to send messages to land
from a distance of at least 1000 miles.
Drpf Tzggapdap gaNd that g. mould h. 10,
possible for him to guarantee that mes
sages could be sent from the ships to land
at . greater distance. Any attempt TO do
so would necessitate the erection on each
ship Of an exceptionally high mast, which
would not only be cumbersome, but ex-
tremely vulnerable as well.
Confidence of Naval Experts.
Prof. Fessenden is positive in his asser-
ton hat the shore instrument will be
capable Of sending messages a distance
of 5000 miles, and that the instruments
on the ships will be able to send messages
a distance of 1000 miles, either to shore
or to one another, The navy experts, after
a preliminary investigation Of his system,
express themselves as being convinced
that he will demonstrate the efficacy of
his system, and that its practical use by
the government will be an actually within
the next two years.
One of the particular advantages Of the
system Is that by means OF a "combina-
tion," which can be likened to the com
bination of a safe, absolute secrecy can be
maintained in the transmission of mes
sages. The sending instrument is attuned
to a certain key and the receiving instru'
ment becomes automatically attuned TO the
same key as soon as the vibrations begin,
This key can be changed several time
during the sending Of a message. Even
though there SHOULD be another instru-
ment on the Fessenden model at work
within the active radius of the naval in
struments, it would not pick up the mes
sages, because what may be termed the
basic combination" would not nave been
set. This is not scientific phraseology, but
It will onvsy some idea to the lay mind
Of this particular attribute Of the system
Another great difficulty which Prof
Fessenden claims to nave overcome In his
system Is the difficulty which has hitherto
been experienced In sending wireless mes
sages by daylight. There has never been
any assurance that messages by daylight
would be sure Of transmission. darkness
being TO date the best time for the success
full sending Of messages through the air
To be sure, wireless messages are con-
~tinually being sent by daylight, but some
times they do not carry, and the operation
Of wireless telegraph stations during the
hours OF sunlight is al present far from
satisfactory. Prof. Fessenden claims "a
have overcome this difficulty entirely, He
/ al hIura - A.. awAau - Ft1VFtu IT, a,a1FFf