The Topeka state journal., 1909-02-06

| lakes. Although the American Navy was
the first to utilize wireless telephony, 1t
| since has been installed on many Of the
ships of the italian Navy. while the navy
of Great Britain is following the same
| course with all possible speed.
| What Wireless Telephony Has Done.
| ALREADY, from the station which the
De Forest people installed at the
/ top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, tests
have been made which carried the hu-
| man voice clear and distinct to beyond
Marseilles, 600 miles away. In this country
successful tests have been made for a
distance OF $50 miles, but when the new
| station is completed in the ffty-second
| story OF the huge Metropolitan Life
campanile in this city, it is confidently
expected by the wireless telephone ex-
perts that they can project the voice
| much further than at the Paris tests. In
fact, the inventor, de Forest. has de-
clared that within a short time he win be
able to send messages between these two
greatest stations so that the voice spoken
in New York may be distinctly and i'm
mediately heard in Paris.
When one considers that thirty years
ago the present wire telephone system
was laughed at as being nothing more
than a clever toy, and that Prof. Alex
| ander Graham Bell nearly wore his heart
and soul out trying to get the small
sum of money needed to construct his
small test line for three miles from Boston
| to Somerville, the suggestion of wireless
talking from New York to Paris is not
| to be considered as a smile-provo1ing
proposition.
In establishing it's system Of wireless
telephony it already has been announced
| by the Great Lakes Radio Telephone Com
pany, of Cleveland which controls the De
Forest system for the territory in question.
that it wilPwork in conjunction with all the
existing wire telephone systems. whether
Bell or Independent. BY a simple con-
| trivance the wire phone system can be
| connected with the wireless system at
any of the latter's central stations so
that a person located at a regular long
distance telephone in New York, for in
stance, can be connected through a wire
| less station at cleveland and hold con-
versations with a business associate tra.v-
| cling as a passenger on a steamer out
| in the middle of Lake Erie
Each central wireless station will have
| its apparatus attuned to a certain num-
Der of vibrations on the principle of Il
tuning fork. The attuning of an in
strument can be changed by a switch,
station can be regulated by the insertion
of plugs. In this way when a Lake
steamer, for instance, desires to talk with
Cleveland, its operator will throw the
switch to the number of vibrations called
for by Cleveland. When the wire instru-
ment on the steamer is in repose. it will
drop back to a certain specific number OF
vibra tions SO that it can be reached by
eny central station calling It's number.
or. by means of an Aerephone automatic
| signalling device, can be reached by any
station sending out storm signals In dark
ness or fog. In this way each instru-
nent can be so regulated that It can
either take up general calls from any
direction OF only specific calls for its
own number, might be desired.
No Franchises Are Required.
One of the advantages of the wireless
telephone Is that it does not require a
| franchise right to operate or a right of
way from any government. state or mum
icipality. 1t talks through the air and is
the only known method of vocal inter-
ship communication or OF talking from
| ship to shore In case OF fog or storm
the sound of the human voice, projected
by this means, is as clear and distinct as
at any other time and the invention is
therefore peculiarly adapted for safety
signals and 1ife-saving service. A distinct
advantage of the wireless phone over the
wire phone is that the buzz of the wire al
ways is absent. AS any ships officer
can talk by wireless phone as readily
as by wire phone on shore. all expense
of an expert operator Is eliminated and
the apparatus is placed within the reach
of the most modest boat a1oat.
The antennae wires of the apparatus
| are strung to the masthead of the ship oy