Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-08
AERIAL WAR NOW OFF
Navy Yard and Commercial
Company in Accord.
"BIG CURRENT" NOT USED
Trouble With Wireless to Continue
Until Congress Acts.
MUST EXERCISE SUPERVISION
Lieut.. Commander Sweet Explains
the Situation-As Science Ad-
vances Hitches Will Lessen.

The aerial war between the navy yard
| wireless telegraph OUTFIT and that Of the
commercial company doing business
| with Baltimore and other points along
the line OF the recent blizzard, which
threatened to shatter the atmosphere
for miles around, is not likely to prove
serious.
For awhile it looked as though 1t
would be Impossible to avert serious en-
tanglements between atmospheric and
electric waves, but things are running
better today. and it was officially stated
at the Navy Department that the big
current at the navy yard would not be
turned on.
When the commercial company began
sending messages from the top of the
New Willard hotel to its station In Balti-
more and receiving them from Baltimore
things went all right. But later the navy
yard station got busy talking to Norfolk
and it's outgoing messages clashed with
the commercial messages from Baltimore
Then the commercial company put on a
strong current that upset the navy yard
messages.
Department Denies Report.
1t was reported that the navy yard
station could do nothing and had appealed
to the commercial station to hold out a
little so that official messages could be
put through. This report is denied at the
Navy Department, where, it is stated, the
navy yard station has a current SO strong
that it could smash right through the
commercial.
Not only have the commercial and the
navy yard stations been butting in on
each other. but the station of Elliott
Woods. superintendent of the Capitol. has
entered and helped mix things up.
"Of course, there is always trouble OF
this kind In wireless work. Lieut.. Com
the naval experts on wireless telegraphy.
said. land 1t will continue until Congress
enacts a law controlling the wireless sys-
TENS.
Practice in Other Countries.
I'm other countries it has been found
necessary to put all coast wireless sta
lions under the control of the govern
ment.
Thus the control of the currents is reg
ulated, and no coast station is allowed to
and received just as they are in wire tele-
graph systems or through telephone ex-
changes, in the order that they are filed
or as necessity or Importance may de-
mand.
"As for hearing each others messages,
that is a simple matter for wireless opera
tors l can stick a wire in my hat and
stand on Pennsylvania avenue and hear
every word sent or received by the sta
ton on the New Willard. To maintain
privacy code has to be used.
las the science Of wireless telegraphy
develops, this WILL of course, be obviated
but 1t will be a long time before We reach
that degree of perfection
Sending Messages Overland.
In regard to sending messages forty
miles overland, as is now being done be-
tween Washington and Baltimore, Mr.
Sweet said that the difficulties In such a
case were to be judged by the physical
character OF the land over which the
messages are sent. 1t might be possible
to send a thousand miles in certain cases
and impossible to send ten miles In others
The record, Mr. Sweet thinks, was es-
tablished when messages were sent from
the naval station at Pensacola Fla to
the station at Point Iona, near San
Diego, Cal, distance of about 1000
miles. But MIR. Sweet says that in that
case there 10 no real way~of determining
whether the waves were sent and re-
ceived straight over land or by water