The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1909-07-10
Development OF
WIRELESS
Especial to Silver State News

(Speclal to Silver State News
NEW YORK, July 1O.-Some four
thousand feet of copper wire forming
the antenna for the Radio Telephone
company was strung from the fifteenth
story of the Metropolitan Life Building
one morning last week and within a
time the newest de Forest system
of wireless telephony and telegraphy
will be opened commercially as a long
distance factor in wireless communica
ton between the principal cities on the
Atlantic coast. The first message will
be ent between the Metropolitan tow
er station and the highest point in
Philadelphia, which has beer secured
for the central station in the Quaker
city. The installation of the station
in the Metropolitan Life tower is the
first definite step in the widely herald
ed talk-via wireless, New York to
Paris.
The station on the Metropolitan tow
er is on the fifteenth floor, 20 feet
above the sidewalk and the antenna ex
tends, umbrella shaped, to the Fourth
avenue roof of the building, from
which the leading wires pass into the
office of the company on the ninth
floor. The work of erecting the anten.
ma, which is the largest in the world
except the one controlled by the same
company on the Eiffel tower in Paris,
was begun in a storm, when two wires
were sent aloft during the progress of
the disturbed elements.
While the workmen were busy max
ing fast these two wires, and the wind
was whistling its most strident tune,
an interesting experiment was made
from the top of the ~swaying cam
panile that showed the marvellous cut
ting up of the air currents in the
vicinity of the apex of the tall tower.
A score of toy balloons were liberated
and at once were borne away to lee
ward with the speed of so many fright
ened gulls. For probably a hundred
yards they remained together. after
which one after another became sepa-
rated, halted in flight, circled for a
moment around the antenna wires and
then, apparently in the teeth of the
fifty mile gale. drifted back to the tow
er around which they were driven like
so many swallows. for nearly half IN
hour. At length, one by one, they
were caught in eddy which bore them
far away from the disturbed air cur
rents and drifted down the wind to be-
come lost in the smother to leeward.
Meanwhile, the lightning played
around the tower and the rain fell in
torrents. but the linemen continued
their labors despite the frequent
flashes of light, until the wires were
secured and the swaying antenna wa
in place.
The story of wireless is like a page
from a fairy tale. Scarcely more than
"a decade has drifted into history since
wireless telegraph was given to a wait
ing world. During that period many
scientists have devoted their lives to
the work of developing the art of wire
less. That little has been accomplished
by the majority of these workers is n
patent fact. Indeed, with the exeep-
ton of DIR. Lee de Forest and a few
|co-workers in his laboratory, absolute
4. - -
ed. DR.. de Forest has invented a wire
less telephone, "Kadio' the scientist
calls it, and within the short space of
two years,it has become a commercial
system on the Great Lakes, as well as
a factor in the navies of three great
nations.
Lieutenants Colin and Jeaunee of
the French navy, working in conjunc-
ton with DR.. de Forest in the develop
ment of Radio telephony have reported
most satisfactory results, and have
talked a distance of one hundred miles.
between the cruiser Condo and the
arsenal at Toulon.
Ultimate success in wireless tele-
phony by the radio system is assured
by the results already obtained. These
results are not mere chance but the
effects from causes that are known TO
the ~veriest tyro in the field of wireless