The Washington herald., 1911-09-03
Will Be 800 Feet High and Will Garry Mes
SageS to Sea More Than 5000 Miles.

To annihilate space and link the Navy
Department here with the myriad YES
lels of the United States navy as they
pail over the high seas far from land and
from other ships, a gigantic wireless tel
egraph station is now being constructed
at Arlington, Va, upon an elevation
overlooking the National Capital
Since wireless telegraphy was adopted
by the government several years ago as
G means of communication, the Navy
Department has realized how invalu-
able and Indispensable the invention is
in conducting naval work. The depart
ment now has forty-four land stations,
including three stations located on fixed
light-vessels, besides the great number
of sets of instruments installed upon the
ships Ofs the navy. But the average
communicative range of these stations is
not very extensive, and there has long
been the demand for such a station as
the one now under construction at Ar
llngton, the range of which will cover
the entire Atlantic Coast of North Amer
lea.
The Arlington station will be the larg-
est and finest equipped station in the
United States, and even in the world,
with the exception Of the Marcom trans
Atlantic stations at Clifden, ireland, and
GIace Bay, Newfoundland. The wire
less sets at these stations are rated un-
officially at 500 kilowatts, the output of
electrical energy. The new government
station is to have a 100 kilowatt set in
stalled. With this set OF Instruments 1t
will be possible to hold intercommunica-
tion with ships 1000 miles away, and to
transmit messages to vessels between
1900 and 1900 miles distant. -
VIII Reach TO Panama.
The station will be used for expert
mental purposes, for transmittind and re-
ceiving official messages, for handling
occasional commercial messages, for
tracing the movements of ships, and for
keeping in touch with the navy yards
along the coast. 1t is expected that the
operators at the station will hold daily
communication with the large station at
Colon, Panama. The stations along the
Upper Atlantic Coast have frequently
heard the station at Colon for short
periods during the cold, clear nights of
winter, but have been unable so far to
establish intercommunication. Tests will
probably be conducted with the Army
Signal Corps station at Fort Leaven-
worth, Kans Wireless experts of the
navy think it not improbable that the
Arlington station may occasionally catch
signals from the large stations at Berlin
and Paris.
Because OF the interference from
commercial stations, the navy is now
tuning al Of the stations sharply, so
that IL q receiving station Is 10 per
cent, out Of tune. the signals will not
be heard. In view of the great amount
of interference, officials of the Navy
Department are advocating government
regulation OF wireless stations IN this
country, but they have little hope OIL
getting the desired legislation.
The presence Of atmospheric electricity,
known as static" is also a source Of
trouble. This static causes a continuous
buzz in the receiver, which makes the
feeble wireless signals inaudIble This
trouble is overcome to some extent by
Aha use Of high frequency transformers.