The Princeton union., 1911-11-02
WIRELESS ON {.
The STEAMSHIPS
Twelfth Anniversary Of First
Message In November.
DISTINCTION Was ST. PAUl's.

Paper Printed on Board Gave the Pas
sengers the News of Stirring Events
Of tho Boer War-Event of World
Interest.
! The twelfth anniversary Of the re.
ceipt Of the first wireless message from
a liner at sea comes in November.
This was an event that drew closer the
four corners of the earth. The young
est operator at the key remembers the
coming Of wireless telegraph, but few
remember what led to the installation
of wireless on the steamships of the
world and gave a practical demonstra-
tion of the value of the invention for
| marine work.
The first steamship to establish COM
municatiOn with a shore station was
the American liner st. Paul, out of
| New York for Southampton. The story
of that first successful experiment is
told in the current issue Of the Marco
| nigraph In November, 1899, Mr.. Mar
conf cabled from New York that he
| would communicate with the wireless
station at the Needles from the St..
Paul as that vessel was approaching
the English coast. Assistants were al
ready at the shore station, and upon
receipt of Mr.: Marconi's cable Major
Flood-Page and Jameson Davis went
| down to the Isle of Wight to see that
the instruments were ''tuned' up for
the test. There was no thought Of fail
ure, for experiments had shown then
that sending and receiving from a YES
sci steaming twenty knots an hour
were only matter of detail
The opinion was that the st. Paul
would near the Needles between 10
| and II o'clock on a Wednesday morn
ing, but that there might be no hitch
an operator was stationed at the kew
all Tuesday night. There was no ring
ing of the Indicator bell to disturb the
rest OF those at the station that night.
On the morning of Wednesday, Nov.
10, 1899, there was a thick fog haze
over the sea. It would have been pos
slble for a liner to pass the Nee
dies without being seen by those on
shore. AS the day grew older the haze
increased to a fog that, low lying, shut
out all view seward.
Of that time Major Flood-Davis
wrote:
1.-THE idea of failure never entered
our minds. So far as we were con-
cerned we were ready, and we felt
complete confidence that the ship
would be all right. Yet it may be
easily imagined we were in a state Of
nervous tension. Ten o'clock came.
then II, when the steamship was ex-
pected, then noon. One o'clock passed
and then on toward 2 o'clock. We
sent our signals over and over again,
and then in the most natural and or
dinary way in the world, our bell rang.
1t was 2:45 p. m. is that you, St.
Pau1?' the shore station flashed. Yes
came back the answer after a short in
terVa1, and the waiting men knew that
success was achieved Where are
you? the shore station flashed out, and
back through the fog came, 'Sixty-six
nautical miles away"
1t was history making trip for the
st. Paul, for the coming of that first
flash of the news from the world be-
hind the bank Of fog made possible the
publishing of the first paper on ship
board containing actual news of what
had happened in the world during the
days while the steamship plowed it's
way through the north Atlantic.
1t was the fifty-second voyage of the
st. Paul, and she had on board 375 pas
sengers. Volume No. / of the Trans
atlantic Times was printed and sold
on board On that day, which was in it.
self quite a Journalistic feat. w. W.
Bradfield was editor in chief and II.
81. Mcclure managing editor. The pa
per sold for 81 copy, the money 60
Ing to the seamen's fund, a charity.
The Transatlantic Times contained
this announcement:
Through the courtesy of Mr. G.
Marconi, the passengers on board the
st. Paul are accorded a rare privilege
that of receiving news several hours
before landing. Mr.. Marconi and his
assistants have arranged for work the
apparatus used for reporting the yacht
race in New York and are now receiy-
Ing dispatches from their station at
the Needles. War news from South
Africa and home messages from Lon
don and Paris are being received. AS
you know, this is the first time that
such venture as this has been under
taken-a newspaper published at sea
with wireless telegraph messages re-
! ceived and printed on a ship going
twenty knots an hour
The news" page Of the Times is
given up to the bulletins received:
"1:50 p. m.-First signal received,
sixty-six miles from the Needles.
"2:4O-Was that you, st. Paul? Fif-
ty miles from Needles.
$3.50 - Hurrah! Welcome home!
Where are you?
''3:30-Forty miles. Ladysmith, Kim
berley and Mafeking holding out well.
| No big hattla Fiftoon thousa,d ,,o,