Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-11-23
BIRTHDAY OF WIRELESS.
First Message from a Liner Mt Sea in
November. 1890.
CFrom the Detroit Free Press

(From the Detroit Free PressD
The 18th anniversary of the receipt of
the first wireless message from a liner a.
sea comes this month. This was an
event that drew closer the four corners
of the earth. The youngest operator az
the Key remembers the coming Of wire
less telegraph but few remember what
led to tho installa ton OF wireless on the
steamships Of the world and gave
practical demonstration OF the value of
Mr.. Marconis invention for marine
work
The first steamship to establish commu-
ncajion with a shore station was the
American liner St Paul out OF this port
FOR southampton. relates the New York
Times. The story of that first successful
experiment s told in the current issue uf
Marcongraph. In November 1899. Mr..
Marconi abled from New York that he
would communicate with the wireless sta
ton al the Needles from the ST. Paul as
that vessel was approaching the English
coast. Assistants were already at the
shore station and upon receipt of Mr.
| Marconi's cable Major Flood Page, IA
director in the Marconi company 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 failure. for experiments
had shown them that sending and re-
ceiving from vessel steamng % knots
ar hour was only matter OF detail.
| The opinion was that the St Paul
would near the Needles between 10 and
| II o'clock on a Wednesday morning. but
! that there might be no hitch an operator
was stationed at the key all Tuesday
night There was no ringing OF the in
dicutor he'll 30 disturb the rest OF those
LAT The station that night. on the morn
ling OF Wednesday. November 10, 1892
! there was a thick fog haze over the sea
/ /, would have been possible for liner to
have passed the Needles 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
The operator remained in the instrument
room, While Major Flood-Page and MI
Davis paced up and down on the lawn
before the station.
or that time jor Flood Page wrote
THE idea Of failure never entered our
minds. So far as VIC We're concerned we
We're ready, and we felt complete conf
dencc that the ship would be all right
/
be easily imagined we were in state of
nervous tension. Ten O'Clock came, then
H. when the steamship was expected
then noon. one o'clock passed. and then
on toward two o'clock. We sent our sig
nails over and over again and then-in the
most natural and ordinary way in the
world, our bell rang. 1t was 40 p. M"
'Is that YOU, ST. Paul?" the shore sta
ton flashed
Yes came back the answer after a
short interval, and the waiting men knew
that success was achieved
where are your" the shore station
| flashed ont. and back through the fog
came: "Sixty-six nautical miles away"
! II was a history making trip for the
st. Paul for the coming OF that first
flash Of the news from tho world behind
the bank Of fog made possible the pub
fishing of the first paper on ship
board containing the actual news of wha
had happened in the world during the
days while the steamship plowed Its way
| through the North Atlantic.