The Washington herald., 1914-05-03
WIRELESS. TELEPHONE.
Between Fast Train and Station Fifty
Miles Away.

While the eastbound sLackawanna Linn
tied of .the Delaware. Lackawanna and
Western Railroad Company. was speed
ing over the .ffty-three miles between
Scranton and stroudsburg. Pa, yester-
day afternoon, c. ". Logwood. engineer
of the De Forest Engineering Company,
sat in little compartment on the train
and talked easily with Telephone En-
gineer Graf OF the Lackawanna Company,
who was sitting in the wireless operators
room in the railroad station at Scranton.
The train did not stop between scran1
ton and Stroudsburg and its speed was
fifty miles or, over. an hour. When
Scranton was ten miles behind II, Mr..
Logwood put the = wireless receiver to
his ears. pushed a little plug here, pulled
a little lever there. and began to talk.
Hello. hello" he said. and In a mo-
ment he heard an answering. Hello.
hello, who are your
'Togwood, on board the Lackawanna
Limited train ten miles east OF Scranton.
Who are your" he replied.
Graf. in the Lackawanna Station at
Scranton" came the answer.
From then until the train pulled into
Stroudsburg the two men talked withou:
interruption.
This was the first successful trial Of
wireless telephoning between moving
train and a fixed station, and every
thing worked without a single hitch.
The De Forest amplifer, an invention Of
Lee DE Forest. was used and made pos
sible amplihhcation OF speech fifty times
above normal The wireless telephony
is a development of wireless telegraphy
between a moving train and a fixed
station. which the Lackawanna perfect
ed and put into practical use several
months ago.
The officials OF the railroad company
we're enthusiastic last night William II.
Truesdale, president Of the company, who
has backed L. b. Foley. superintendent
of telegraph, in all his wireless expert
ments. said that In his opinion wireless
telephony had passed from the expert
mental into the development stage, with
perfection In sight Mr.. Foley was de-
lighted. but is not ready 20 stop with
what has been done. He is going ahead
for even better things
Wireless telephony between a moving
train and a fixed station he said, 'Hs an
accomplished fact We proved that this
afternoon. But We are going to prove
more. Further tests will be made to de-
teTmine the greatest distance over which
communications can be carried on by wire
less telephone. can't say how much
the talking distance between a moving
train and fixed station can be increased.
although there is no doubt that IL will
be increased materially. but l believe
wireless telephone conversations between
fixd stations 900 miles apart will be a
matter of easy accomplishment The De
Forest amplifier will make this possible
The advantages Of wireless telephony
over wireless telegraphy are easy to see.
For one thing there is no necessity for
having a trained telegraph operator on
board trains or in stations as any one
can talk and hear over a phone. Even
IL the talking distance between a moving
train and a fixed station is not materially
increased above the fifty-mile radius at
tanned yesterday. wireless telephony from
moving trains can he nut into practical
operative and commercial use. With fixed
stations 100 miles apart a train will never
be out Of communication with one Of
them. which will be in communication
with all the others"
The Lackawanna's first wireless tele-
phone tests were made several weeks ago
but had to be abandoned April Il because
their message interfered with messages
OF the Navy Department sent te and
from the battleships in the Atlantic. The
wave length of the transmission aerials
used by the railroad was changed and
In the tests Yesterday there was no in
reference with government or other mes
sages.-New York Times.