New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-03
Hidden Meaning Might
Lurk in Simplest Mes
sage, Zenneck Admits.
IGNORANT OF CODES,
SAYS GERMAN EXPERT
Government Censors Tell How
They Could Be Deceived
Naval Aid Gets Duplicates.
Trrcrp a star Correspondent o, Tn, rribun. ]

slble TO deceive the United states cen
sors by sending cunningly contrived
code messages.
Aroused by the news that the gov
eminent was planning to take over the
wireless station at Ssyville. Professor
Zenneck again denied emphatically that
he was here as code expert for the
German government. Professor Zen
neck speaks English with difficulty. and
when he found that the Tribune re-
porter could understand his native
language he discussed the situation at
some length.
After Professor Zenneck had spoken
it was learned here that Washington
had sent Walter b. Anderson, a naval
attache, to learn whether duplicates of
any messages had been withheld by
the Sayville operators, who are mostly
of German origin. Three copies of
every message must be made. one of
these being forwarded to Washington.
Anderson came to Sayville with q
sheaf Of duplicate copies. He returned
TO Washington three days before il was
announced that the government was
seriously considering taking over the
Sayvlle plant.
Lieutenants Clark, Winslow and
Cogswell did not deny the possibility
of misuse of the wireless station. as
was reported in New York newspaper
yesterday afternoon. These censors do
not like to believe they are being
duped, but they say that it is per
fectly possible to pack away a hidden
meaning in the most innocent looking
Of messages.
Wireless Messages Decrease.
Lieutenant Winslow inadvertently
admitted that instead Of fifty or sixty
messages a day being sent across, as
was reported by DR.. Karl G. Frank,
secretary-treasurer of the Atlantic
Communication Company, only eight
had been sent on an average for the
last few days. He cannot explain the
reason for this, but another official
here believes that American business
men, suspicious Of the alleged use to
which the Sayville station had been
put, have decided to use cable COM
munication instead.
Professor Zenneck denied At his
breakfast table this morning that he
was a code expert. He said he had
been a professor of physics at the In
stitute Of Technology at Munich and
formerly an assistant of DR.. Braun,
one of the foremost wireless experts
of Germany, at the University of
country with Professor Zenneck and Is
also interested in the Sayvillc station.
Il have been accused of being a cap
tain of submarines" said the professor.
at is ridiculous. | never saw the in
side of a submarine | was in Belgium
on the firing line when the Telefunken
company asked my government TO per
init me to 20 to America in order to
testify in the Marconi suit against the
Atlantic Communication Company. Had
it not been for Mr. knight, patent
attorney. l would have left for my ma
tive country weeks ago. The case Will
come up in November.
at is possible to send over the
simplest kind Of message so that 1t
may hive another meaning behind 1t
than what is apparent on the surface.
| admit that. The difficulty comes IN
the handling of the secret code. In
simple messages it must be extremely
complicated"
sible to send messages from the Say
willie station to submarines. A moment
later he admitted that apparatus could
be fitted on TO that already being used
which would make it possible for sub
marines 10 catch the drift" OF any
communication. The only reservation
he made to the statement was that 1t
would be enormously difficult.
"Tkis is a plot to discredit the Ger
man government" said Professor Zen
neck. 81 agree with Mr.. Metz in his
statement that there is English intiu-
ence behind this agitation"
"Who owns the Sayville station" he
was asked.
"To the fullest extent Of my knowl-
edge, it is owned and directed eXclu-
sively by tn Atlantic Communication
Company" he answered.
HAS not the German go. .rnment a
little TO say"
perhaps but you see am only a
scientist, and | can't bother with those
things"
Mrs. Thomas Hawkins. whose hus-
band owns an estate near the station,
said to-day that DR.. Bernhard Dern-
burg visited her husband when the first
mast of the station was erected to buy
a strip Of land for a roadway to the
wireless house.
Il refused to sell it to him." she said.
ale became very indignant and bought
the land elsewhere"
Two new antenne have been erected
recently. II is believed that with in
creased power Sayylle can talk with
the station at Nauen day or night and
any season Of the year.
Frank Seeks to Save Plant.
DR.. Karl G. Frank, president Of the
Atlantic Communication Company
which controls the Sayville wireless
plant. went 70 Washington last night
to confer with government officials re-
garding the proposed taking over of
the plant by the United States author
tiles. Before leaving DR. Frank en-
phatically denied the assertion that
the German wireless station is being
used in connection with any alleged
German spy system in the United
States.
81 am going 20 Washington TO con-
vince the American government that
the charges made against this COM
pany are unjust and absolutely un-
founded" DR.. Frank admitted. an
the first place. the wave lengths which
we use in our wireless system are
much inferior to those of the wireless
outfits with which German submarines
are equipped. Therefore, it would be
impracticable TO communicate with
German submarine boats from this
country.
THE second charge that the Say
Vile wireless station has communl-
Gated secret messages, contained in
apparently plain business language, is
ridiculous II would be a simple mat
ter to send commercial messages 70
any Of the scandinavian countries from
which they would be promptly for
warded 10 Germany"