The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1908-current, 1916-01-20

:ssA be written the historian will
b.. lind that the major portion
kIJST of his material and notes
accumulated for the task re-
iates to the activities of the navy. and
that, in this portion of them, the fig
ure of Capt. William H. G. Billiard, U.
5. NJ, is prominent.
FOR, Just as the navy pioneered in
wireless, so, within the navy, Captain
bullard was leader of the pioneers,
says the New York Sun
1t really was seventeen years ago
that Captain Billiard. then a young
naval lieutenant, fresh from Spanish
American war service, was attracted
by a new subject. During his student
Gays at Annapolis electricity and cleo
tr1cal engineering had attracted him
These studies he carried on further
following graduation. He became
known as one of the electrical shops
of the navy
wireless appealed to him, both as
an electrical engineer and as mill
tary officer. With his knowledge of
electricity the military possibilities
that lay in wireless were readily ap-
parent. So he threw himself into the
subject.
lie is now-and has been ever since
the position was established three
years Observation-Disclosures of the navy
radio service In that capacity he is
charged with the direction of the most
extensive wireless service in the
world today. More than fifty shore
stations. approximately ESQ ship sta
tions and about $50 navy radio opera
tors are under his direction.
Under the slender shadows of the
trinity OF towers on Arlington Heights.
overlooking Washington from the Vir-
ginia side of the Potomac. is brick
building, dwarfed by the great struc-
lures that rise above it. In one cor
ner of this building, on the second
floor, is the office of CaOtain Billiard
Born in Pennsylvania in December,
1866, he is forty-nine years old. In
1882 he was appointed to the Naval
academy from which institution he
was graduated four years later. but
ferent tours of duty as a member of
the faculty. Physics. chemistry and
electrical engineering have been the
branches he has taught. and a text
book he has written on electrical en-
gineering is standard there and else
where.
In 1899, the year following the Span
ish-American war. Mr. Marconi
brought to this country from Italy
three sets of his wonderful new wire
less apparatus, the immediate purpose
being to use them in reporting the in
ternational yacht races of that year
The navy department, long interested
in the subject. appointed a board of
four officers to observe and report on
the working of the system.
Following the report of this board
the department placed the battleship
Massachusetts, the armored cruiser
New York and the torpedo boat Porter
at the disposal of Mr.. Marconi for
further experiments with a shore sta
tion established on the grounds of the
Highland lighthouse, near the en-
trance to New York harbor. An an
tenna was stretched from the flagpole
near the house of the lightkeeper. and
this had the distinction of being the
first radio shore station used in the
United States. Later commercial
station was erected near the same
spot. and still later. in 1903, the navy
put up a permanent shore station
there.
With the erection of the first ex-
detrimental station the three vessels
named were equipped with radio APP
paratus. the first vessels Of the navy
to be so equipped. This was the be-
ginning of the navy radio service
Its growth and development has
been remarkable No part of the At
lantic or Pacific oceans is too far
away to be out of reach of a radio
gram from an American naval shore
station. When the fleet was engaged
recently in its big war game on the
Atlantic coast the department at
Washington was in a position to be in
instantaneous communication with ev-
cry unit
Quite as remarkable as the tale of
the development OF radio for strategic