The sun., 1919-03-30
Its Value ALREADY Proven in War,
Full Wonders of Wireless Te1e-
phone Appear at Hand

quite seven years ago, and two years
before the outbreak Of hostilities IN
Europe, he achieved wireless commune
nication between an airplane ana th0
ground station at San Diego, Cal.
With this done he naturally looknd
to the next step, the adaptations Of
wireless telephony. 1t was his enthu-
siasm. his insstence which cut through
red tape and brought the wireless eue.
perts and the aircraft technicians into
concord. Without his tact, the flyine
man would have held out long againso
surrenderlng the space and weight Ia
his machine for the accommodation Of
the necessary apparatus.
Spanning the Ocean.
Transoceanic wireless talks should
not now be cause for wonderment.
As a matter OF fact DR.. de Forest
showed that this was possible as fa.
back in 1915 when the naval wireless
station at Arlington, Va. spoke to TIM
radio station of the Eiffel Tower in
Paris. At that time 800 bulbs wero
used for the purpose Of effecting trans
mission.
In September OF the same year
wireless speech was sent from WASH
ington to Honolulu-a total distance
OF 1900 miles, $500 of which were
over this continent. But intracom-
munication was not achieved simply
because both terminal stations wero
not similarly equipped.
Since then many difficulties in the
art, from commercial point of view,
have been mastered. and 1t cannot be
long now before we shall think no
more OF calling up London, Paris,
Rome. &c, than New Yorker would
in having speech with a friend or
business associate In San Francisco.
Many men and many minds have bcen
engaged latterly in breaking down
Natures barriers of distance.
Among those that have been helping
10 this end Is DR.. Ernest +. Alexan-
derson. 1t was he that made It feas-
ible to keep In telephone touch with
the George Washington during her
entire run from New York to Brest
while carrying President Wilson back
TO France. Speech omanating from
this side of the Atlantic finally
bridged the air gap of 5000 miles be-
tween our station at New Brunswick.
n. j.. and Brest. Because the u. 8.
5. George Washington was not
equipped with radio telephone trans
hitting apparatus 1t was not possible
for Mr.. Wilson or any OF the officers
of the ship to talk back TO the Unitsd
States.
DR.. Alexanderson is one Of tho con-
sulting engineers Of the General Elec-
trio Company. The apparatus which
} he hnC
frequency alterilator. a magnetic am
p!ifier and multiple tuned antenne.
The ordinary alternating current has
frequency, !. e.. change Of direction,
of 60 cycles per second. while the ap-
paratus used for wireless telegraphy
or telephony has a frequency of ga
600 cycles per second ln this alter
nator There is an iron wheel. weighing
several tons, that turns at the rate Of
fully 1000 revolutions a minute.
The magnetic amplifier, while abso-
! lutely unlike the DE Forest oscillion.
really serves the same purpose. The
multiple tuned antennn augment tho
vigor Of the note which Is thrown on
into the air; and il is also possible
to regulate their pitch to agree with
the key of the desired distant re-
ceiving station.
Without drawing this article out to
grcctFT Length, Il mast Le clear that
We have now reached a stage in radio
telegraphy where the range OF radi-
atcd speech through the air will DO
limited only by the power of the
sending station and the acutcness or
sensitivencss Of the receiving APP
DaratuS. American genius Is also
battling successfully with the bugaboo
OF static" and thus clearing the
way for the un!mpcded spread OF
speech bearing waves to shores
thousands OF miles removed.