Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-04-27
IN USE
+. Of WIRE AND CABLE
|SFORECAST HERE
Gen. Squier Tells Scientists
of War Need Banishinq
Insulation.

Telephone, telegraph and cable COM
munication methods may be revolu-
tionized as result of experiments
conducted by the Army Signal Corps
and described today before the Ma
tional Academy Of Sciences at the New
National Museum by Maj Gen. George
A. Squier. chief of the corps
Explaining how the Army had OBJ
tained well nigh perfect results both
in telegraphing and teiephoning over
bare wires laid in the water and on
and under the ground. Gen. Squier
predicted that the expensive heavy
insulated land and submarine cables
now in use would be replaced by sin
+gle bare wires, over which number
OF telephone OF telegraph messages
would be sent at the same time.
Wire I'm Potomac River.
Gen. Squier told the scientists that
both telegraph and telephone COM
munication were established recently
between Fort Washington. Md. and
Of a mile, on opposite sides of the
Potomac river. by the use of bar.
phos0hor-bronZe wire laid in the
river to connect the two stations
Similar communication was estab-
lished between two stations at the
signal corps laboratory at Camp AL
fred Vail. n. j.. by using bare copper
wire buried about eight inches in the
earth and connecting the two stations,
about three-quarters of a mile apart
AS ocean telegraphy in its present
form has reached a limit and sub
marine telephony is practically i'm
possible. Gen. Squier said. the hone
for improvement lies in the adoption
Of bare wires laid in the water. using
high frequency currents and in the
study OF the necessary changes
Due 10 War Necessity.
While the germ of the present idea
was noted by Gen. Squier in 1910. il
was not until the United States en-
tered the war that the necessity for
rapid development came. He told the
scientists that the need Of eliminat-
ing insulation arose when the United
States was called on to supply the
allies as well as itself. Machinery
for insulating wire in use in this
country had capacity of only 5000
OF wire monthly was required by the
American Army alone.
Other Papers Read.
Other papers on today's program of
the academy included one hy prof
Robert Fl. Goddard, on The Possi-
bilities of the Rocket in weather
Forecasting:" and one by Profs
l honids ID. osoorhe ana Lafayette h.
Mendel. on Some Common Foods as
Sources Of Eitamines" The value of
oranges. lemons and other fruits was
stressed. Other papers to be pre-
sented today were given by {. Hart
Merriam. John c. Merriam, George
Frederick V Coville, Lawrence ].
Henderson. William A. Noyes. Gilbert
N Lewis. william f. Durand. Leon
ard E. Dickson. Edward Kasner, +. +.
Pernot. Lyman j. Briggs, H. Fielding
Reid WaIdemar Lindgren Charles p.
Walcott, Raymond Pearl and Ed
ward S. Dana.
The annual meeting Of the academy
is to close tomorrow with the election
of various officers and fifteen new
members. Dr.. Charles D. Walcott,
secretary Of the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition and president of the National
Academy of Sciences. will retain his
position as head of the academy
The British ambassa dor is to accept
A medal on behalf Of Prof. Alfred
Fowler Of England at the annual
dinner of the academy tonight at
Rauscher's gold medal also is to be
presented to Herbert c. Hoover.
Variance In Views.
Last night Dr. Harlow shapley Of the
Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory and Dr.
Heber D. Curtis of the Lick Observa-
tory advanced opposing views as to the |
of the star-populated space +.
In which our world revoives.
The general question was primarily /
whether there is one great universe /
perhaps ten times larger than has been |
held previously. and including all the I
spiral nebulae. or whether there are
perhaps. a million other star galaxies or /
island UNIVERSE similar to ours. each ,
in the form OF a spiral nebula I
two or three billion stars
each
DR.. Curtis defended the older idea,
which was until recently generally ac-
cepted. holding that our galaxy of stars.
the Milky Way is less than 10000
ight-years in diameter and not more
than 5000 light-years in thickness. To
the lay mind even this seems rather
spacious distance that light travel
ing $4,000 miles a second takes five
times the earth's recorded age to ira
verse. I'm this space" said DR.. Curtis.
are distributed practically all the stars
he planetary and the diffused nebulae
md the star clusters. The spirals. com
=