Evening star., 1921-10-02
ARLINGTON'S GREAT WIRELESS STATION
SERVES NATION IN PEACE AS WELL AS WAR

~ HE three big towers which sup
port the antennae of the Ar
lington radio station have be-
a come landmarks in and around
Washington. Washingtonians point
them out to their country cousins as
point of interest to be visited on a
sightseeing trip. and tie station it
self is the mecca for thousands of
amateur wireless bugs" who visit
the capital every year to take peek
at one of the most famous plants of
its kind in the world. Yet there are
few. in or out of the government
service, who know the great value of
the Arlington radio station as dis
pensing agency for Information sent
out in the daily routine to thousands
on land and sea who depend on it
for the safety Of their lives and prop
erty
Let an electrical storm come along
and put the apparatus at Arlington
out of commission for a day or two
and letters from all over the country
begin coming in. asking the trouble.
If a short-circuit puts the machinery
out of the running for day there
are hundreds of inquiries, ranging in
tone from the angry protest of a Min
nesota farmer to the request for de-
tailed information from an amateur
scientist who failed to get his time"
flash at noon. The peace-time work
at Arlington has become a necessary
government service. If for any rea-
son it was discontinued there would
no q ut
pean shores of the Atlantic to the
Pacific coast. The naval authorities
who have the station in charge know
its value. and, instead Of diminishing,
the amount of public service it rem
ders daily will constantly increase.
Arlington has four daily tasks to
perform. There are other services to
the government which keep the op-
orators busy twenty-four hours in the
day. and every day in the week. But
the four big functions are grouped
under the headings Of daily time serv-
ice. photographic service. weather
warnings and press dispatches. the
latter available only to vessels and
isolated stations Of the United States
Navy.
CONTRARY to popular belief. the
men who send the messages-ac-
tually pound them out on the keys
are not located at the Arlington sta
tion itself. but in little booth on the
roof of the Navy building at 18th and
B streets, several miles from the sta
ton. Their keys are connected by
cable which runs over the Highway
bridge Of the Potomac to the station
itself, where they are again connect
ed through series of relays to the
big keys, or switches, which control
the machinery at the station. A force
Of ten men under an officer is sta
toned at the Arlington station. but
their duty is confined to caring for
the equipment. They do none Of the
receiving is done at the Navy build
ing and is separate entirely from the
sending apparatus at Arlington.
Every day at 11:55 am. and again
at 9:55 pm. the switch is turned over
to the Naval Observatory for the
time flash. The key at the Naval OBJ
servatory Is connected with the big
master clock there, and the warnings
begin. For the first four minutes be-
fore noon and before 10 pm. the clock
ticks off it's dots" one for every Sec
ond. with silence warnings" of one
minute to 12 o'clock or 10 pm. twen-
ty-nine dots are sent, with silent
warning of one second, followed by
twenty dots and silent warning of
ten seconds. At the end of this ten
seconds comes the flash which notifies
every mariner within range of 1000
miles during the day and from $500 to
1000 miles at night, that it is exactly
IL o'clock noon or 10 o'clock p.m.. rs
degrees meridian. or Washington time.
When the mariner on the high seas
receives the Arlington time 1t en-.
ables him to set his chronometer to
the second. allowing for its devia-
tions ahead of or behind time. and to
make his nautical calculations there
from.
In the old days before wireless the
ships master took his chronometer to
the nearest jeweler before beginning
his voyage and left it there for test
ing, to determine its rate" of gain
or loss. Sometimes on the way from
the jeweler to the ship the chronom-
eter received jolt which speeded 1t
up or slowed II down, but the mar
iner never knew the difference. On
a long voyage his chronometer might
be away off the correct time, but.
lacking the equipment to make the
test, he never knew it. As his cal
culations of longitude and latitude
were based on the accuracy Of his
chronometer, there was always Sc
rious danger of a miscalculation
Wh1Cn might ldnO niIn on q TeeL OF
shoal and mean the loss of life and
property. But with Arlington sending
out its time flashes twice daily. there
is no occasion for the mariner whose
vessel is equipped with a receiving set
to make mistake in his calculations.
The service is available to every ship
within the radius of the Arlington sta
tion's apparatus. All of them make
use of it.
When the time service was first be-
gun 1t was discovered that amateur
and commercial stations all over the
country were making use of it. Jew
elers found it was much cheaper and
more convenient to have a little re-
ceiving set installed or to make an
ARRANGEMENT with some amateur wire
less owner to furnish them the cor
ro1ct tina daily for the adiu6tment of