The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-23

e Potomac in 1861-65. made the remotest corner of the world my neXt door neighbor." | There Is no spot anywhere on the earth's surface where. if high power station existed, a message sent from the Lafayette would not be instantly l received.
 France gave America the immortal work of Bartholdi-"Liberty Enlight- ening the WorIdw America has given France, through the genius and enter prise of her navy, fin de siecle va riation on the same theme. When the tidings of human progress, of commerce and industry and science and politics flash from Lafayette to | the high power stations of two hemi- spheres, in very real and significant sense it is Liberty Enlightening the World!'
 TOWERS s32 FEET HIGH
 La Fayette station consists of eight lofty towers, on immense concrete foun- dations, arranged in two rows. 1920 feet apart.
 Each tower rises to a height of SS2 feet, nearly 300 feet higher than the Washington monument.
 The system affords an antenna area of b,221,2 200 square feet, far larger than that of any other radio station. The longi- tudinal antenna wires are bronze cables, supported by what the wireless people call triatics. The latter stretch across the aisle formed by the two rows of tow CTS. The antenna wires are 690 feet above the ground.
 Signals received from La Fayette at Cavite, San Francisco, the Panama Ca- nal zone and Washington, during the tests, proved to be three to eight times as strong as those of other high power stations at like distances.
 When the plant was finished and the tests had demonstrated the success of what we had set out to do, we prepared a tablet and placed it on the main build ing, with the following inscription:
 Conceived for the purpose of insuring adequate and uninterrupted transatlantic communication facilities between the American expeditionary forces engaged in the world war and the government of the United States of America.
 Erected by the United States navy in conjunction with and for the government of France.
 ROBS SEA OF LONELINESS One of the great achievements of wire less has been to rob the sea of it's loneli- ness and of much of it's old-time peril | Before Marconi worked his miracle ship that had been driven from travelled ocean lanes by storm, or whose propeller shaft had been broken, or whose engine had gone out of business, might lie for days unseen and unable to communicate with any source of help. Helpless to steer a course, and at the mercy of wave and wind, it might be wrecked and sunk and none left to tell it's story. Such things have not been infrequent in the annals of the sea.
 ] Only those who have been to sea know the sense of loneliness, of utter isolation, of remoteness from any source of help ..Iu.. JNplr or bridge and looking around the full circle of the unbroken horizon, one sees nothing, absolutely nothing, but water vast monotony of undulating water.
 And the remoteness was as hopeless and as helpless as it felt until wireless came.
 Now, if ship gets into difficulty and needs help it splutters its s. o. s. from it's wireless, confident that it will be heard and answered.
 TALKED WITH ALL SHIPS During the war we talked to all our ships, anywhere whenever we had any thing to say; and they talked to one another We sent them submarine warn ings and routings and all kinds of in formation and orders Often we would send simultaneously as many as 50 or 60 messages to all kinds of vessels and they would be picked up by them without difficulty
 At the same time we were sending, our stations along the coast were intercept ing every word or signal sent out by ships at sea. Sometimes ''the air was full of them,'' as the. operators said. E The wireless operator in his little room had ears for the world, and all the world spoke to him. There came to him it's cries, its warnings, it's appeals. some times it's curses, and sometimes even it's laughter. Many secret he heard-and kept.
 But the message which never failed to send thrill through his soul was ''Allo! Alb. S. o. S." That call vibrating through the ether meant that somewhere an American or allied vessel was being attacked by U-boat. Every naval ves-- sel which heard it went hurrying at once ,l to the scene of it's origin.
 AIR FULL OF DISTRESS CRIES
 Sometimes in the war zone the air seemed full of 'Allos." Nearing the European coast ship could catch the wireless for hundreds of miles. One mo- ment it might hear distress signal from some vessel off Ireland, and the next from some craft being attacked in the Bay of Biscay
 Morale was stimulated and helped tre- mendously by wireless. Our wireless news service was greatly appreciated by the men at sea. It kept them almost as well informed as to what was happening at home,l and as to the vital happenings in other parts of the world, as if they had been able to get the last edition of the home town paper
 At 10 o'clock each night ships "cleared' for the navy press, and we gave out complete summary of the news Of America
 Perhaps one of the most interesting and useful things we did with wireless was to establish radio compass stations, which, by listening to the direction from which a wave length came with greatest force. could determine ships position at sea-
 GREAT HELP TO SHIPS
 These stations, of course, were origin ally erected as a means of locating sub marines, and in this work they proved so successful that the U-boats hardy dared use their wireless off our coast. Since they finished their U-boat job however, they have proved of the great est value to navigation. There are some 70 of them on the Atlantic. Pacific and gulf coasts, and any ship that becomes lost in fog or otherwise confused as to | it's reckoning can obtain by wireless from | the radio compass it's exact position. If it is in dangerous waters. it will be | given sailing directions which will en- | able 1t to steer safely into port
 Think of what this would have meant to Columbus, or Magellan. or Capt. Cook!
 Not . few inventions which were de- g.