The New York herald., 1922-04-30
LISTENS TO MUSIC
| UP OVER 5000 FEET
Passenger Tells Of Radio Air
plane Trip From New
York to Albany.
BY c. ID. WAGNER.

Listening to a fox trot and other
musical selections while soaring 5000
feet above the earth, hearing the call
from ship at sea more than five hun
dred miles away and then the shrill
voice Of woman Announcing the next
radio selection to be broadcasted from
Newark department store was sensa-
ton quite out of the ordinary, at least
to me.
Often at home, in using my small
crystal set, connected between a bed
spring and radiator in my bedroom, /
have wondered at the mystery of the
ether waves, but 1t was far more amaz-
ing to me to hear selections carried on
these same uncanny waves reach my
ears while mile UP In the air.
This was what / experienced in a
flight recently in five passenger FOX
ker monoplane. equipped by the General
Electric Company with radio set, from
Curtiss Field. Mineola, to Roosevelt
Field. Albany. a distance of about ITS
miles. On the trip were Lieut.. Il. w.
Maynard, the Flying Parson; !" Mr.. and
Mrs. Schlafke, the aerial bride and
groom who the day before had been
married by Maynard in the same plane
over New York city; e. w. Dannals,
radio operator. and Bert Acosta, the
pilot.
Soon after we left the field 900 feet
of copper wire wound on a reel much
the same as used by fishermen, was
let out. This wire. weighted by heavy
lead sinker, passed out through the
bottom of the plane and was used both
as a sending aerial and receiving
antenna. After bidding goodbye to the
radio operators at the field we headed
north and took up course to the east
of the Hudson River.
For sending we used both radio tele-
phone and radio telegraphy, the latter
for keeping in touch with the army
station at the flying field and the many
amateur stations. and the telephone to
send out a radio program and make
special calls to various stations, such
as West Point, the Kntckerbocker Press
in Albany and WGY. the broadcasting
station of the General Electric Com
pany in Schenectady.
1t was when we neared Tarrytown
that I heard woman's voice announce
fox trot to be played at a radio
station in store in Newark Then
came the music. and it was wonderful
Using a leather headpiece. which
clamped receivers to both ears, all
outside noise from the airplane motor
was eliminated and the music came
through just as well as In any land
receiving set.
We also heard WIZ and when we
| neared Hudson w G began its program
and this came In so loudly that all
other stations were drowned out and we
could hear the music in our small cabin
without putting the headpiece to our
ears, a sensation somewhat of having a
| phonograph on the plane with us.
| We had been in the air an hour and
were near Matteawan. when Dannals an
| nounced that he had just picked up a
message from the S. S. Aquitania, then
| 500 miles east of Ambrose Lightship.
We made periodic tests with Mitchell
Field and kept In communication with
| II until we reached Hudson. when w G.
came into the air so loud that all other
messages were drowned.
From Hudson on to Albany. we CEN
tered our radio efforts on the knicker-
booker Press In Albany and the General
Electric station in Schenectady We
landed in Albany soon after O'Clock.