Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1922-03-16
TELLING THE WORLD BY RADIO

New York. March io.--Ncw York (
tion these days. II has gone In for /
radio phoning. Suddenly. everybody |
has begun 20 talk radio, play with /
radio and invite you to studio ether |
tapping parties The once so popular /
ouija board is now q back number /
when II comes to receiving weird and |
amusing messages. Instead, the !
family gathers about its little radio |
receiving apparatus and listens TO the
varied program OF music. lectures,
news dispatches and children's bed
time stories nightly broadcast by the
large commercial radio companies.
! Although this ETHEREAL entertain
ment has been popular for some time.
II is only within the past two or three
months that tho passion for radio
has become acute, 100000 new receiy-
ing sets, 81 is said, having been in
stalled In that time. Recent esti-
mates show that approximately 7O0,-
900 American homes, schools.
churches, halls and office buildings
are now equipped as receiving sta
lions, while the Federal Government
has licensed more than $4,000 stations
for transmitting messages Of one kind
} and another.
Every evening at 3 o'clock, thous-
J ands of amateur radio operators, scat
tered all over New York City, New
Jersey, Long Island and up through
! New York state. start twirling the
= curious knobs on top Of their radio
boxes; adjusting their headpieces, and
b listening 10 the loud, clear sounds OF
photograph record which is being
played many miles away. They con-
: tinue to listen intensely and rap
turously. not because they find the
record so edifying Qt would sound
much better played on their own
phonographs) but because IL Is so de-
lightfully uncanny to hear Il from
such a distance over the radio-tele-
!, phone.
y Static Mars the Music.
j. "Oh," exclaimed young woman
Q breathlessly, tho other evening, as
s she sat for tho first time with the
= receivers in her ears, ITS quite clear
n and I can even hear the scrapine
e sound Of the record. It's Caruso. He's
e singing Ave Maria Where IS it com
u ing from? Trenton? Think Of that
Trentonl And he's been dead al
o these months. yet here is his voice
q singing to US and perhaps TO thous
: ands Of others way out there in tn
~ night. Perhaps his voice can be hear,
. all the way over In Italy, where h
. Hes buried-do you suppose so?"
a. 81 hn
:, box, perhaps IL could. IL sent fror
- one of the big broadcasting stations
90 II wish the sound of the record wer
- not so terribly loud. though" com
planned the young woman. Some
70 times 1t browns out the song".
q THAT is not the sound OF the recor'
y. you hear" the owner laughed. "Ths
A., is what we call Old Man Static
Iv Sounds like frying bacon on rec
he hot fire, doesn't Il? Sometimes II
IN much worse than Il is tonight, bt
~ it's always pretty bad. One OF III
80 mean features the radio inventor
sc have not succeeded IN overcoming
en- He's finished" interrupted III
young woman. Now they're putin
something else on A mans voic
tion-KG-nomething can't Out
hear the last letter. He's readir
some news, all about Lloyd George
England, and now IT'S about a ru
schooner found or the coast Of
didn't get that-oh, yes, he says
will be cloudy, with easterly win
tomorrow. Goodness, there's 20
friend, Static, again-it's quite dea
ening, isn't It? An, here's some mo
music, but now they are playing t.
records at once, and It sounds frigh
full. One IS a Jazz record and the 9th
Is Tosti's Goodbye It's all RICH
the jazz has stopped. I suppose t
Goodbye song ends this particul
program, doesn't it?"
Probably" assented the owner
the apparatus, taking the headpie
from the young woman's head, ID
something else from some other qua
ter will doubtless start up in a Il
minutes. The broadcasting goes
all evening. The most interesti
thing, though. Is to get on the hi
wave length where you can hear I
90 wireless telegraph spark signal
news from the great Nauen staff
. near Berlin or from the big Britt
= plant in the Welsh hills near c.
~ narvon to Deal Beach, New Brunswi
VI" or Arlington in this country. TT
ier' makes you realize the enormous pow
iiu' of the radio
II Small Sets Cover 100 Miles.
Most Of the radio sets sold to priv
individuals possess guarant'
range Of 100 miles, which is suffici
TO let the owners in on the regu
commercial programs, but which
cludes them from intercontinen
conversation. Fortunately for the
nifty OF international diplomacy, it
? Nauires a couple of hundred foot ST
=, towers, several thousand feet OF C
per wire and a hundred thouss
watts or so OF electric energy TO Z
: to Europe. Amateurs are restricted
200 meter wave lengths or less, {
y are under the supervision of ia
inspector whose business is to
that they confine their operations
short distances only. Neverthel
: when the great transatlantic Il
were nade by American. English ;
: Scotch amateurs on the memors
night OF December Z. 1921. the c
. signals of 26 different America
:, most of them using homemade eqr
ment, were distinctly heard in ST
= land.
= The acquisition OF the usual al
teur radio receiving station is a V
!, simple matter. You can have one
stalled in your home for the sum
. SS5 up to $3.50. depending upon
u nature of the equipment. OF cou