Evening star., 1925-11-29

ties made available for war, the Nav.
in conjunction with commercial elet
trical manufacturers, made large and
progressive strides in the development
of radio. Radio telephony was made
practicable. The broadcast radio
transmitters of today are based on
these war developments.
During the war the Navy took over
the commercial radio stations and
modernized their apparatus. For eX
ample. a. high-power radio station on
the Atlantic Seacoast was then under
construction. and there was being In
stalled apparatus of British desigS
which the Navy considered of doubt
full practicability. So the Navy in
and this apparatus is still in opera
tiOn a that station.
x x i: x
I ONG before the war was over the
Navy had in operation the largest
radio set in the world. An interesting
phase was the organization for han
ding radio traffic between the United
States and Europe. The Navy system
not only handled the messages for the
United States naval forces on the high
seas but also those between the War
Department and the American eXpe
ditionary forces in France. The trans
mitting keys of all the Atlantic Coast
high powered radio stations-Marion,
Mass; Sayville, n y: New Bruins
wick, \. J.: Tuckerton. \. J., and
Annapolis, Md.--were controlled from
a single room in the Navy Depart
ment Building. in Washington.
From that room the Secretary of the
Navy could communicate instantane.
ously with France, Italy, England and
all our outlying possessions, as well
as with men-of-war at sea.
The Navy soon aScertained that this
system would be insufficient to handle
the rapidly increasing traffic load. So
naval radio operators were sent to
France to help man the French sta
tions, and this Immediately increased
the speed of handling the messages.
Early in 1918 the construction by the
Navy of an additional high.power
radio station in France was com
menCed. This Station-Lafayette
was of 1.20O-kilowatt capacity and re
mains the highest power radio station
in the world today. althoug. there -
one larger station in this country now
under construction.
1t is interesting to note that in the
interval between 1912 and 1919. a
period of only seven years, the 100
kilowatt station at Arlington had be
come obsolete and the newest stations
We're all in the order of 1,200 kilo-
watts, such was the progress in radio.
The Navy has not rested in it's en-
deayors since the war. There has been
developed under Navy specifications a
modern radio transmitter which has
proven to be most practical for eff
cient long range communication on
merchant ships.
The Navy's radio compass system
has been improved. and by this com
pass we assist vessels in making their
ports in fogS, thus enabling them to
complete more quickly their voyages.
This service rendered by the Nav
makes possible the saving of thou
sands Of dollars to organizations en-.
gagged in foreign and coastal trade.
As for the future, the Navy is en-
! gagged in some remarkable develop
| ments. some of which will have com
mercial application. There is being
established the first low-power, long
distance radio network in the world
| At least, the Navy will be the first to
have this new type of system ~ a
practical traffic handling basis.