Evening star., 1932-01-24

and square in her engine room
compartment. The cabins on
deck were shattered or Wrenched
away. The roof of his own Wire
less cabin had collapsed, and the
telephone between the wireless
cabin and the bridge destroyed.
BinnS Immediately went to his
apparatus, which consisted OF a
10-inch spark coil run from the
ships lighting mains and which
could be used either for untuned
sending at the natural period of
the aerial or with a tuned circuit,
an inductance and condenser OF
Leyden jars. The antenna was
still up when the lights went out,
but the generators were out OF
commission along with the other
machinery of the ship.
AS the swift current was swing
ing the two vessels around, most
of the wireless cabin was swept
away. But the apparatus was in
working order when Binns shifted
over to storage batteries for
power. Operating the spark coils,
the batteries made possible a
range of perhaps so miles.
Tt was dark and foggy and
cold. Binns wrapped himself in
what clothes he could find and
began sending the c @ D, then
the distress call He raised
Jack Irwin, the watch at Sias-
consett station on Nantucket
Island. Irwin sent out the gen.
eral distress call. The first to
answer was the White Star liner
Baltic.
AS the Republic was slowly sink
ing, the passengers were all
transferred to the Florida, a
small ship carrying some 1000
Italian refugees from the Mes
sina earthquake. The transfer
was accomplished safely, but
Binns, along with the captain
and other officers, stuck with his
ship. He stayed at his key for 10
hours before the Baltic hove into
sight, at about pm, Then that
vessel began to take on all the
passengers of both the Republic
and Florida. 1t was all done
before midnight.
Binns was still at his wireless
when daylight broke Sunday
morning. Looking out, he saw
ships on all sides. Every liner
and freighter with radio within
3OO-mile radius of the disaster
had answered his call. The
Florida proceeded under convoy
for New York, and the Republic
was taken into tow, Binns, the
captain and the senior officer
still on board. But the ship
made no real progress, and Sun
day night it was apparent she
was doomed.
She was finely abandoned
and she sank. Jack BinnS was in
the boat that picked up the
captain and mate from the icy
waters into which they had
| leaped. He came back to be
lauded and feted for his heroic
task. He had stuck to his post
48 hours, and his radio work had
made possible the saving OF
thousands of lives.
Jack Binns was 25 at the time,
having been born in England IN
1884. He learned his radio in one
of the early Marconi companies
and had served on a German
ship for the Belgian Marconi. He
was later transferred to the
British vessel Republic. During
| the war he was an instructor IN
the Canadian Air Corps, both In
aviation and radio. He was later
a newspaper man in New York,
where he was one Of the earliest
radio editors. He joined the
Hazeltine company seven years
ago and is now its treasurer.
4 PPLICATIONS for new broad
n casting stations, filed with
the Federal Radio Commission at
the rate of about one a day dur
ing 1881, are coming in at about
the same rate during the first
month of 1882. Usually, the ap-
njicants seek local low power
Stations to serve communities in
States that are underquota in
their due allotment Of radio
facilities under the quota alloca-
tions set up by the commission
as a result of the Davis equaliza-
ton amendment.
Although the Court OF Appeals
here in recent test cases upheld
the validity OF the Davis amend