Evening star., 1934-09-16
BOAT RACES MARK |
s. YEARS OF RAD|O|
Used by Marconi to ''cover"
Event in 1899 When
Utility Was Shown.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

ago this month that America had its
first practical demonstration of the
utility of radio. The occasion was
these selfsame Americas Cup races,
now being covered via radio for both
the press Of the world and the far
flung broadcasting networks almost
as matter of fact routine.
Most newspaper readers, although
they may know that the news reports
of the races are being flashed by radio
telegraph from craft following the con-
testantS, and most radio listeners, COM
PLEASANTLY tuning In the verbal de-
scriptions of the races direct from the
scene, perhaps little realize that this
years race marks so notable an ami
versary in the history of American
radio development.
Even aboard the British challenger
Endeavour and the American defend
er Rainbow, the shippers and crew
can, If they choose to do so, obtain
flrst-hand reports of their own
progress via radio receiving sets-re-
ports that may answer better than
they know themselves the question:
How're we doing?"
The old-timers will tell you that
today's highly modernized equipment
used in reporting the races represents
a far cry from the crude apparatus
that the 25-year-old Italian youth,
Guglielmo Marconi, brought over to
demonstrate to quizzical Americans
back in the Autumn of 1899. What
we accept as commonplace today-the
expert reporting of such a big event
by corps of reporters and announcers
and yachtsmen telegraphing or speak
ing into highly efficient short-wave
transmitters and having their mes
sages or voices relayed to all the
world-excited the imagination or
aroused the skepticism of countless
persons IS years ago.
Marconi Covered" Races.
In those days the word radio had
not yet been coined from the Greek
word meaning ito radiate." Then they
simply called it wireless. The young
inventor. Marconi, had been engaged
by James Gordon Bennett, editor Of
the New York Herald, to come over
and cover the race for his newspaper
and at the same time show what his
new-fangled contraption really could
do. Marconi had been startling Eu-
rope with his demonstrations that
telegraph messages could be sent over
appreciable distances without the use
of wires.
That the American yacht Columbia
beat Sir Thomas Lipton's Shamrock
is well-known history in the yachting
world. But the wireless reporting of
the race-along with the coincidental
triumphal arrival of Admiral Dewey
in New York Bay on his flagship
Olympia-was written into the annals
of American history.
Marconi had arranged with the
United States Lighthouse Service for
permission to erect a receiving an
tenna at the lighthouse at Navesink,
N. j. His spark transmitter was in
stalled aboard the steamer Ponce.
News bulletins were sent via wireless
telegraph very successfully to the land
station and thence relayed by land
wire to the Office of the New York
newspaper. Thousands Of words were
sent by reporters aboard the Ponce,
Marconi and his operators sending by
Morse code at the then fast rate Of
Is words per minute. Aside from the
instantaneous verbal descriptions Of
the present races, the short-wave
transmission of news is now accom-
plished automatically and direct to
destination at the rate Of $50 to 200
words per minute.
Marconi had had some experience
with that sort Of thing even before.
For the Dublin Express, In July, 1898,
he had covered the Kingston regatta
with a transmitter on the deck Of a
little steamer following the races. His
signals had been heard a distance OF
3o-odd miles. Even before that, pur-
suing his dream of wireless telegraphy
in England, he had made his signals
heard 10 miles out to sea, then "a
miles between Salisbury and Bath.
and then 80 miles across the English
Channel from Dover to Boulogne.
Early S o S'Can.
In April, 1899, or shortly before he
came to America, a collision OF q
steamer and British nghtship equip
ped with wireless had resulted in an
s o s call that brought assistance
before one of the vessels went down,
revealing the portential use OF wire
less by shipping that otherwise was
completely out of touch with the
world from the time it left one lands
end until 1t contacted another lands
end.
Like British and French officialdom,
the American military was not long
in evincing an interest in Marconi
and his invention. Army Signal Corps
officers watched the Navesink install
lation with intense interest. The Navy,
Immediately after the Upton race, ar
ranged for q demonstration by Mar
conf between the battleships New York
and Massachusetts,, whose officers were
witnesses to the establishment Of
new long distance record for wireless
So miles.
The rest is oft-repeated history;
how Marconi shortly thereafter span
ned the Atlantic with the code letter
"S"; how maritime nations began to
adapt wireless to their naval and ship
ping craft; how national and inter-
national radio-telegraph services began
to expand, and how the broadcasting
of voice and music was made possible
bv DIR. Lee De Forests invention OF
the vacuum tube. For America the
span between the Americas Cup races
of 1899 and those now in progress
encompasses a veritable saga OF prog
ress from spark wireless to the present
era of broadcasting and worldwide
radio-telegraphy and radio-telephony.
u, S, REPRESENTED