Evening star., 1946-10-06
Capital Sidelights
Bu VIII P. Kennedu.

By Will P. Kennedy.
Col. John A. Hinkey, who during the
war handled information for the War
Department and now is on the faculty
of the School of Journalism at Notre
Dame University, discloses that the first
successful experiments in wireless
telegraphy in the United States were
conducted at Notre Dame University,
in 1899, by the then professor Of physics
and electrical engineering, DR.. Jerome
Green. The first wireless message sent
in this country, he says. was flashed
that year from the Notre Dame campus
to st. Marys College for Women, 1la
miles away. That was less than three
years after Marconi was granted a
patent on wireless in England. About
the time of the Notre Dame test wire
less set was installed on the American
liner st. Paul, with range Of less than
IS miles. Two years later a message
was received on the liner Philadelphia
from 500 miles distance. American
inventors who devised many wireless
improvements between 1900 and 1915
AAeAAASa A|SS A<C CoA GOV tWAtAA 4ilS ddOiOl
tube). r. A. Fessenden. E. F. w. Alex
anderson and Edwin H. Armstrong. In
1906 the Marconi Co. erected station
on Cape Cod which succeeded in send
ing the first transatlantic message but
proved inadequate for commercial use.
Then it built another station on Cape
Breton Island which inaugurated public
service in 1908. In the meantime, Mr.
De Forest had erected five large stations
for the United States Navy in Florida
and the West Indies, and ships were
being equipped with wireless. In Janu-
ary, 1909, the first important sos was
sent when the liner Republic crashed
Oh Nantucket. The first great achieve
nlent Of wireless led to the rescue of
7l2 passengers from the sinking Titanic
in 1912. Radio telephone service across
the Atlantic was inaugurated in October,
1915.
Paratroopers in World War II were
forecast more than 100 years earlier by
Benjamin Franklin of kite-and-key
record. In 1882 he discussed the pos
sibility of using balloons in warfare,
predicting that 5000 balloons capable
of ascending with two men each would
cost no more than five ships and point
ing out that 10000 men descending from
the sky. lin surprise attacks could do far
more damage than slow-moving army.
Long arguments in Congress over
relatively trivial matters with an occa-
sional admonition or reprimand from
the executive are nothing new in legis-
lative history. Back in the First Con-
gress, in 1871, Gen. James Jackson (who
had served in the Georgia Provincial
Congress, been a member of the First
Constitutional Convention of that State,
commanded the Georgia Legionary
Forces in 1871 and received the keys of
Savannah from the British, July Il,
1882 gave his colleagues a bit of a
lecture. Arguing over tax on liquor,
the House had spent two days 'in
useless chatter" over what constituted
village. Jackson said: II supposed
questions would arise to be determined
by the judicial authority of the United
States. If this should not appear to
be agreeable to the House, I would
propose that it should be referred to
the College Of Physicians: those gentle
men Of the squirt, who, as they had
attempted to squirt morality and in
struction into the minds of the members,
perhaps may also be able to squirt
understanding into the House on this
subject"
In the Second Congress, Gen. Jackson
contested the election of Mad Anthony"
Wayne, and the seat was declared
vacant. but the following year he was
sent to the United States Senate. He
died in washington, was buried in Rock
Greek Cemetery In 1906, and reinterred
in Congressional Cemetery 2o years later.
The first coins struck OF by authority
of the United States Government were
coppeEs bearing the legend: Mind Your
Business" Congress had authorized
James Jarvis Of New Haven to produce
them to the amount Of 10000 The
reverse side proclaimed: I'VE Are One !"
The first imitation in this country
resulted soon after Pieter Minuit got
his Manhattan settlement under way.
| The Dutch traders found wampum the
Indian currency-cylind white, blue
and black beads, half an inch long.
made from seashells. It took about $24
worth to buy the whole Island Of Man
haitian. The white men promptly
manufactured wampum in such quanti-
| ties from the abundant seashells that
| imitation caused the wampum to lose
its value as . circulating medium.