The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 4, 1904, Page 7

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1904. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION BETWEEN POINT REYES AND FARALLONES IS ESTABLISHED - | FIRST OFFICIAL MESSAGE OUER UJIRELEYJ LINE COMES TO THE CALL — .\ FARALLONES, Jan. 3--~To The Call: - Farallones sends greetings to Call by wureless. THIESSEN. M Y a (P2 Officials Government Jubilant Over Success. G. McAdie, h of the Unit- au, has prac- f the in water with the whole und secret by s been ber 8. rtment chief ecsta- ffor S00m as pos- ery r sailing m d with the necessary r wireless tel y. Ves- reported hours and perhaps er than can be done under system. The a ultural tate can know days e will be rain. rtant of all, in time of war rnment of the United States plenty of warning of the ap- tile fieet to the bharbor The line of deferse just around the en- bay will be extended to the Point Reyes, the Farallones and k to the foot of the peninsula, San Francisco is the head. APPARATUS IS COSTLY. E atus in use on tue new sent has been quite ex- it is by no means the best ild have been obtained. The t already more than $10,- 1 there is need of money. 1l has been the experiment, t it is cxpected an appro- priation can be secured to continue the work : The apparatus at Point Reyes and Farallones consists principally of epgines, dynamos, masts, gaffs and batteries. McAdie has supervised the whole business and Thiessen has been second in charge. Weather Bureau Of- problem | | matter | | :’////,‘/ ) Y / /77 L ./////’//M X -~ - { TrrE S SV ‘ T CRETARY O HGRICT T URE, (Stgned) merce and for Defense. * - ficials Thomas and Hobbs have also | | been engaged in the work By McAdie has been studying wireless | telegraphy for several years. It is| pearly three years ago when high Gov- = ernment officials first began to regard | him as something of -an authority in | these matters. When Sec v of Ag- | | riculture Wiison visited S in May, 1901, with the late President McKinley, McAdie took him to the top of Mount Tamalpais and is supposed to have held a consultation there with him on the subject of wireless teleg- rephy. At any rate Secretary Wilson | has encouraged the local official in his | work and together with Chief Moore of the Weather Bureau has seen that | the funds necessary to conduct the ex- i periments have been forthcoming. In | July, 1901, Professor McAdie com- menced work on his present scheme of wireless telegraphy. Many men have been laboring for several months to make the plan successful. The results justify the expectations of McAdie and his helpers. HARDSHIPS ARE GREAT. The plant was not put in operation without great trouble. Something was always happening to make experiments unsuccessful. Two men had to be con- stantly at the Farallones and some- times they were forced to go hungry because the difficulties of transporta- tion were so great. Boats could net sail according to schedule on account of stormy weather. Crews sometimes failed to make a landing on the islands when the boats reached their destina- v n Francisco | | 2y nd c"“z‘\ ) f"‘Q" + D p P 5 \::E h\NE-s“/ e [T SHOWING FREZSFZIY AND FROPOSZL ~ ~ ‘ B IR ITIVESTT Zo TR . g x5 CABINET OFFICER AND HEAD OF LOCAL WEATHER BUREAU THROUGH WHOSE EFFORTS WIRELESS TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED WITH FARALLONES: ALSO STATIONS AND A DIAGRAM GIVING IDEA OF DEFENSES EXISTING AND PLANNED OF THIS HARBOR. — - — - — SUCCESS- CROWNS THE CALL'S EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY The Call is highly gratified at the result of the experiments of McAdie and Thiessen and heartily congratulates them, as well as Chief Moore and Secretary Wilson, who made the attempt possible by provid- . ing funds. It will be remembered that The Call has been foremost among American newspapers in advancing the causes of experimenters with wireless telegraphy. i The Call at once recognized the immense and inestimable advan: tages that would accrue to the nation if some of our experts could solve the great problem. It has particularly appreciated the begefits of having wireless telegraphy in practical use at San Francisco and along the coast. As'it has been foremost in encouraging inventors, it is now pleased to be the first to congratulate those who have first attained success. -+ Call Receives the First Message Sent Betwee Farallones and n Point Reyes. s tion. =~ The Weather Bureau officials | on the islands lived a life almost as| tull of soliiude as that of Alexander | Selkirk. They ate canned goods and drank stale water. Their only recre- ation was work. The experts at Point | Reyes had almost as hard a time. The apparatus appeared bound not to | be operated. Some delicate piece of | electrical machinery seemed always | lost or broken. The work was dis- couraging In the extreme. Genjus and persistency finally won | the victory. The Weather Bureau has | a cable from Point Reyes to the Faral- | lones and this enabled the ax-]‘ perimenters to comunicate with | each other while laboring on| their wireless telegraph system. Without the cables the successful in- | stallation of the plant could probably | never have been accomplished. | jt was desired that the whole matter | be kept secret, partly that foreign na-| tions might not get too much informa- tion of our progress with the new dis- covery, partly that there might be no interference from the other depart-| ments of Government of the United States. M'ADIE BEATS NAVY. While McAdie was attempting to install a working system of wireless telegraphy between Point Reyes and the Farallones, Admiral Glass was laboring by similar methods to es lish a line between Goat Island and Point Bonita. The Washington au- thorities were eagerly awaiting news of the success of one or both. The naval line never amounted to much. Two masts were erected and | apparatus was installed. The operat- ors never.got so far as to communicate at long distance without using the tel- ephone wires. Before the experiments were ended, however, Admiral Glass| was ordered away. The Navy subse- quently requested that it be presented with the Farallones plant. The | Weather Bureau officials refused to listen and so McAdie was allowed to continue his experiments. The local system is largely original with Thiessen and McAdie. Both have made Improvements on previous inven- tions.: It is to be known by the cour- tesy of McAdie as the Thiessen system. Several systems of wireless telegraphy are in use on the Atlantic seaboard at present. German, French and Ameri- can ships of the line are equipped with I { —~ apparatus. Mesages frequently sent to and from ships far out at sea. The Marconi and the De Forrest syse tems are the ones most generally used, It is alleged that the experts of vari- ous nations have made much progress with wireless telegraphy in the last few months, but resuits as well as methods are being kept secret. The reason for this is that a wireless sys- tem which works perfectly will be of infinitely more value to a fleet of war vessels than whole cargoes of torpes does. are RECEIVER IS BETTER. The great point of superiority in Me- Adie’s apparatus is the receiver. Aside from the fact that this system is the first to be used at the port of San Francisco, the success attained is of great importance by reason of its be- ing effective, economical and on a prac- tical basis. Most of the previous suc- cessful experiments with wireless teleg- raphy have been extreimely expensive. It was fefffed that the discovery could hardly become of use generally. McAdie has made it pessible to tele- graph without wires at what will be a comparatively cheap rate. The re- ceiver is a delicate and effective instru- ment, which costs approxmmately 8 cents. It is made of emery dust and mercury. Heretpfore these instruments have been very expensive. At present, the receiver will not last for more than three or four days. It is McAdie’s be- lief that he or Thiessen will improve upon it. The greatest difficulty previously en- countered by experimenters with wire- telegraphy was to make the appa- ratus work in all kinds of weather. Fog, rain, heat nor cold have any ef- feet on McAdie's line. It has been worked all through the month of De- cember without any serious hitches. The greatest trouble has been in keeping the vital portions of the appa- ratus dry. Both McAdie and Thiessen have schemes for improving their sys- tem. Neither seems to hope for per- sonal aggrandizement as a result of his great success and eacn trfes to pass the glory up to Secretary of Agricul- ture Wilson and Chief Moore of the Weather Bureau. PLAN USE ON SHIPS. ‘The inventors hope to have apparatus installed on some-of San Francisco's Continued on Page 9, Column L.