Article June 6, 1901 Issue

Increased Use of Wireless Telegraphy

New York Herald

The value of wireless telegraphy as a means of communication at sea and between ships and shore stations was again made plain by the recent experience of an English Channel mail boat. During a late voyage messages were received on board from the lightship stationed twenty odd miles off Dunkirk declaring that the lanterns could not be illuminated the next night unless speedy aid were sent from the coast. This appeal was repeated by the steamer to the station at La Panne, and the required assistance was sent in season to make the necessary repairs.

This is one of many instances that demonstrate the importance of this new aid to navigation. In the cruise of the Ophir the British convoying ships have used wireless telegraphy with great success in communicating their progress and the hour of probable arrival. In naval manœuvres great tacticla advantages have been secured through the certain information furnished by it over long distances from connecting groups of scouting ships. It is now claimed that direct and undisturbed messages have been received at points separated two hundred miles.

The great improvements made in the system and the reduced cost consequent upon the simplification and surety of methods and upon its more general employment will undoubtedly cause its installation in the higher classes of passenger and freight steamers, on board lightships, and at light-houses, life-saving depots, and signal stations. Its use will not be confined to the business or sentimental demands of passengers, because of its possible great value in giving early information of accidents or, in the case of continued fogs, in picking up the approximate distance, if not the bearing, of dangerous points on the coasts. Should economical directors of transport lines seek to defer this employment of the system, underwriters and governments may be depended upon to require it in the interest of ships and of their crews and passengers.

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