WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 273 



ail enemy i.s between ii roliovino- jinny and a heleai^'uered (garrison, it 

 is very probable that the enejptiy, ])y keeping- up a "'cross tire" of 

 electric waves, could prevent coniniunication by means of wireless 

 telegraphy with the beleaguered army. 



As to the commercial or monetary value of wireless toleg-raphy, it 

 is yet too early to comment. Commercial trans- Atlantic wireless 

 telegraphy has been promised since the early part of 1001, but it is not 

 yet, at the end of 1902, accomplished. It is understood that the ^lar- 

 coni Compan}^ receives from the British Admiralty £HH) \)ov annum 

 for lifteen years, presumably during the life of patents, for each sta- 

 tion equipped. The Borkum lightship is what may l)e termed a wire- 

 less telegraph ''pa}" station," and according to the German postal 

 authorities, which control this station, 565 messag'es were handled 

 during live and a half months, or al)out three messages per day. of 

 which 518 messages came from ships at sea, while 17 were transmitted 

 to ships. A large percentage of these messages were to and from 

 North German Lloyd steamers. 



Since the tirst announcement of Marconi's successes with wireless 

 telegraphy many aspirants for honors in the same field have naturally 

 arisen, but so far as actual commercial results are concerned Marconi 

 has hitherto kept well ahead of other workers along this line. But 

 more recently such companies as the De Forest in this country and 

 the Slabo-Arco and the Braun in Europe are operating in numerous 

 instances with success. 



To obtain the greatest deg-ree of usefulness from wireless telegraphy, 

 when it is employed to prevent collisions at sea and to send informa- 

 tion from vessels in distress or when approaching or departing from 

 their respective harbors, which are popularly supposed to ])e the func- 

 tions for which this system is especially adapted, it would appear to be 

 essential that every vessel sailing the main should be ecpiipped with 

 the apparatus. The writer can say from experience that it requires 

 a considerable degree of expertness to maintain the apparatus in proper 

 working order, and even when code' signals only are employed a fair 

 amount of intelligence is recpiired. It is therefore a question whether 

 the reipiisite skill and intelligence would l)e available at all times on 

 all kinds of craft. 



There are, however, d()u))tless a great many places where the neces- 

 sary ex[)ertness of operators is available, and in which, therefore, the 

 full value of the system will be realized. In fact, it may ])e stated 

 that a vastly larger employment of wireless telegraphy is already 

 assured, since the Lloyds, whose extensive maritime interests are 

 world-Avide, have <Mitered into a contract with the Marconi Interna- 

 tional Marine Communication Company to equip all their coastwise 

 signaling stations with this system, jind to transmit and recene mes- 

 sages to and from all })assing vessels similarly e(|uipped, at a regular 

 SM 1902 18 



