8 4 EXTENSION OF TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION 



put), which will shortly have its counterpart in a corresponding station at Atlantic City 

 New Jersey, U.S.A. As soon as this is completed a trans-Atlantic service will be 

 established between Germany and the United States, which is to be supplemented by 

 another station equipped by the same French company on the west coast of France. 



The quenched musical spark system of Baron von Lepel was bought up within the 

 last 2 years by the Compagnie Generate Radiotelegraphiqtte of Paris, which now effects 

 the greater part of French radiotelegraphy. This company has lately disposed of its 

 English and colonial patent rights to the Anglo-French Wireless Company of London, 

 which also works the Goldschmidt patents in England on behalf of the Compagnie de 

 Telegraphic et de Telephonic sans Fil. 



The French Government have determined to establish wireless communication 

 between France and her colonies. It is proposed to establish as many as five separate 

 chains of stations. One of these will have stations in the south of France, in Tunis, 

 Jibuti!, Pondicherry, and Cochin China, with a branch to Madagascar. The South Amer- 

 ican and African chain, starting from the same station in the south of France, will con- 

 nect with stations in Morocco, Colomb-Bechar, Senegal, Timbuctoo, Bangui, and Mar- 

 tinique. These two systems will be followed up by a connection across the Pacific, 

 with stations at Noumea and Tahiti. One is also to be erected in the west of France to 

 establish communication with North America^ The total cost of the complete system 

 will be about 807,800. 



The Poulsen system was first put into practice in Denmark some six years ago, and 

 a little later a station was established at Cullercoats on the eastern coast of England 

 this station having since been taken over by the British Post-office, along with all the 

 other commercial stations previously owned by wireless companies. For some years, 

 the system was turned to very little practical use, though the reasons for this are in no 

 way associated with its technical merits as a system. Within the last two years the 

 Poulsen system has been greatly developed by means of (automatic working) improve- 

 ments due to Professor Pedersen. In this form the system has been lately taken up by 

 an American organisation, the Federal Telegraph Company of San Francisco, formed, 

 in the first place, for establishing wireless communications between San Francisco and 

 Honolulu, the range being over 2,000 miles or somewhat in excess of that dividing the 

 North Atlantic Ocean. Wireless stations on the Poulsen-Pedersen system have also 

 been established by this Company at 14 different cities some covering land ranges 

 of over i ,600 miles in different parts of the United States. In the case of San Francisco 

 and Los Angeles additional apparatus has had to be installed to meet the increased 

 traffic since the original installation was effected in 1911. The Canadian government 

 also contemplate the adoption of the Poulsen-Pedersen system for effecting wireless 

 communication with the mother country between Halifax and a station in the British 

 Isles, subject to satisfactory demonstrations of its capacities. 



Like the Australian Commonwealth, the United States government recently decided 

 not to pledge themselves to any particular system. They propose to buy what is wanted 

 in the open market and establish their own system of radiotelegraphy. On this basis 

 the following were at the end of 1912 the projected radiotelegraphic stations of the 

 United States government some of which had actually been installed: Arlington 

 (Washington), Panama, San Francisco, Honolulu, Guam, Manila, Porto Rico, San An- 

 tonio (Texas), Fort Leavenworth (Kansas), Fort Omaha and Fort Riley. Several of 

 these are intended to serve strategic ends. It may be added that the amended Radio- 

 telegraph Act of the United States came into operation on December 13, 1912. It 

 establishes a system of complete Federal control over wireless communication, and 

 requires all operators to be licensed, amateurs being placed under very severe restrictions 

 and forbidden to transmit messages over more than 750 feet, with the object of preventing 

 them from interfering with the operations of the State and commercial systems. 



France, Germany, and Japan have each been maturing large schemes of wireless 

 communication in the Pacific. Three years ago, a secret conference at which the 

 British Government were represented was held at Melbourne to consider the same ques- 



