YACHTING IN 1902. 



841 



grams. The Italian Government, which has used 

 the system largely on its war-ships, is so assured 

 of its success that it has granted a subsidy of 

 40,000 a year, while the English Government 

 pays royalties for the use of the instruments on 

 their war-ships. Companies have been organized 

 in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States 

 for exploiting and controlling the use of the Mar- 

 coni system. 



Germany from the beginning has not favored 

 the Marconi system and has turned to the de- 

 velopment of the system that bears the names 

 of Prof. Slaby and Count d'Arco. This it has 

 used with great success in the recent maneuvers 

 of the army and navy. France also has adopted 

 the Slaby-Arco system, and the United States 

 Government has experimented extensively with it. 

 In addition to the Marconi system the United 

 States has also experimented with a system, in- 

 vented by Prof. Reginald A. Fessenden, of Wash- 

 ington, D. C., in which he uses in place of the co- 

 herer what he calls a " magnetic wave detector." 

 At 50 miles he was able to receive messages with 

 precision at the rate of 25 words a minute, and 

 he predicts a possible rate of 500 words a minute 

 for this instrument. Gen. A. W. Greely, of the 

 United States Signal-Service, looks with special 

 favor upon the system invented by Dr. Lee De 



Forest, of New York city. His system has met 

 many severe tests and was used successfully in 

 the army and navy maneuvers off the eastern 

 end of Long Island in 1902. It has since been 

 installed in several of the forts and at Annapo- 

 lis, whence test messages have been sent to 

 Washington. De Forest was the first to use the 

 alternating current and " step up " transformer, 

 which is now known to have been used by Mar- 

 coni in his long-distance work. He receives the 

 messages from the aerial conductor in a " trans- 

 former " connected to an ordinary telephone re- 

 ceiver, which work on an altogether different 

 principle, and does away with the slow and deli- 

 cate coherer of Marconi's earlier experiments. 

 With it he has attained a speed of 40 to 50 words 

 a minute. With the coherer the maximum safe 

 speed is only about 12 words a minute. 



The United States Government has committed 

 itself to no particular system, but is investi- 

 gating all with impartiality. Contracts have 

 been awarded the Marconi and De Forest com- 

 panies for establishing stations in Alaska, and 

 the army, the navy, and the Weather Bureau 

 have experts detailed to the work of developing 

 its greatest usefulness. 



WISCONSIN. (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 WYOMING. (See under UNITED STATES.) 



Y 



YACHTING IN 1902. The first conspicu- 

 ous yachting event of the season was unique and 

 of international and diplomatic import. It is 

 well known that the German Emperor long since 

 established a world-wide reputation as a cruis- 

 ing yachtsman that is, as one who loves to go 

 to sea for the pleasure of it and not merely for 

 the excitement of racing and of being the mere 

 -owner of racing machines. For this reason he 

 was naturally attracted to the best type of sea- 

 going craft, and after sundry experiments with 

 cutters as developed under the English build- 

 ers he seemingly arrived at the conclusion that 

 schooners were best adapted to his purpose, and 

 therefore he became the owner of the famous 

 American yacht Yampa, which had distinguished 

 herself in many deep-water races and proved her 

 ;sea-going capacity in many extended cruises. 

 But she was not quite large enough and sea- 

 worthy enough to meet the Emperor's wishes, 

 and he consulted her designer, A. Gary Smith, 

 of New York, with a view to securing a more 

 suitable craft. Plans were drawn and submitted, 

 and as they received the Emperor's approval the 

 work of construction was begun in 1901 at Shoot- 

 er's island, near New York. 



As the vessel approached completion, or per- 

 haps as the result of previously conceived plans, 

 the Emperor decided to make the occasion of the 

 launching an affair of state, and it was an- 

 nounced that his brother, Prince Henry of Prus- 

 sia, with the royal yacht Hohenzollern, would 

 be sent over to take part in the ceremonies. 



It presently transpired that correspondence of 

 a more personal nature had passed between Pres- 

 ident Eoosevelt and the Emperor, and it was an- 

 nounced that Miss Alice Roosevelt would name 

 the yacht Meteor with the formalities usual on 

 such occasions. The vessel was completed and 

 rigged on time and launched on Feb. 25, under 

 wintry conditions, but without the slightest acci- 

 dent until after she was afloat, when, through 

 the blunder of a tugboat captain, she suffered 

 some slight damage. It was not serious enough, 



however, to prevent her from proceeding almost 

 immediately to sea. A crew of English cutter- 

 men with an English sailing-master were brought 

 over to take charge of this Yankee schooner, and 

 she was successfully navigated across the ocean, 

 and her interior fittngs were completed under the 

 Emperor's directions by English workmen. Since 

 that time there has been a deal of curiosity and 

 some criticism upon her performance during the 

 races in which she has taken part. Much of 

 this, however, has resulted from a misunderstand- 

 ing of her design. The order from the Emperor 

 as originally given was by letter in which the 

 words " cruising type " were twice underscored, 

 and this wish on the part of his Majesty was 

 emphasized on every occasion in which he ex- 

 pressed his preferences in regard to the boat. 

 Having been the owner and practically master 

 of an American schooner, he must have acted 

 with full intelligence when he prescribed the 

 " cruising type." The vessel was intended as an 

 improvement upon the Yampa. whose draft was 

 13 feet and 6 inches, while the Meteor's was 15 

 feet, though the designers well knew that to 

 make a record in the racing events 20 feet draft 

 should have been given to her. Such a depth, 

 however, would have rendered her useless except 

 in the open sea, and in the opinion of her de- 

 signer this draft, though necessary for the great- 

 est speed, would have been a detriment to a sea- 

 boat. 



The Iroquois, whose sea record is unsurpassed, 

 draws only 9 feet and 6 inches with a load water- 

 line of 80 feet, and her performance in riding 

 out the famous blizzard of 188 is well remem- 

 bered, for the ocean was strewn with the wrecks 

 of all kinds of vessels. Her performance last au- 

 tumn in winning the ocean race from Sandy Hook 

 to Cape May and return, goes to establish the 

 American theory that great draft in a sea way 

 is not a prime necessity. She won from modern- 

 built vessels 20, 30, and even 45 feet longer than 

 she on the water-line, and this in a reefing breeze 

 to windward. All this seems to show that, 



