Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1914 — SAFETY IN “WIRELESS” [ARTICLE]

SAFETY IN “WIRELESS”

VALUE TO TRAIN SERVICE CONSIDERED DEMONSTRATED.

“Line Breaks” From Any Source Need No Longer Be Matters for Consternation Among Division Superintendents—Special Equipment.

The utility of the wireless telegraph in directing the movements of ships at sea, in communication to and from ships and in calling for help in emergencies has been strikingly demonstrated, but it remained for an enterprising American railroad to apply wireless communication to and from moving- trains, 'says the Scientific American. A test has just been made successfully on an eastern railroad on a-regular express train running between New York city and Buffalo, though only a partial test in the experiments .thus far conducted, has shown immense possibilities of safety and time-saving by insuring that trains will always be in communication at any speed and at any distance from stations, regardless of “line breaks” from winter blizzards or from washouts, fog which obscures signals and other extraordinary conditions. In the ordinary wireless telegraph system messages are sent and received between stations equipped with antennae or “aerias” supported on high towers. The road has stations of this kind at Scranton, Pa., and Binghamton, N. Y., with a working radius of about 300 miles. But, of course, it is out of the question to place any structure such as an ordinary aerial on a railroad train which has to pass through tunnels and under bridges, and a prominent feature of these tests is the use of a highly special aerial for the train installation. Some very recent experiments, notably those conducted .on November 21 and 23, h>ive demonstrated that wireless communication can be maintained to and from a train equipped with a very low aerial, viz., a quadrangle of wfre supported at" a height of only 18 inches above the roof of the car. The distance between Scranton and Binghamton is about 65 miles, and in the experiments just made it was found possible to maintain communication from a train running at 55 miles per hour, part of the time, direct from the train to the fixed station away from which the train was speeding; and when the train had proceeded to a point too far away for. its short aerial to force signals through to this first station direct, the signals were delivered to the station by being picked up at the second station and relayed back. At no time during the tests was the train out of communication with both stations in this way.