Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1919 — RADIO SIGNALS SENT UNDERSEA [ARTICLE]

RADIO SIGNALS SENT UNDERSEA

Device Made Communication Through Water and Beneath Ground Possible. SECRET HONS DIDN’T KNOW Maryland Scientist Is Persuaded After Much Pressure to Accept Remuneration for Time Spent Working on Invention. Washington.—How underground and —through-water wireless was put Into practical use during the war was disclosed by navy department officials, giving to the public another of its secrets. carefully guarded so long as It might be of value to the enemy. Government officials regard this development. originated in private research by Janies H. Rogers, a scientist of Hyattsville. Md . as one of the war's major scientific advances of the kind. In practical use the new system so far -hr employed- onty for receiving. Radio messages sent ouL from powerful stations in Europe are now being read at underground receiving stations in the United States and in —some mses, better than when caught by the elaborate and expensive air stations. -Z_2_ Got Signals Under Waves. In addition, it was revealed at the department, through an adaptation of the Rogers submarines under water are intercepting radio signals sent from shore and with crude apparatus! The scientist has succeeded in transmitting signals two miles from a submerged wire simulating a submersible. Officials say it is sitde. though not yet an accomplished fact, that ground or water sending can be developed to a considerable extent. They do not. anticpate, however, that the present fnethod of sending from

high towers will be superseded except for limited special purposes. The theory most generally held until Rogers demonstrated the correctness of Tils views, was that impulses hurled into the air from a radio transmitting station and deflected earthAvanTliecarne dissipated, as does lightning, when they struck the groundor "at er. The Maryland scientist, however, believed that the Impulses flowed through the earth as through the air and that it was only necessary to trap and measure them In the ground. He had been at work on this theory before the United States entered the war and already had interested naval experts. He offered the results of his work to the navy without restriction, and when they were accepted after some demonstrations at Hyattsville, officials say, he was with difficulty persuaded to accept even remuneration for actual time given to co-operation with the goVemment. —One of the first steps ta ken wnS the request of the navy department.

(>nder war legislation. that his application for patents be expedited. This whs done. ~ ■ - .. ■ 4: Main Advantages. Some of the main advantages of the Rogers system as developed'-xo far, -accord >h g to ex|il ■rt s, nre a Ini oat n c gll--giHe cost irf r rmstr tu-tirm. the intensifying of signals by pointing the sending apparatus toward the receiving stat ion and nsltir-tton of stsrt it- interference-. —Because -of the la 11 er -ad van- - tage, the navy's receiving station at New Orleans, uhere communication with ships In Southern waters swept by frequent .electrical storms is maintained. uses the underground apparatus with marked success. In war a grmit :i<l vunt:iu‘* that suhmurmr-r - rvn-hv messageswh ile submerged, This i-« being—done- by wires trailing in the water. The Rogers- development aroused electrical expert* of the government to new efforts ,to expand and improve radio transmission facilities. Out of the experimental work done with this and other ideas steady advance has been made under war presslire ami Rogers’ theories are interwoven with those of other men it) the results that areJudng- <>bt.a ined. ;