Wireless Signals Across The Ocean

Marconi Says He Has Received Them From England.

Prearranged Letter Repeated at Intervals in Marconi Code.

The Italian Inventor Will Now Leave St. John’s, N. F., and Will Go to Cornwall to Continue the Transatlantic Experiments from His Station There.

ST. JOHN’S, N. F., Dec. 14. — Guglielmo Marconi announced to-night the most wonderful scientific development of recent times. He stated that he had received electric signals across the Atlantic Ocean from his station in Cornwall, England.

Signor Marconi explains that before leaving England he made his plans for trying to accomplish this result, for, while his primary object was to communicate with Atlantic liners in midocean, he also hoped to receive wireless messages across the Atlantic.

The Marconi station in Cornwall is a most powerful one. An electric force a hundred times greater than at the ordinary stations is generated there. Before he left England, Signor Marconi arranged that the electrician in charge of the station, which is located at Poldhu, should begin sending signals daily after a certain date, which Signor Marconi was to cable to him upon perfecting the arrangements here. Signor Marconi arrived here eight days ago. He selected Signal Hill, at the entrance to the harbor, as an experimenting station, and moved his equipment there. Last Monday he cabled to the Poldhu station orders to begin sending signals at 3 P. M. daily and to continue them until 6 P. M., these hours being respectively 11:30 A. M. and 2:30 P. M., St. John’s time.

During these hours last Wednesday Signor Marconi elevated a kite, with the wire by means of which signals are sent or received. He remained at the recorder attached to the receiving apparatus, and, to his profound satisfaction, signals were received by him at intervals, according to the programme arranged previously with the operator at Poldhu. These signals consisted of the repetition at intervals of the letter “S,” which in Marconi’s code is made by three dots or quick strokes. This signal was repeated so frequently, and so perfectly in accord with the detailed plan arranged to provide safeguards against the possibility of a mistake that Signor Marconi was satisfied that it was a genuine transmission from England.

Again on Thursday, during the same hours, the kite was elevated and the same signals were received.

This made the assurance so complete that Signor Marconi cabled word of his success to his principals in England, and also made it known to the Governor of Newfoundland, Sir Cavendish Boyle, who apprised the British Cabinet of the result of the experiments.

Signor Marconi, though satisfied of the genuineness of the signals and that he has succeeded in his attempts to establish communication across the Atlantic without the use of wires, emphasizes the fact that the system is yet only in an embryonic stage. He says, however, that the possibility of its ultimate development is demonstrated by the success of the present experiments with incomplete and imperfect apparatus, as the signals can only be received by the most sensitively adjusted apparatus, and he is working under great difficulties owing to the conditions prevailing here. The Cornwall station is 1,700 miles from St. John’s.

In view of the success attending these trials, Signor Marconi will for the present disregard the matter of communicating with transatlantic steamers. He will return to England next week, and will conduct the experiments from Poldhu. He explains that the greater electrical power there will enable him to send more effective signals. He will undertake this work himself, leaving assistants here to erect a mast and receive the signals as he forwards them. It is not possible to send return signals from here until a powerful electric battery shall have been installed.

Premier Bond of Newfoundland offers to Signor Marconi every facility within the power of the Colonial Government for the carrying out of his plans.

Signor Marconi intends to build a large, fully equipped experimental station near St. John’s, besides the Lloyd station at Cape Race. The former will have the same equipment as the Poldhu station, and will play the same part on this side of the Atlantic as Poldhu does on the other side. It is expected that the St. John’s station will communicate with New York on one side, and Cornwall on the other, being midway between the two. This establishment will probably cost about $60,000, and is intended to perform the same work as a modern cable station.

Signor Marconi announces that he will remain in England until after the coronation of King Edward next Summer, and that he hopes to send the news of that event across the Atlantic by the wireless method, so as to prove the capability of the system for such purposes. He will probably in the meantime equip all vessels of the leading lines of steamers with his apparatus.