New York Times, October 28, 1904, page 8:
IGNORED BY MARCONI.
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No Communication from Steamer by Wireless Off Nantucket.
When the new wireless telegraph station on the Nantucket Lightship, which the Navy Department has installed in place of the Marconi system, is ready for work to-day the operators will find that they can hold no communication with any ship or station using the Marconi system. For several years the Marconi apparatus was used at Nantucket, and it was only a short while ago that the Government ordered the service stopped. The new system installed is the Rochefort, and, according to an officer of the company, is nearer like the Marconi system than any other.
The refusal of the Marconi Company to recognize the Government station will greatly lessen its usefulness. It means that none of the great transatlantic liners using the Marconi system will send or receive messages from the station. Among these vessels are the North German Lloyd liners Kronprinz Wilhelm, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, and Kaiser Wilhelm II.; all of the Cunarders, the vessels of the American Line, Atlantic Transport Line service of the international Mercantile Marine, and the fast French liners La Lorraine and La Savoie. The vessels of the British and Italian Navies will also be affected, as well as many private yachts.
The nearest Marconi wireless stations are at Sagaponeck, L. I., and Siasconsett, Mass., which is the nearest one to the Nantucket Lightship. The Siasconsett station is now being equipped with a more powerful apparatus, and there most of the business with outgoing and incoming liners will be done. The new apparatus, it was announced yesterday, would be ready to send and receive messages by the beginning of next week. The new instruments have a range of from 100 to 200 miles. William W. Bradfield, Chief Engineer of the Marconi Company in this country, said that instead of using only one pole two would be used, making it one of the most complete on this side of the water. Mr. Bradfield did not care to discuss the new Government station at Nantucket. Another Marconi official said:
"The policy of the Marconi Company has always been that we cannot afford to recognize other systems, if for no other reason than that if we did we would injure our cases now pending before the patent courts. We cannot be expected to injure our own cause, which we would certainly do if we permitted these stations to communicate with vessels and stations using our system."