"I am pleased to announce the successful outcome of experiments which have been carried on for the last few months by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and the Western Electric Company in co-operation with radio stations under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department by which long-distance wireless telephony has been made possible.
    "Speech has been successfully transmitted from the Arlington radio station to the radio station at Mare Island, Cal., and there successfully received, thus making possible conversation without wires over a distance of approximately 2,500 miles, the first time this great distance has been covered by wireless telephony. In the first experiments the voice was successfully transmitted by radio to Mare Island from Arlington, the return answers and communication being made over the transcontinental land telephone line. This was successfully accomplished in the presence of officials and engineers of the Western Electric Company, a representative of the Signal Corps of the army, representatives of the technical and operating departments of the Navy Department and a few other interested parties.
    "After this successful demonstration, conversation originating in New York City was transmitted over the land wire to Arlington, there automatically connected to the radio transmitter which carried the voice to Mare Island, where it was clearly and distinctly received, and answers and other conversation were from there transmitted over the transcontinental line to the originating office in New York.
    "The conversation was carried on by the president of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, Mr. Vail; the vice-president, Mr. Bethell, and Mr. Waterbury, one of the directors, while at Mare Island were officials of the Navy Department, John J. Carty, chief engineer of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, and representatives of the Western Electric Company.
    "Every official taking part in this demonstration is enthusiastic about the results and the possibility of developing this system as an extension of the telephone system to ships at sea. The fact that the voices can be started on a land wire and automatically transmitted to a voice radio transmitter holds out hope that persons should readily be put in touch by telephone with others at sea through some central transmitting station.
    "The use of such long distance wireless telephone communications in naval or military operations is still in an undeveloped state, but it is expected valuable use can be made of the wonderful demonstration; but aside from such considerations the department and its officials feel proud that they have been interested co-operators in the first practical development of this last march in the wonderful science of radio communication."

    "Wireless telephony from the Atlantic seaboard to Hawaii, a distance of 4,600 miles, is an accomplished fact. By the special wireless telephone developments which have been made by the engineers of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company and of the Western Electric Company (which concern made all the apparatus for this remarkable long distance test, including the vacuum tubes), speech was transmitted from Washington to a wireless station near Honolulu. If anything further was needed to show the wonderful capacity of these new discoveries by the engineers of the Bell system, this last triumph, coming but a few hours after Mr. Vail, the president of the company, had talked by wireless from Washington to Mr. Carty, its chief engineer, located at Mare Island, is conclusive.
    "That transatlantic wireless telephone communication is assured as soon as the disturbed condition in Europe will permit of tests from this country to there, is obvious when it is remembered that all scientists agree on the fact that it is much more difficult to send wireless telephone communications across land than across water. This wireless telephone message from Washington to Hawaii had to pass over the whole of the United States--a distance of 2,500 miles--before it encountered better wireless conditions which exist when sending over large bodies of water. For the purpose of this test the sending was done from the navy wireless station at Arlington, just outside of Washington. The receiving was done on a small wireless antenna specially erected for the purpose by the engineers of the telephone company, which, by permission of the naval authorities, was located at the naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
    "The message at Honolulu was received by Lloyd Espenchied, an engineer of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, who had been sent there by Mr. J. J. Carty, its chief engineer, to take charge of the observations, the successful results of which we are now able to report.
    "Another interesting feature of the tests was that, in a practical way, the ability to connect wireless telephone systems with wire telephone systems was shown. You have no doubt noted that Mr. Vail in his talk used a wire circuit from New York to Washington. At Washington, by the special means invented and developed by the engineers of this company, the wires were connected to our special wireless apparatus and to the navy's mighty wireless tower, where the message went wirelessly to its destination."

• United States Early Radio History > Pre-War Vacuum-Tube Transmitter Development > American Telephone and Telegraph Company