| WASHINGTON--BY WIRELESS TELEPHONE TO--HONOLULU. |
San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 7.--"Hello, Washington! This is Honolulu talking."
This message was flashed recently over the wireless telephone, establishing another triumph of science in the world of mechanics. The human voice was carried 4,500 miles with nothing but the vibrations of the air as a conductor.
With wireless telephony established, another great commercial industry is opened up which may grow to the same gigantic proportions that the wireless telegraph business has assumed. As soon as the war subsides in Europe, wireless telephone connections between this country and Europe will be established. And in the near future the public can expert to talk across this continent and to the nations of the Orient over a wireless 'phone.
This remarkable scientific triumph follows close on the heels of another telephonic success, accomplished when San Francisco spoke to New York city over a trans-continental 'phone, consisting of a single line.
The success of the wireless telephone is the result of a series of experiments begun last spring by engineers of the Bell system between towers at Montauk Point, L. I., and Wilmington, Del., 250 miles apart. The most recent test was between Arlington, Va., and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 4,500 miles.
While wireless telephony forms an important adjunct to the present telephone system, in that it will establish communication between points where it would be impractical to place wires, yet it will never displace the present system. The wireless is subject to interference from atmospheric conditions, and any one with apparatus can listen in on a conversation.
The remarkable results attained by the wireless telephone show the great progress made in communication since the telephone was invented in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell.
The first successful results with wireless were secured by Marconi in 1896, in England, when he established communication over a distance of one and three-quarter miles.
With wireless telegraphy an assured success, the wireless telephone came upon the scene. It was used by the American battleships on the globe-circling cruise in 1908, and since has been perfected so that conversations without the aid of intervening wires may be conducted on land and sea, leaping continents and oceans.
