Mohave County Miner, May 3, 1919, page 9:
NEW WONDER STAGED
_______
A remarkable discovery on the part of government scientists, and one that shows almost unlimited possibilities of development, was staged in the United States bureau of standards at Washington recently. It was the transmission of music by wireless.
The discovery has followed a series of experiments extending over more than a year and was suggested by the wireless telephone. In the recent exhibition a phonograph played records in the wireless building with the ordinary loud-tone steel needles directly in to the mouthpiece of the wireless telephone. The music was transferred into electric waves which were taken up by another telephone set placed in the auditorium of the main building about 600 feet distant. Here the electrical waves were transformed again into sound waves, but greatly increased in volume, and were heard distinctly by visitors seated in various parts of the 50 by 80 foot auditorium.
The renditions of "Till We Meet Again," and of other selections, vocal and instrumental, were clear and distinct, each note receiving its full value and expression.
Dr. Stratton, the director of the bureau of standards, states that the present experiments show that it will soon as possible to transmit music by wireless for any distance for which it is possible to utilize wireless telephony.
"When that time comes," he said, "and it will not be far in the future, we shall be able to sit comfortably in our homes at almost any distance and listen to the Boston or Chicago symphony orchestra playing in those cities or participate in any great musical festival of the country."
This wonderful discovery makes the dream of Edward Bellamy in his "Looking Backward" at last come true. Readers will remember that this writer had the man who was resuscitated, after a century or so of suspended animation, finding music always at hand by taking down the telephonic receiver.
Manifold other possibilities suggest themselves. The Lodge-Lowell debate, for example, might have been listened to by an audience far larger than was able to crowd into the hall. A president's message might be repeated in great halls all over the country, or the debates of congress, if one had the taste for them, might be enjoyed at considerable distance from
the actual disturbance. A university's classes might assemble at various points in the state for instruction. In fact one can think of hundreds of uses of this marvellous discovery. It marks an era.