New-York tribune. [volume], January 04, 1920, Page 7, Image 73

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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Wireless Phones on
Within a Short Time It Will Be Possible for
Engineers to Talk to One Another
From Their Cabs
THE engineer of Limited
No. 6, eastbound, looking
out of his cab window, no?
ticed that a section of the
rail running parallel to that over
which his train was passing had
been washed away, probably by one
of the mountain freshets which were
frequent in this particular section of
the country at this time of the year.
He knew that the Cannon Ball, west?
bound, was due to pass there in a
few minutes and that, unless
checked, it would be wrecked, with s
possible grtat loss in lives.
Turning to the telephone on the
wall of his cab the engineer of No.
6 put on the double receiver and
sounded a signal.
"Hogan," he said, when the en?
gineer of the endangered train,
which was then fifty miles away,
answered. "The track west of S-42
has been washed away. Better tele?
phone to Wainright to send a re?
pair gang right away, because yon
cant get through until the track i.
fixed up."
Easy, isn't it? No waving of a red
flannel petticoat or shirt to stop the
Cannon Ball just in time; no hero
ics, no thrills, no collection by tht
passengers to reward the devotee
girl or brave man who had brough
the great train to a atop just as i
was about to plunge down the em
bankment; no material for thi
movies. Just one engineer of a mov
ing locomotive telephoning quietl;
to the engineer of another movinj
locomotive, and telling him, in th
same calm voice you would emplo;
in breaking an engagement for din
ncr, that there was trouble on fh
line which needed to be fixed up.
Fiction? For the moment*, ye!
But soon it will no more be fictio
than it was fiction when, during th
war, observers in the air wirelesse
headquarters information on how
battle was going and told the sta
how to direct the movement of tl:
troops. In the war the value (
maintaining communications was a*
preciated by all the combatant
Wireless played as big a part
winning battles as guns. Throuf
its aid the armies were endow*
with eyes and cars which told the
how to meet danger, or avoid
although that particular danger w
as far beyond the range of ordina
vision as was the bit of broken r?
in the supposititious case of the e
dangered Cannon Ball limited, i
fcrred to above.
In the Near Future
Science, profiting by what
learned in the war, is now prep.
ing to give eyes and ears to ra
road trains also, just as it did
the armies in the field; and witr
a very short time, if the experts a
to be believed, telephoning fr<
speeding coach to coach, or locon
tive to locomotive, or from either
fixed stations on land, will be
?ommoii as communication betwe
buain.88 houses is now.
"In a little while," said J.
Graf, wireless engineer for 1
Lackawanna Railroad, "engine*
of moving trains will be able
talk to each other by wireless te
phone over a distance of 200 mi
at least. In fact, I think this, w
the proper apparatus, which
available, is possible now.
"Moreover, it is an experim
which the Lackawanna will und
take as soon as the road is
turned to private control, on Ma
1 next"
Readers of the periodicals, i
especially of those which deal v*
identifie subjects, may remem
that as far back as 1914 the Lac
wanna conducted a series of exp
?ents to prove that telephoning
^releas from moving trains,
well as sending radiograms, was
tirely possible. Now that the t
is about to go back to its own
?long with all others taken over
the government in the war, tl
experiments are to bo resur
Th? indications are that other r<
"ill do the same, and that
knowledge in the art of comm
cation gained in the war will
Ui?d to introduce innovations in
transportation which will re.\
lionize the business.
Through the aid of device?
ployed in the fighting, the or,
'ion of train., the experts ?ay,
be safeguarded. Mistake? in
patching Which might reault
wrecks will be corrected, dangei
rther kind, will be avoided, <
*ucb as result from the nee
?topping of freight trains for oi
snd "cut <.ut?" will be reduced,
psMenger** will be able to get
k-ueh with their offices and h
fe *'* easily as they do now ovei
^?[^jHres^ Romance, of cc
thrillers and movies will be dimin?
ished, but this is always the case
when efficiency steps in to show
mankind new ways of doing busi?
ness or of living.
When the United States entered
the war the Lackawanna had made
much progress in the use of wire?
less telephones and .telegraph in
connection with the operation of its
trains. Towers for the transmis?
sion of ethereal waves had been
erected at Buffalo, Binghamton, Ho
boken and Scranton. Two fast
trains had been equipped with an?
tennas for the receipt and transmis?
sion of messages?telephonic and
radiographie?and a great manj
communications had been sent wit!
entire success, the officials said.
Trains Were Equipped
Soon afterward the government
found it necessary,'for war pur
poses, to prohibit all private use o?
wireless, and the antennas on th<
towers and trains were dismantle*
and nothing further was done t<
complete the experiments. Earl;
last November the ban on privat
wireless operation was lifted, am
since then the Lackawanna and, i
is reported, some of the other bi|
roads have been making preparation
to resume the trials. ?
In the case of the Lackawann
the antennae on the towers hav
been replaced, and as soon as th
road is returned they will also b
restored on the trains.
"Wonderful strides in wireles
communication were made in th
war, and we hope to be able t
benefit by some of this," Mr. Gra
said. "Before the road was take
over by the Administration v*
found no difficulty in talking froi
a moving train to a fixed statioi
We found it equally easy to ser
wireless messages or radiograms.
"By taking advantage of wh?
was learned in the war we can noi
I am convinced, install wireless tel
phones and communicate betwei
moving trains. Before the war \
did a regular commercial businc
in wireless telegraph, but where
the maximum distance for messag
was about forty miles then it v>
be about 400 miles at least no
That is to say, I believe a messa
will be sent that distance from m<
ing trains to a fixed station, a
conversation over the wireless te
phone will be earned on for h
that distance, at least."
As an illustration of the value
wireless installation on-trains J
Graf cited several incidents wh
took place before the war. Duri
a test the conductor of a tr?
equipped with transmission ap]
ratus became ill when the train v
thirty miles east of Scranton.
stead of stopping at the first s
tion and sending a telegram foi
relief conductor to take charge
Scranton, David Sarnoff, inspec
in charge of the apparatus on
train, sent a radio to that city a
ing that a man be assigned to
place the ill man, and although
train was going fifty miles an h<
the message was easily "received
its destination. On another oc
sion a wireless was sent ahead a
ing that another coach be ad<
when the train arrived at Scrant
end this also went through with
trouble.
Soon after the installation 1
been made on the Lackawanna L
Above, the wireless telephone station at the Lackawanna
station in Hoboken; right, an operator talking from a
station with a distant moving train
ited the conauctor, a man named
Simrell, discovered three ti*amps
riding on the tarik of the locomo?
tive, where they were hidden from
the sight of the fireman and the
engine driver. As a test of the ap?
paratus he instructed the wireless
operator on the train to send a
! message to Binghamton, about
I thirty miles away, telling the divi
I sion agent of the presence of the
| tramps.
The agent was on hand when the
?train arrived at Binghamton and
took the three tramps into custody.
The men were greatly surprised
I when told of the means employed
? to capture them, but, it is supposed,
' consoled themselves with the refiec
I tion that they were the first of their
kind to be caught in just that way.
| The first train order by wireless
,; was sent on the Lackawanna sys
I tern on October 23, 1913, from
; Scranton to Binghamton, and
? marked the first time in the history
! of railroading that such a thing was
j accomplished.
| "The equipment to be installed
j when the road is returned probably
i will be similar to that in use before
the war," said Mr. Graf. "Before
the war the apparatus was in the
forward part of the train. On top
of each car was an aerial consisting
of a quadrangular closed loop, sup?
ported at each corner by insulators
on iron pipes at the corners of the
car. The aerial was raised only
about eighteen inches above the
roof of the car, this being the maxi
mum space allowable so as to clear
tunnels and bridges.
"On the Lackawanna Limited
four coaches were thus equipped,
the connection between them being
made by a plug and a socket, the
arrangement being flexible so as to
accommodate itself to the move?
ment of the train. The aerial on
the roof of each car was about
sixty-five feet long and was com?
posed of twisted bronze wires.
"Steam from the locomotive op?
erated the dynamo in the baggage
car to produce the voltage needed to
provide the necessary current.
"The Lackawanna proved years
r.go, even when the progress made
was far from what it is to-day, that
wireless service for ordinary operat?
ing- purposes was entirely practica?
ble. It proved this when the regu?
lar wire communications were cut
off by storms by handling train or?
ders as accurately and reliably a_
they had been handled on the land
lines. On one occasion such a
storm had crippled wire communica?
tion for a radius of about 200 miles
west of New York, and the New
vYork Central could obtain no in?
formation as to the whereabouts of
its Twentieth Century Limited.
"The train was lost in the storm,
but its whereabouts was finally re?
vealed to th? people waiting at the
terminal in New York by means of
our wireless.
"During another sleet storm tele?
phone and telegraph lines were put
out of commission in the mountain
division of the Lackawanna, and the :
train orders were handled without:
difficulty between Scranton and
Binghamton by wireless.
"This service will be restored as
soon as possible after the road is
returned in March. I do not think :
it will add very much to the cost of ;
operating trains. It will be neces?
sary to employ an operator on each
train, of course. But it is not too
much to predict that the wireless
offices on the trains will be of as '
great use to the public as are the j
branch offices of the telegraph.com- j
panies in the hotels.
"Moreover, if the wireless tele?
phone comes into the use I predict, I
it will be possible for passengers on j
trains to talk to their offices and j
homes as it is now in the cities. The j
Above, a Lackawanna train equipped with wireless antenn?; left, a passenger on a train
talking to a station miles away
necessary connections could be made
? from the trains through the regular
telephone centrals in the towns.
Will Increase Safety
"In my opinion the wireless will
revolutionize railroading. It will
: not only be a convenience for travel
; its, but will increase safety by
i
-.-' I
100 per cent. In the subways in !
New York and in the Hudson tubes j
the train dispatcher sits in a room :
and keeps in touch with the move?
ment of trains by flashing lights. ;
When two trains get dangerously i
close to each other he can send a ?
signal which will cause one of them
to stop.
"The same thing, in my opinion,!
can be done by wireless. The dis-1
patcher can sit in front of a board,
on which the location of each train
will be shown by wireless telegraph.
If he sees trains getting too close
together for safety He can send a
wireless message, which will stop
one of them anywhere, out in the
country, miles from a regular tele?
graph station.
"Of course, many experiments
still need to be made before any of
these things come to pass, but what
has been accomplished already jus?
tifies the predictions that have been
made."
When the Lackawanna began its
trials with wireless communication
some doubt existed as to the pos?
sibility of using the rails for
grounding the electrical current,
A ground wire was easy to place at
every wireless station, but "hook?
ing up" a moving train in the same
way was a different thing. So the
scheme was adopted of sending the
ground current to the rails, and it
worked with entire success.
Another early pVoblem was
whether using the electrical current
supplied by the dynamos on the
trains would not dim the lights in
the coaches, but this, too, was solved
without interfering with the com?
fort of passengers.
In the days before the war high ?
aerials were considered necessary j
for the sending of messages, but j
this, it has since been demonstrated, j
was a mistake. Now the transmis- j
sion waves can be sent with equal j
facility from low equipment, and j
the obstacles to communication J
caused by tunnels and low bridges !
have therefore been overcome.
"In time," said Mr. Graf, "y?u ?
probably will see signals set by |
wireless, just as they are now by
electricity traveling through wires." i
The handling of freight trains
will be greatly facilitated by the i
use of wireless, the Lackawanna
engineer said. At present a
through freight train must make
many stops between its starting
point and destination in order to
receive orders concerning right of \
way and the "cutting out" of cars. \
These stops are not only expensive,
but occasion delays which, in many
cases, are not necessary.
Elimination of the unnecessary
stops by the employment of wireless
telegraph or the wireless telephone
will, it is explained, result in more
economy in operation as well as in
reduction of delays. Railroad offi?
cials know that each time a train
is stopped and started again there
is a certain amount of additional
strain on the drawheads and equip?
ment, which will be avoided under
the new system.
| "The wireless will enable the dis
Bolshev]
- 4
THE tendency of the young to
imitate their elders haa
taken a new turn. That
surest index of home life,
the youth of ten, now registers an?
other symptom, and it is not his?
trionic in character. The boy who
once imitated Charlie Chaplin has
been changed by the influence of
economic, political and psychologi?
cal pressure upon the home. The
unrest that has come to scourge the
world's elder? has also been visited
upon the children.
This is the conclusion of Miss
Olive M. Jones, principal of Public
School 120, Manhattan, one of New
York City'? ?chools for delinquent
boy?. For the last fifteen years
Miss Jones has struggled with the
juvenile offender between the ages
cf ten and fifteen. At present she
and ten teachers?there should be
fifteen, she says?have 193 such
bundles of disorder to control. Ask
her if world unrest is mirrored in
her pupils and she says:
"Never in fifteen years with de?
linquent boys at this school have I
had suth difficulties as this year.
mmmrum?mmtml??m
ism Inva
? ? ' ? ??i??
over my boys. They are turning to
radical talk. The spirit of unrest
in the home is reflected in them by
unprecedented refusal to recognize
authority and a tendency to become
soapboxers.
"In this school we always have
had boys who were pickpockets,
gamblers, gangsters or truants. But
this year we have a new type?the
boy who thinks he can do just what
he pleases when he pleases.
"The effect of .radical propaganda!
upon the boys at homo has been the i
most startling phenomenon. A short j
time ago I received letters from two j
officers in Siberia containing pleas for I
reading matter. I read the letters j
to the boya, asking if they wished j
to bring books and magazine^ to
be sent to the soldiers in' Siberia.
"The next day all the boys brought
an abundance of literature, except a
class of eighteen. From this num?
ber not a single book or paper was
forthcoming. I investigated quiet?
ly and found that the class had been
harangued in soapbox fashion by a
fifteen-year-old boy of Russian-Jew?
ish extraction. _
des Ne\^
'American soldiers have no business
in Siberia. If we leave them there
without what they need they will
throw down their arms and come
home. Besides, the government
should supply them with magazines.
If the government has no money to
supply both magazines and bullets,
then the government has no right to
ask them to fight.'
"The other day a teacher was ex?
plaining Longfellow's 'Psalm of Life'
to a class. After reading the pas?
sage about 'footprints on the sands
of time.' she went.on to draw the
moral that they were now making
footprints that would enable people
to judge what sort of men they
would be when they became older.
"A big Italian boy broke in on her
recital. Throwing his arm on the
back of hi? seat, he said disgustedly,
'Oh, hell! What's the use? The good
die young.'
"At lunch time the boys arc di?
vided into two groups, half eating
while the others study. For the
first and only time the boys one
day this fall broke ranks and in?
sisted on eating out of their turn.
i York
j up in the middle of a lesson and |
j started out of the room.
i " 'Where are you going, Sam?' '??
\ the teacher asked.
| "The boy mumbled something
! j?nd kept right on, leaving the room.
j We let him go and sent a teacher
? to hi# home for him.
"His mother denied having seen |
?him, but the teacher noticed that a \
younger child was missing. After |
the mother made a half-frightened !
' excuse the teacher found the truant [
j at a movi-t, with the child. The
j boy's explanation was that he
wanted to go home to take the child
to the movies!
"His mother defended him, ask
I ing belligerently. 'What difference '
i does it make if he isn't in school?'
"That also is an entirely new at- ?
titude on the part of the parents. ;
Hitherto we have had either co
operation or at least submission
from parents in the case of truants. !
Never did we have open opposition j
upholding the truant. Now it is ?
common for parents to deny the j
teachers have the right to forbid i
their children to do what they wish. '
Truancy
two truants now being listed as
'missing children' when the parents
know their whereabouts all the
time. In cases like that the parents
will be 'on dying' of grief at the
children's loss. . But we have found j
that by going to their homes on 1
Sundays or about meal time, when !
teachers are not expected about, we !
are likely to find the missing chil- \
dren and no signs of grief what- |
ever.
"On another occasion two chil?
dren disappeared from school. The
father told a teacher he had not
seen them. ?The teacher suspected
that they were in the house some?
where, lodging to the other side of
the room, she suddenly flung open a
door, disclosing the children hiding:
in a closet."
At this point in her interview a
rumpus in the hall below called Miss
Jones away. When she returned
She remarked significantly:
"I got there just in time to keep j
one boy* from hitting another on |
the head with a bottle"
According to Miss Jones, there is
_____________MH'______I_______J
Schools
unruly boys and lack of penny!
lunches, which were recently or?
dered discontinued because the
Board of Estimate ruled there was ?
no money to hire helpers lo cook j
and serve the food. A child who!
has had little or no breakfast, or '
food of the wrong sort, she say?, is
likely to make trouble at school.
Last spring, when for two months
penny lunches were temporarily
discontinued, Miss Jones and her '
teachers found it impossible to con?
trol the children at noon. Fighting,
bad games and immoral practices
became so rife that in desperation
the teachers themselves cooked and
served the noonday lunches.
As one possible explanation of ;
the cause of this year's increase in
revolt against authority among her
boys, Miss Jones remarked that
rbout 60 per cent of them were of
Russian extraction and largely from j
homes where both parents are away ;
all day working.
"What are you going to do about
it?" Miss Jones was asked.
"Get after the parents." she re?
plied grimly. "Recognition of au- ?
patcher to T-und' his orders to th*>
conductor while the train is in mo
tion just as effectively as if the train
had stopped at a station and he had
climbed on board to deliver the in?
structions in an envelope," said Mr
Graf.
Before the United States took over
the railroads and automatically
halted their experiments in the fiehi
of wireless installation more than
7,000 patents covering devices for
use in that and kindred fields had
been filed at Washington. Virtually
every telegraph superintendent of
every railroad in the United States
was investigating the subject, with ?
view to adopting some kind of mech?
anism if the trials were successful.
David Sarnoff, of New York,
commercial director of the Radie
Corporation of America, was one
of the leaders in the tests the*i
being made. During the war the
radio engineers devoted themselve.
to assisting the government in pe?
fecting devices to be used in the
war, but now that the fighting i?
.ver and industry has resumed its
place of first prominence in the life
>f the nation, they have returned to
their activities in private fields.
The mechanism used by the Lacka
wanna Railroad was installed by the
Marconi Company, which has since
been united with the General VAc-c
trie Company under the new name
.f the Radio Corporation of America.
with offices in the Woolworth
Building.
A Matter of Terlmique
"Yes, telephoning by wireless froin
. moving locomotive to another mov
ing locomotive is entirely pos.ible
now." said Mr. Sarnoff. "The com ^k
mercial development of the wir ele"' ^^
telephone is a matter entirely of
technique, and there is no longer any
reason why this development should
not go forward.
"The question of distance over
which conversation can be carril
tn is largely a question of thr
amount of power used. 1 think with
the proper apparatus a distance o?
about one hundred miles could be
covered now.
"Wireless installations on train,
are bound to come. Before the war
the possibilities of wireless tele?
graph in this field were recognized
to some extent, but not so much
vas being said about wireless tele?
phones. Xow we know that both
are practicable.
"Before the war this subject was
continually being discussed by the
radio engineers of the country, in
the Institute and elsewhere*, and my
experiments were being watched
with close attention. Now that th"
roads arc to go back to their own?
ers many of the companies havo
resumed their investigations, and
the American Railroad A.sociatior.
is displaying much interest in the
subject.
"As there i. virtually no other
way of getting in touch with ;i
moving train than by wireless, this
form of communication is bound to
come into use, and, I believe, in th?.
near future." ?
Mr. Sarnoff and other engineer*
are of the impression that the Sig
nal Service Department of the Fed
oral government will do what r
can to assist in making the install?
tions possible. The Signal Service,
came into possession of much val?
uable information during the war,
as all the best brains of the coun
try were placed at its disposal, and
enormous strides were made.
"I have no information as to
what the?sgovernment intends to
do." said Mr. Sarttoff, "but I am
certain it will try to be as helpful
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