OCR Text |
Show THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH. If anybody had an opinion that the wireless telegraph was not a practical, efficient instrument of communication, that opinion i? now due to be changed. The thrilling story of the wreck of the steamship Republic, and of the rescue by the steamship Baltic, the rescue attributable to the efficiency ef-ficiency of the wireless holograph alone, furnishes suelr. conclusive proof of the invaluable character of his latest invention in the arts of communication communica-tion as to leave no room for doubt. It has passed through its period of ridicule, like every other invention in-vention which seemed impossible because it was not understood. Many a man today remembers when he ridiculed the idea of conveying conversation conver-sation over a wire; many-a man remembers when he ridiculed the idea of a machine to set type, and all of us remember how we felt just a little doubt ful of the first statement we saw concerning the wireless, telegraph. But the part played by the wireless on board Ihe wrecked Republic when she was rammed to death by the Florida is thrilling to contemplate. In the stillness and darkness of night the two boats came together. They probably would not have come together if the Florida had been equipped with instruments in-struments to control the mysterious force. But when the crash came, the wireless sent out its message mes-sage of distress for hundreds of miles. The message mes-sage was gathered up by half a dozen ocean gray-hounds, gray-hounds, and they all rushed to the assistance of the doomed vessel. The one great lesson to be drawn from the wreck of tho Republic is that the wireless telegraph is as necessary a part of the equipment of oceangoing ocean-going vessels as is a headlight to a locomotive. No doubt the time is near when the equipment ot all vessels with a wireless will be a part of the requirements re-quirements of all vessels of the sea. The time cannot can-not come too soon when lack of such equipment will be sufficient cau?e for refusal to' issue clearing papers pa-pers to a vessel from an American port. |