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About The Coos Bay times. (Marshfield, Or.) 1906-1957 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1909)
k TjBROOKLYN NAVY'VARp! -. mm JTLiX W A ?A - m. CfaERAT6RCRJOlJft ' 1 I SENDING MESSAGES BY RADIOjBafPBBfl f T Nt ' 'V 154. M ySTING'CKIES''lNTHE DEFOREST .t' 'X WIRELESS telephony, that latest, and In many ways greatest, won der of thl3 electrical age, Is on the eve of working a complete revolu tion In tho methods of handling tho enor jnoua shipping of the Great Lakes. Already, at scoro3 of point? along the lakes, tho towering ptlss of tho wireless telephono system, each with li" 'Antennae of wlresj are .being iut In . .:,) bo that by next Spring the flysteii; ti).-& already has mado Itself Itivaluabh Vr '-"so great Paclflo fleet of our navy -s well as to the navies of Great Britain and Italy, will be In use from end to end of tho chain of America's Inland seas. By use of this system marine Insurance rates will ba reduced to a minimum, owing to the fact that al storm warnings may be transmitted Immediately to lake vessels so that they will have ample time to mako safe harbors and, used In conjunc. tlon with the enormous existing land sys tem of wire telephones, will make It pos sible for persons either on tho shores of the lakes or hundreds of miles away, to talk with officers of or passengers on any of tho vessels engaged In the lake trade. "Without the enormous expense, of wire maintenance that 13 necessary to: tho wlro 'phone systems, and also 'with out the expense of an -expert operator as Is necessary with wireless telegraph systems, the use of the wlrelcs-j telephone -will be within financial reach ot the most modest sailing craft plying from port to port. Few persons, oven those (directly con nected with commerce on the Great Xiakes, realize the enormous Interests rep resented in that trade; therefore few re alize the vast boon conferred by tho latest electrical marvel. Eighty per cent, of all the water tonnage of North America Is carried on the Great Lakes. Thirty thousand craft of all classes today are engaged in the lake trade, and the lake shipyards are from one to threo years behind on their orders from lake ship-owners. Although ono-lmlf of nil the vessels built In the "Western Hemi sphere In 1008 were for the Great Lakes trade, tho need for more bottoms has be' come so acute that steamship companies engaged in the trade recently have been obliged to go to English and Ccotch ship yards with orders. An Enormous Fleet. The freight conveyed over these waters during 100S was more than seven times as much as the whole world car ried through the Suez Canal in the same time. Four thousand freight steamers, 250 big passenger steamers and about 25,000 pleasure and other craft comprise the enormous Groat Lakes fleet, which uses upwards of three million tons of coal in a single year, or enough to heat every house in Chicago for three years. The Pittsburg Steamship 'Company, which is merely the carrier of the United Slates Steel Corporaton, nlonn owns ships with a combined capacity of 050,000 tons of ore during a single trip. If the ships of this company alone -were placed end to end they would cover a distance of eight miles and during the eight months of Great Lakes navigation each year they carry as much freight ifrom Lake Su perior to Lake Erie ports as all the ves sels of the world take through the Suez Canal in a whole year. In weight of freight annually bundled, Buffalo and Duluth aro the world's greatest porta, while the ton nage handled at Ohio porta alone exceeds that of all the ports of France. During 1007 approximately 100,000,000 tons of freight were shipped In Great Lakes bottoms. This would be enough to fill 2,500,000 forty-ton freight cars, or a train that would girdle the earth and extend from New York to San Francisco in addition. More than 00 per cent of this immense total -consisted of 37,513,000 tons of Iron ore, 14, 000,000 tons of coal, 110,508,027 bushels of grain, 1,150,757 tons of flour, 14,888, 027 bushels of flaxseed and more than 3,000,000,000 feet of lumber. Greatest of all lines of lake traffic Is that in Iron ore, and some 800 giant steamers are engaged solely in Its car riage. This ore commerce has doubled Curing the last six years and tho steel men ibelleve it will be doubled again dur ing the next ten, for three Jlttle patches of the Great Lakes country produced In 1008 nearly half of the world's total supply of iron. t Total Tonnage for 1008. During 1008 200,000,000 bushels of CTain and 11,000,000 barrels of flour were shipped from Lftko port, the grain Bhfp-1 ' - THE COOS BAY TIMES ments from Port Arthur and Fort "Wil liam alone being well over 80,000,000 bushels. At least 00,000,000 bushels of wheat, 00,000,000 bushels of other gral.i and 7,500,000 barrels of flour passed through the "Soo" canals eud 50,000,000 bushels of grain, conservatively rep resent the total shipments f.-ont Chi cago, Milwaukee and other pnrt3 whoso eastbound commerce does .not pass through these canals. Tb' -tr's lum ber shipments aggreputed V-'" v 1,500, 000,000 feet, or enough i Zt. ? more than 75,000 houses oi." !si u-v.a' each. Taking tho "Soo" canal as Its center and drawing a circle having a radius of 350 miles, it would bo found to Include four of the world's greatest ports, Buf falo, Cleveland, Chicago and Duluth. "Within the circle or upon its circum ference are such other ports as Detroit, Toronto, Dunkirk, Erie, Conneaut, Ashta bula, Lorain, Sandusky, Toledo, Gary, Milwaukee. Ashland, Superior and Port Arthur. The eight states along the Great Lakes are In reality the heart and power of the nation. "Within their borders dwell 35,000,000 people and upon their shores center the greatest industries of the world. Should the lakes disappear sud denly the Industrial supremacy of the United States would receive a staggering blow from which 'It might never recover and more than half the population of the nation would be vitally affected. The steel Industry would come to an untimely end. With aN the great shipyards straining every effort to meet the demands -of the lake commerce, shippers agree that they never will be quite able to meet the re quirements of the traffic Everywhere from Duluth to Buffalo the shipping is crowded, In many cases dangerously so. The greatest ocean port3 never foavo known such blockades as Duluth has see i on more than one occasion. During on') month alone last year there were 1,221 arrivals and clearances at this port, an average of forty a day. Steamers pas3 through the Detroit River on an average of one every twelve minutes, night and day. Harbors and canals must bo en larged fo facilitate tho growing business and unless there is some means available for the protection of this vast shipping, the tragedies of this next decade will bo greater than those of all the past. In the wireless telephone It is believed that protection has been found. Storms Do Terrific Dniungre. The Great Lakes are known as the most treacherous highway in the world. Great storms, coming up at a ifew hours notice, do enormous damage to shipping. Scores of vessels suddenly and myster iiusly disappear each year, leaving no trace behind them. According to the re cords more than $15,000,000 worth of freight has been lost on the lakes, involv ing the wrecking of 14,000 vessels and the total loss of more than -2,000 ships. During the last thirty years, in which time the records have been practically complete, the wrecked vessels numbered some 8,000, .nearly 1,000 of which weru total losses, while the loss in cargoes alone has exceeded $12,000,000 in this fame period. A notable case in point oc curred ,ln 1000 when the steamer "Flagg" went down with a cargo of metal worth $1,250,000, none of which ever has been recovered. One of the most horrible dis asters In the whole history of the Great Lakes was the wrecking of tho "Griffin" and her destruction near Cleveland, in volving the loss of 280 lives. Thousands of other tragedies mark tho history of the treachery of Great Lakes storms. During the first week of October, 1008, a round dozen ships, valued approximate-' ly at $500,000 each, were wrecked during a severe storm. The net loises during this week were not far from $1, 000,000, "Warn ings of the storm that caused this damage were posted toy the United States "Weather Bureau eight hours in advance and, hod the lake vessels been equipped with wireless telephone apparatus at the time, every one would have had ample opportunity to have made port or a safe harbor.- As it was, they had no warn ing of impending danger. Another great peril to lake shlpoln? is that of collision and conditltvis In this respect stow worse from day to day. During the whole eight" months of the rtirpplng season each year, scarcely a day passes without one. or more collisions, These conditions, which of course are especially acute Jn time of fog, could be almost entirely obviated" by wireless tele phonic communication from ship to ship and, as ail the danger which, surround MARSHFIELD, OREGON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1909 TC"B5 - PMJllMi i "I i i i- - T 'a. ii- ff The "Soo" Canal Vessels carrying 15,736 tons of iron ore passing through (he locks. the shipping interests on tho lakes natu rally compel tho exaction of excessive Insurance rates, this In turn reacts upon the freight tariffs so tlhat the over coming of the perils from storm and col lision means a material reduction in cost of present lako transportation which, in spite of every existing obstacle, is ex ceptionally low. Safeguard Against Extortion. It is an admitted fact that the Great Lakes constitute the nation's chlof safe guard against oppressive railroad rates. They are the regulators of our ereat com merce and tho traffic on the Jakes savo3 to tho people of the United States $500, 000,000 annually, or $0 for every man, woman and child of our population. Transportation over the lake waters in modern steamshlpa costs from one' fifteenth to one-quarter of the prevailing railroad rates. It costs only two cents per bushel to ship grain from Duluth to Buf falo and orrfy eighty cents to carry a ton of ore between these two points. This is exactly ono-soventh the cost of railroad transportation for the same commodities between the same ports. In passenger rates nearly a Tike differ ence is shown. During the season of 100S the splendid passenger service of the Great Lakes was used by more than 10,000,000 people and the ratio of in crease indicates thr.t- this total will be doubled In Ues3 than a decade. The railroad fare betweon Detroit and Buffalo is $7, but by steamer one can travel the 900 miles between these ports for $2.50, while one day each week a fare of $1,25 prevails. Tho future of the Great Lake com merce is something so vast that none but the moat venturesome would chance a prophecy. "With the great Mississippi sys tem to the southwest, soon to be connect ed with Lake Michigan by way of the ship canal which Chicago is building into the Illinois River, vessels will be enabled shortly to pass from, tho Great Lakes down the Mississippi to the Gulf. To the northwest lies the great wheat country of central North America, the focal point of which Is the growing city of "Winnipeg, located at tho Junction of the Asslnlbolne, now navteated for 300 miles, and the Bed Itlver of the North., up which steamers can go to the Minnesota, through the great wheat fields of the United States, thus bringing her sphere of Influence south to Grand Forks and Fargo in the Dakota. Lake "Winnipeg, which Js as large as Lake Erie, now Is being connected by locks with the Saskatchewan River sys tem, navigable fr nearly 1,000 miles in to t& Yery heart of taw world' greateat Radio "Wireless Telephone Tower On the roof of the Terminal Building in New York. grain fields. Soon this great inland water system, centering in "Wlnnlpci, will have an outlet Into Lake Superior by means of a canal running through the "Winni peg River, already navigable for 200 miles; Lake-of-tho-"Woods, Rainy River, Rainy Lake, Nemokan Lake, Loon Lake, Nequokan Lake and Others, requiring only a few miles of actual canal build ing to bring down to Thunder Bay the product of a region jvhlch already is becoming the world's granary, although the .Cana'dlan grain trade Is but in Its infancy. Projects To Relieve ConeeaUonC The congestion In tho Detroit Oliver Is to be relieved by two Canadian projects Kivliig free outlet over British soil to the shipping of iho great Northwest. The first of these, the Georgian Bay pro ject, is to take in the French River, Lake Nlplssins and the Ottawa' Rivor, thus connecting Lake Huron with the St Lawrence at Montreal. The second, tho Trent Navigation project, now is open from Lake SImcoe to the head of Halley's Tails, a distance of 135 miles. Nearly r'l t.io unfinished portion Is under con tract. In a few years the movement of oro to feed tho hungry furnaces of Pittsburg will be by an all-water route, as a canal from Ashtabula to the great city of iron and sK-el will do the work of fifteen raflroa Is at the cost of one. Today the Great Lakes hold the key to the commercial supromacy of America, Great capitalists, of course, are vitally interested in the traffic but most of the shipping on the Lakes belongs to the masses, the stock In the owning com panies being held by hundreds of thou sands. As the shares aro among tho most profitable and tho Bafest investments In tho world they have become the property of small Investors ouch as farmers, me chanics and clerks and it is an interesting met mot one-third of the farmers In the lake counties of Ohio have money Invest ed In lake shipping. Of all the needs of Great Lakes ships and shippers the greatest is for an ade quate and reliable means of communica tion from ship to ship and from ship to shore. It la to meet this demand that hundreds of artisans and mechanics now are engaged In the construction of wire less 'telephone stations along the shores of the Lakes and Jn Installing instru ments on the Lake vessels, t No sooner had the wireless telephone become a commercial practicability, through the perfected inventions of Dr. Lee de Forest, who previously had won distinction hi ft wlreiew fe!egp flM, EVENING EDITION than Its adaptation became a matter of greatest concern to the shipping inter ests of the lakes.? "When the De Forest system was installed and successfully tested by the United States Navy iwlth the result that Admiral Evans was able to bo in constant vocal communication with all the officers and ships of the great Paoltic fleet on Its cruise from Hampton Roads through the Straits of Magellan and thence to San Francisco, there came insistent demands for an ado quatowlroles3 telephone system for tho lakes Although tho American Navy was the first to utilize , wireless telephony, It since has been Installed on many of the Ehlps of the Italian Navy, while tho navy of Great Britain Is following tho same course with all possible speed, What Wireless Telephony Has Done. Already, from the station which the Do Forest people Installed at the top of the Eiffel Tower In Paris, tests have been made which carried tho hu man voice clear and distinct to beyond Marseilles, COO mllosaway. In this country successful tests have been made for a distance of 150 miles, but when tho new station Is completed in the fifty-second story of the huge" Metropolitan Llfo campanile In this city, it is confidently expected by the wireless telephone ex perts that they can project the volco much further than at tho Paris test3. In fact, the Inventor, do Forest, lias' de clared that within a Bhort time ho will be ablo to send mes3ages.,between these two greatest' stations so that the voice spoken !n New York, may be distinctly and im mediately heard In Paris, p "When one considers' that thirty years ago the .present wire telephono system was laughed at as being nothing moro than a clover toy, and that Prof. Alex ander Graham Boll nearly wore his heart and soul out trying to get tho small sum of money needed to construct his small test lino for threo miles from Boston to Somervllle, the suggestion of wireless talking from New York to Paris Is not to bo considered as a smlle-provoklng proposition. In establishing Its Hvstem nf wlrnlnan telophony it already has (been announced by itho Great Lakes Radio Telephono Com pany, of Cleveland, which controls the De Forest system fort'ho torritoryin question, that It will work in conjunction with all tho existing wire telephono systems, whether Bell or Independent. By a simple con trivance the wire 'phone system can be connected with tho wireless system at any of tho Jntter's central stations so that a person located nt a regular long distance telephone in New York, for In- ptanco, can be connected through a wire- loss station at 'Cleveland and hold con versations with a business associate trav eling ao a passenger on a steamer out in the middle of Lake "Erlo. Each central wireless station will have Its apparatus attuned to a certain num ber of vibrations on the principle of a tuning fork. The attuning of on in strument can bo changed by a switch. Just as tho switchboard of a central wire station can bo regulated by tho Insertion of plugs. In this way when a Lake steamer, for Instance, desires to talk with Cleveland, Its operator will throw the switch to the number of vibrations called for by Cleveland. "When the wire Instru mont on the steamer Is in repose, it will drop back to a certain specific number of vibrations so that it can be reached by any central station calling its number. or, by means of nn Aorephono automatic signalling device, can bo reached by any station sending out storm signals In dark ness or fog. In this way each Instru ment can be so regulated that It can either take up general calls from any direction or only specific calls for its own number, as might be desired. No Franchises Are Required. Ono of the advantages of the wireless telephone is that it does not require a franchise right to operate or a right of way from any government, state or mun icipality. It talks through the air and is tho only known method of vocal inter shlp communication or of talking from ship to shore. In case of fog or storm the sound of the human voice, projected by this means, is as clear and distinct as at any other time, and the invention is thereforo peculiarly adapted for safety signals and life-saving service. A distinct advantage of the wireless 'phono over tht wire 'phone is that the buzz of the wire al ways is absent. As any chip's officer oab talk by wirelea frhon a readily, as by wire 'phone on shore, all expense of an expert operator is eliminated onoS. "ft the apparatus is placed within the rea?a. of the most modest ooat aiioat. r. - The antennae wires of the apparatus are strung to the masthead of the ship by moans of hempen rope, and ore bracoS apart by a needle or spar of wood. Tha wireless telephone, Just as the wireless) telegraph, depends upon the projection of electric waves that pass through the at mosphere, and solid substances as well, with the velocity of light, which is 180,000 miles a second or more than seven, times tho circumference of tho globe. Tho mechanical principles upon whichv 3?j the wireless teiepnono aepena seem tot bo simp!? enoushi n!ttiL'Eh. t!ier I. &' proat difference of opinion as to the aot" he act sna, o"Y forma-' S jr-vary ual explanation ot the phenomena, wireless telophony. Speech Id the tlon of very rapid complex and ever-vary ing series of vibrations of the air ana. their measurement by the nerves of the ear. Owing to the resistance of the at mosphere, these vibrations grow weaker ' .LS and at last disappear as we get further l K from the source of disturbance. Tele phony is the art of translating these) vibrations of the air into vibrations ot ether whose lesser resistance enables them to bo carried to great distances for translation into air vibrations again, as only the air vibrations can be measured by the car. In the wireless telephono tho air waves are translated Into th vibration of an electrical dlscha: cliarga which oscillates the ether. One exceptionally valuablo feature ofJ the wireless telephone, which the United States Government Is utilizing as rapidl? i as possible,- is its adaptability to tho lighthouse and lightship service. Becausa 1 ot uio absence of wire maintenance charges ,lt costs no more to talk from. shore to a lighthouse or a lightship than. 1 It would cost to talk between two blocks of a congested city district, and tho lirrhti house keeper or lightship people need! y have no expert training dn order to oper ate the apparatus. Government Shows Its Appreciation. At every turn tho Government ha $ shown its appreciation of he invention, A. which, in addition to having been in- - "' stalled ,on the thirty odd battleship I '' CTuIsers and torpedo-boat destroyers ofi vb the Paclflo fleet before they started onv AK- ineir voyage around the world, has also '" Iff ueen installed at Fortress Monroe, Mara isiana ana other army posts. a Still another feature of the invAnHon?f or rather the benefit that may be derived: V from It, is for tho supplying of musla j mm uwer terms or entertainment ti jjusauiiBers traveling on the passenger vessels, a service of this kind, aided bsj a huge receiver so that all of the passen gers gathered In a large salon could hea tno music or operatic airs simultane ously, should prove ai most welcoma innovation for steamship travelers. It isJK within tho range of possibilities, at ant early date, that the traveler by Great V Lakes steamer may te able to spend his l S! OVPnlnfTa llalantnn n tl. ..4.. ,- 1 or Melba simultaneously with the audlen- t ces who see tho singers in person at t Covent Garden, London, or the Metro poll tan or Manhattan Opora Houses In New York. j ) "With the first great long1 dlstanca wireless station nearlng completion at t Toledo, with twenty-flve other long dis tance stations already contracted for construction along the lake front, w!fi j work going ahead on seventy-five small-, J er shore stations and with fifty odd moro ' already projocted, there is reason to ex- l pect that, by the tlmo Great Lakes navl- J cation opens in the Spring for the season of 1909, the wireless telephone system will be in full operation on tho Great Lakes with nearly 200 stations In use. I, i The central station ot the system wllL' . bo located at Sault 6te Marie, a contract for Its construction alroady having been let. Cfilcago, Cleveland, Detroit, MItwau- "' kco, Duluth, Buffalo, Erie and Pittsburg- ii are among tho cities being provded with, 'i long-distanco stations, while among other places for which minor stations ara either planned or under construction l are Sandusky, Lorain, Benton Har bor. Muskegon, Bay City, Cheboysran Mnnlsteo, Mackinaw, Alpena, Port Huron, Afhlnnd. Dunkirk, puperlor, Engle River. Marquette, Escanaba Bay, Menominee, T Marinette, Green Bay, Sheboygan, Racine; 1 Kenosha, Waukegan, Gary, Grand Haven, 1 Traverse City, Petoskey, St. Xgnaoe, h j uranq itapius, AsniaDUia, CMrmHu. iM Oswego and gacketts' narbor, ti am A W1 mk"U. 1 1 ..sK" M MbM