WIRELESS MESSAGES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 74, 30 March 1910, Page 11

WIRELESS MESSAGES.

AMERICAN BOYS' INGENUITY. In all parts of America schoolboy* and other amateurs have rigged up an apparatus upon houses, barn». and woodsheds for receiving wireless mesages, and these ingenious youths occasionally mako such indiscriminate use of distress and other signals that the Government is being urged to take action, with the object of preventing wireless confusion, more particularly along the American coast (writes a New York correspondent). Some stores in the big cities here sell wireless plants, which are fairly efficient for short distances, and it is estimated that over 50,000 ingenious America* boys hare installed nondescript stations at their own expense, ranging from a few shillings to £6 or £7. It is asserted that these youugsters occasionally break into Government messages and send "fake" alarms burying revenue cutters to sea in aid of a. supposed vessel in distress, and so on. Francis Nesbit, a Nexr York boy, 15 years old, has taken up the cudgels in behalf of the amateurs, and declares that interference with the boys' stations is "Unamerican, impracticable, and a grave impediment to inventive talent." He admits that false messages are occasionally sent, but gays that the boy amateurs, as a clasa, are honourable and harmless, and adds that it would be "advisable for the Government to install modern instruments in their stations, which woulU increase their efficiency and prevent the chance of amateur interference. " Young Nesbit has been interviewed, and declares that there are thousands of boys behind him in fighting for theur rights before Congress. "I feel it my duty," h* says, "to protest, because the harm done by amateur operators is more than counterbalanced by the good resulting from their patient and intelligent investigations." He maintains that Uncle Sam's wireless plant is antiquated and poorly devised, but General Allan, Chief of the Signal Corps, replies that such a charge is impertinent and unfounded. The general states that the American Wireless Telegraph departments operated by the army and navy have kept pace with the advancment of the art and their apparatus is the most efficient obtainable. Nesbit, however, stickf to his guns, and declares that he is ready to prove that, although the Government has had good systems, it doe? not keep pace with progress, and there are lots of boys throughout the country who, as regards intelligence and tho ability to decipher messages, excel the Government operators. It is rather an interesting dispute, this wireless controversy between American boys and the American Government, and it seems certain already that, while new regulations may enforce discipline to prevent confusion on the coast, an ample field will stiU bo reserved for the special benefit of the army of embryo Edisons.