Wireless telegraphy was successfully used in tracing lost baggage on the last outward trip of the Red Star Liner “Finland,” on Oct 10.
A passenger, who discovered some time after the steamer’s departure, that he left some baggage behind on the dock, communicated with the officials at the Pier through the Marconi Station at Babylon, L.I., and in twenty minutes received a reply that the baggage had been found and would be forwarded by the next steamer.
A Newspaper’s Opinion of Wireless Telegraphy.
The Montreal Witness, in its issue Nov. 18, 1903, says: “Whatever may be the actual achievement of the Marconi wireless system, so far as telegraphing across the Atlantic is concerned, that system is now an assured success in communicating from ship to ship and from ships to lighthouses on the coasts. In this respect the system has passed the stage of scientific curiosity and has become a necessity. The Cunard and Allan Lines now, for instance, are able to communicate with stations established on the south and northwest coasts of Ireland, so that their owners as ‘Syren and Shipping’ puts it, are no longer in a quandary during bad or thick weather as to whether their boats are calling at Queenstown or at Moville, as the case may be. The Marconi system was first installed upon the ‘Lucania,’ and so satisfied were the Cunard people with results that it is now in regular operation on the ‘Campania,’ ‘Etruria,’ ‘Umbria,’ ‘Ivernia,’ ‘Saxonia,’ ‘Aurania’ and ‘Carpothia.’
“Other shipping lines have similarly found the Marconi system indispensable, so that now it is quite an ordinary occurrence for a ship on the North Atlantic to be in electrical communication with passing steamers or the shore during nearly the whole of the voyage.
“Such remarkable success as already attained is sufficient warrant for the general belief that this system of aerial telegraphy is but in its initial stages, and that its commercial success over wider spaces is only a question of time. Presently the system will be used on the Canadian Coast line, and then it is hoped that shipwreck caused by want of knowledge of locality will be largely a thing of the past.”
Wireless Telegraphy.
There has been no announcement in connection with science of recent date which has such an important meaning as the very modest statement recently made by Signor Marconi to the members of the Royal Institute of London. His discoveries in connection with wireless telegraphy have exceeded the expectations of many of the greatest scientists of the day who gave him all credit for the work which he had done, but could not bring themselves to believe that he could perfect his system within so brief a time.