Mr. McGee, the young man in charge, politely pointed out and explained the uses of the various appliances comprising the Marconi outfit.
First was a large Rumford coil, a glass cylinder through which the electric spark was discharged and a key or transmitter constituting the sending apparatus.
Second, on the left was a large oblong box containing the coherer, the chief instrument in wireless telegraphy, and in the centre an automatic self-inking Morse register with an alarm bell attachment, these being the receiving instruments, and underneath the accumulators or storage batteries and six cells of a home battery to work the Morse instrument. When the key was depressed for an instant a bright electric spark emitted from the contact points in the glass cylinder, giving a hard hissing sound; this imprinted a dot on the register, and a longer impression marked a line, the two forming the letter “a” of the Morse alphabet.
The characters or code used by the wireless system is what is known as the European or Continental Code, that is the spaced letters are eliminated and dots and lines substituted the same as the cable system.
All the vessels equipped with Marconi apparatus on the St. Lawrence route have a capacity of eighty miles’ transmission, but a possible one hundred and twenty, this distance being deemed great enough for all practical purposes.
On the New York and Liverpool route the steamships have a much more extensive equipment, which enables them to keep in touch with the one side of the Atlantic or the other during the entire voyage.
The cost of the Marconi equipment of the former averages £200—or $1,000.
Five Marconi stations have been erected on the Lower St. Lawrence during the present summer and a fair, profitable traffic carried on so far. These stations will be closed during the winter, but a station is being erected at Cape Race, Nfld., which will be open throughout the year.
The rates charged is two dollars for ten words and twelve cents for each additional word plus cable or land line rates.
Mr. McGee informed me the “Parisian” was enveloped in a dense fog when in the vicinity of Belle Isle on her inward trip. The captain was surprised at not hearing the fog syren and the Marconi station was communicated with to learn the reason. A response immediately came that the fog horn had been and was then blowing since the fog had fallen, thus showing the ship was out of range and in safety.