Milwaukee School of Engineering - EMF Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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Ia U' April fifteenth brought the glad tidings and quitting school early I dashed down to Dewey’s store, the amateur’s “hang-out” in Milwaukee and got an abundance of flash-light batteries to supply the plate voltage of the audion. an important part of the receiving set. Then “home” where the apparatus lay waiting ready for use except for the batteries. These were soon soldered in and with the nervous excitement of a little boy on Christmas eve I slipped the “phones” (so typical of the radio set) on and turned on the bulb prepared to hear everything in the air. What an exciting moment that was can best be described by the results. My aerial comprised only a wire in the attic yet the stations heard ranged from (NAT) New Orleans to Boston while the boats on the Great Lakes roared into the room. Much of the news of the NC-4’s famous flight across the Atlantic was heard on various evenings while the R-34, British dirigible was “followed across” by listening to her messages being relayed by coast stations to Washington. Of course my chief interest in listening is among the amateurs, boys of my own age who are scattered by the thousands all over the United States. Hundreds of them have transmitting sets of remarkable efficiency. A range of 500 miles transmitting is the rule rather than the exception with only one- half k. v. a. input. As I sit at my table in my room with both detector and amplifier glowing warmly and an electro chemistry manual in my hand, I dream as I copy the signals of the far-distant station whose faint signals arc registering on my “phones.” Possibly a station is sending from Kentucky to an amateur in Kansas. Perhaps he is sending a message for a boy in school in New York to his mother in California. It can and is done every night. The stations “drone” and “sing” continuously. The majority of the people who have never heard wireless have the impression that it consists of short and long ticks just as in a line telegraph station. This is, of course, entirely wrong. Each station has its own peculiar tone, sounding very much like the notes of a flute. They arc very musical and when numbers of stations are transmitting at once the effect is indescribable. While we sit listening now to Guantanamo Bay. Cuba, then to Seattle, Washington and next to Key West, Florida or Mexico City. Mexico simply by turning two or three knobs, we suddenly hear a human voice speak clearly, “Hello, Paul?” Then the reply, “Hello, do we get some music tonight?” “Sure, the first will be, ‘Oh, What a Pal Was Mary ” Then just as clear as though the music were downstairs or in the next room, we hear it being transmitted by wireless telephone over the air from many miles away. For the next hour it is continued with various selections and one’s feet invariably tap the floor in time to the music which varies from grand opera to “jazz,” while in the left hand lies the electro chemistry manual “forgotten but not gone.” Thus one can see wherein the charm lies in owning a radio station. Page One Hundred Thirty-four

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 :x- tEe 1920 i,.,,,,,» ’ ' y of very high internal resistance and in which the specific gravity was the greatest part of the solution it was multiplied by L. C. F. and was now very suitable for use so the experiment was continued. As soon as the theoretical speed of series motor at no load was reached a load in the form of a series multiple connection 60 calories in series and 30 such groups in multiple was connected to the machine. It didn’t seem to affect the speed in the least but the machine stopped because the impendance of the scale was getting very hot which after proper investigation proved to be caused by the armature reaction of the remote control field regulator. It was soon remedied and everything went along smoothly. Several of the seconds were now counted and as soon as a considerable number were gathered they were exchanged for minutes as these always are easier to cancel away when developing the formulas. A very peculiar incident happened while we were taking our hystercses readings which seemed very low. The reason was that we were using a 120 volt hysteresemeter while running the machine on 240 volts therefore the nee- dle point had made 011c revolution on the dial and started on the second but as book VI gives a very accurate formula for just this case all we had to do was lo draw out the correction curve and attach it to the lightning arrestors. By this time the health condition of two of the bunch was badly affected by the smoke from the ammeters and one had already fainted, so we de- cided to leave the laboratory until the test was finished. Two hours later when we came back it could easily be seen through the smoke that the machine had stopped which proved the experiment was finished. When the next bunch get to that experiment they will have brand new in- struments to work with. The fuses were alright. AN EVENING AT MY WIRELESS STATION. Few who have never listened to the musical sounds of a wireless trans- mitter or who have never been interested in the subject can possibly appre- ciate the fascination there is in it. I have been an active and intensely inter- ested amateur for about eight years. Several years of my life up until I came to school here were spent in Phoenix. Arizona. Phoenix has many amateurs and their influence only served to make me the more interested in the subject. The air and sky in Arizona is remarkably clear and naturally great ranges in wireless are the result. In fact to transmit fifty miles with an ordinary “Ford” ignition coil was most ordinary. Those who have had experience with wireless in this country will appreciate the significance in this statement. So while crossing the two thousand miles that separate Milwaukee from Phoenix by train 1 naturally conjectured on the future possibilities of radio in Milwaukee. My receiving instruments were coming by express and would arrive soon after I would so all that remained was to wait for that happy day when war-time restrictions would be removed and we would be free to listen once more. P i jc One Hundred Thirty-ihree

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Ml. -'HIE 1020 ...1.M ) Ah, NORA i Your . t Ac Aor Afejl 0n r Hundred Thirty-five