Marconi Eras

New Marconi Transatlantic Service from Belmar Plant Will Open June 1, 1913, SECOND STATION PLANNED Will Permit Sending and Receiving Without Interruption—Marconi System for 480 More Ships.

Contracts were signed yesterday and checks paid by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America for the purchase of 550 acres of land near Belmar, N. J., intended as a site foss long-distance wireless station to communicate, as already announced In THE NEW YORK TIMES, with London. The land is well situated for building purposes, It has both water and land transportation facilities right at hand.

In an interview with a TIMES reporter John Bottomley, General Manager of the Marconi Company, said that the plans and specifications for the erection of the towers on this station are now in course of preparation and work will be commenced almost immediately. He hopes to have the new station open for business by June 1, 1913. “What will the cost of construction be?” he was asked. The estimate is from $500,000 to $750,000.” replied Mr. Bottomless ” but it may go a little beyond those figures. The land we have purchased on the Shark River has the proper directional situation and as excellent soil without rocks or gravel or any substance that would have to be removed before the work of erecting the station could be commenced. Mr. Marconi will be here in September to superintend the erection work.

Station 6,000 Feet Long.

“We paid a good average price for It as agricultural land. The price amounted to between $125,000 and $140,000, but nearly all of this may be sold again in lots because In order to get a proper power for the construction of the high power station. 6,000 feet long and 1,500 feet broad, we had to purchase more land than was required. The price must have been at least four times what the farmers paid for it twenty years ago.
“The site in New Jersey was selected after two months’ traveling over New York State and Connecticut. It was chosen as being the most suitable in every way.”  This station will be open in ample time to operate with the station that is now being erected near London by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. Ltd. With a receiving office in New York and a station nearby to send messages across we expect to make a new era in wireless telegraphy from a commercial point of view. There will be many miles of wire strung between the towers at the Shark River Station, and with the London Station, it will be the largest in the world.
Mr. Bottomley added that he had obtained an option on land for a duplex station on Toms River or Barnegat Bay, which will permit sending and receiving at the same time, and he expects that contracts of purchase will shortly be executed.
In explaining the construction of the two Jersey high power stations. Mr. Bottomley said that they will be connected by telegraph and telephone lines, so that the operators may talk to each other and correct any errors. The duplex station, which will receive messages, will be on similar lines to the sending station at Shark River, except that it will not be equipped with the same high power. They will be Just far enough apart that the tuning up of each will not interfere with the work of the other station.
On the longitudinal section of 6.000 feet at Shark River will be twelve or fourteen towers, 300 to 400 feet high, to support the aerial wires for messages. Mr. Bottomiey could not say exactly how many would be necessary to support the wires, as that will have to be decided later by Mr. Marconi when the plans and specifications are completed.
In addition to the aerial wires there will be a network of underground wires at the stations making what is called electrical earth, and a condition of purchase of the land is that it shall be free from stumps, rocks, or any hard substance that would interfere with the underground wires. Options have also been obtained. he said, on the Pacific Coast for land on which a high-power station for communication with Hawaii and the Philippines will immediately be erected. There is also an option for a site in Honolulu.

Will Equal Cable Time.

The arrangement of the Marconi Company with the Western Union Telegraph Company, Mr. Bottomley said, will facilitate to a great extent the Progress of business, and when these new stations are completed tire time of transmission of a message from New York to London will equal that of any cable company.

He also added that the Marconi Company will take over the entire assets of the United Wireless Company early next week with the permission of the courts and that the infringement on the Marconi patents will be removed and replaced with Marconi apparatus entirely. This means that 480 steamships plying the Atlantis and Pacific Coasts will be equipped with the Marconi system in addition to the land stations which have been erected by the United Wireless Company. The United Wireless offices will be moved from 42 Broadway to 27 William Street, where the Marconi Company has its offices. C. C. Galbraith, general manager of the United Wireless, will have charge of the marine department of the Marconi Company when the change Is effected.

Mr. Bottomley appeared to be very sanguine for the future of the Marconi wireless business in America. He said that his birthday is on June 9 and that Mr. Sammis, the chief engineer of the company, had promised him that he should receive messages of congratulation on his birthday In 1913 from his friends abroad through the new power stations.

Published: June 7, 1912, Copyright The New York Times

First posted January 28, 2017, InfoAge.org