More "Early Days of Wireless" ARKIVE # 11
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From a 1985 newspaper clipping found in the scrapbook of
the Winnipeg Senior Citizens' Radio Club

        TITANIC CALL HEARD, STEPHENSON SAYS

Hamilton, Bermuda (AP) -- Sir William Stephensen, the
Canadian who headed British security in the Western Hemisphere
during the Second World War, claims he was one of the first
amateur wireless operators to hear the ill-fated Titanic's
distress call 73 years ago.
        "I was 16 years old at the time," recalled Sir William,
a long-time Bermuda resident who will be 90 in January,"and
was exchanging signals with ships in the Great Lakes from my
home in WINNIPEG.
        "It was just after midnight on April 15, 1912, and
all of a sudden came a more powerful signal sending out the
international call of distress.
        "I knew from the call letters that it was the Titanic,
but it was hard to believe that a ship claimed to be unsinkable
was, in fact, going down," he continued.
        "The wireless operator kept asking for assistance from
other ships and requesting lifeboats.
        "At that time, I was a stringer for the wire service
WAP (Western Associated Press). I telephoned them straightaway
and so the news of the Titanic's going down was soon all over
Canada and the United States."
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From "Modern Electrics" - August, 1911
        SILENT AEROPLANES
        M. Henri Farman, the well-known French aviator and
designer of flying machines, has recently perfected a silent
aeroplane. This is an important step in the combining of
wireless telegraphy to aeroplanes, inasmuch as there has been
considerable difficulty in the past experiments to receive any
appreciable distance with the loud noise of the engine. With
this objectional point overcome, there seems no obstacle in
the way of receiving long distances while aloft. The improve-
ment is in the Renault gasoline motor, which has been success-
fully muffled, while not detracting from its splendid working
qualities. It is a modest prophecy to state that 50 miles
will be readily covered by wireless in this latest of aeroplanes
before the year has lapsed.

        CORRESPONDENCE
Modern Electrics Publication,
New York City
Dear Sirs:
        I want to thank the writer of "Galena" in a recent issue
of this magazine, on account of the excellent results I have
obtained by using his arrangement of the galena detector, whereby
I am able to receive messages a distance of 1,500 miles, using a
very simple set.
        To all who are looking forth to receive wireless messages
any appreciable distance, I can recommend most highly the use of
the galena detector with an arrangement having a piece of No. 30
copper wire resting on said mineral.
July 11, 1911. EDGAR A. SMITH

------------------ 73, de Gil, VE4AG ---------------------------
Watch for ARKIVE # 12 - 'The Mystery of the Ether'