[Thursday] Interesting history: What were main targets of Massie Transmissions?

[Ken Carr]

Not sure what the PJB wanted to accomplish other than generate publicityfor the newspaper.
Point in fact:  during the single summer that a daily newspaperwas sent to BI by way of radio, there already existed telephone communication with the island.In order to prove to islanders and othersthat the radio  transmission was actually received, the entire textwas independently sent by telephone. The two copies (code and telephone transcriptions)were later compared to be exact.  Why not just use telephone?I suspect that the PJB just wanted to sell papersv based on the novelty ofhow they were transcribed. “Radio” was a magic word which wasthought to insure success to any product attached to it.At 5 cents a copy and facing big expenses (collapsed BI antenna tower) thepaper looked elsewhere for a way to make this failure asuccess. Walter Massie was their man. He hit upon the idea to pitch the service to ship owners as a safety device and as anadditional means of profiting from passengers. He was right. It worked.So, in the end, the passenger steam ships were the primary customers.
Ken Carr


NEWSM.orgIDLENOT.com

On Thursday, February 15, 2024, 12:52 PM, Randall Snow <pleaseleaveamessage4me at gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, keep in mind that deforest had been engaged initially in the whole endeavor. My recollection is that he was successful but that the system wasn't reliable. He ran off to bigger and better things so massie was employed to either improve the reliability or get it back into operation (I'm not sure of the state when massie came in). If the rented building is part of the story then perhaps its destruction was the cause for massie to build the new building. These newspaper articles are great finds to try and piece it together! 
On Wed, Feb 14, 2024, 11:41 PM Chris Prata via Thursday <thursday at newsm.org> wrote:

interesting
what were the frequencies used as those ranges increased? did they change (up into shortwave?) or did it stay longwave and then how were the gains from 45 miles to 500+ miles, better antenna and more power output only?



Regards,Chris Prata

Slava Ukraini!From: Ken Carr <kb1awv at yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2024 7:14 AM
To: Vbob <vbob at whipplestreet.net>; Chris Prata <chrisprata at live.com>
Cc: thursdaynewsm.org <thursday at newsm.org>
Subject: Re: [Thursday] Interesting history I suspect the first station, located in a rented home as Len said,used all Marconi equipment.
The PJ station that was built in 1907 (the one at the museum),used equipment built by Walter Massie and his employees.All the radio equipment presently in  the station is original Massieequipment with the exception of the huge power transformerwhich is a Marconi unit. Originally it would also have been aMassie unit. Somehow, it was lost.
Most of the telegraph equipment in the station appears to bemanufactured by other businesses which had been aroundfor a long time, unlike radio which was a nine year phenomenonif we begin with Marconi’s first successes.
When PJ opened the station had a range of anout 45 miles.By the time it was closed down (about 1911), it had a standardrange of 550 miles and an occasional 1,500 miles due tovariations in propagation  Range could easily be extended along the entire east coastby way of relays between stations that were all along both coasts.



NEWSM.orgIDLENOT.com

On Monday, February 12, 2024, 5:38 AM, Vbob via Thursday <thursday at newsm.org> wrote:

Interference? The two Point Judithstations used different systems, neither of which I know enough about…What was the effective range of these stations? If they were primarily for communicating with ships at sea (or islands….) did they still need to be as close to the shore as feasible?


On Feb 12, 2024, at 1:01 AM, Chris Prata via Thursday <thursday at newsm.org> wrote:

this is awesome find!  what history...  now the hunt begins for photos of prior building. also interesting it was being moved ½ mile... I wonder why
Regards,Chris Prata

Slava Ukraini!From: Thursday <thursday-bounces at newsm.org> on behalf of Leonard Arzoomanian via Thursday <thursday at newsm.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2024 4:24 PM
To: thursdaynewsm.org <thursday at newsm.org>
Subject: [Thursday] Interesting history Both the Providence Journal and the Woomsocket Call reported "Wireless Staion Burned" on October 26, 1907. Considering we have Station PJ, It means that there was another Station being used by the Peovidence Journal prior to 1908. Articles attached. Len  _______________________________________________
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