DL&W goes Wireless - 1915

I came across an article in the 1915 edition of the Edison Monthly concerning the DL&W and wireless communication. Apparently at the time of the issue the DL&W was initiating a wireless telephone service on one of its major express trains to Buffalo. Lee Deforest, the famous electronics inventor, designed the generating system and telephone set. Two combination mail-baggage cars where converted to house the five horsepower steam turbine for the generator and separate wireless telephone set with antenna. The steam locomotive provided the power for the turbine.

Receiving aerials were placed strategically along the rail line at different stations. The more interesting of these was the 400 foot tower near the Hoboken Terminal. The antenna itself consisted of approximately six wires strung a distance of nearly 700 feet from the tower to the rail station’s famous clock tower. The wires were spaced with roughly 30’ wide separators. I wonder if the antenna was also serving ship-to-shore radio as well as train service.

Kenneth Murchison, the terminal’s architect was probably not amused to see this oversized radio set on his design.

I have original documentation on this project including signed correspondence from Deforest and photos of the event, including Edison, an honored guest for the occasion. The DL&W was at the forefront of the technology. Basically very few believed you could transmit signals to/from a moving body.

Yes mkolesar, the DL&W was way ahead of it’s time. In 1914 the railroad had a wireless telegraphy system up and running. The advantage of this system was shown during a winter storm which hit the East Coast that year. Communications between stations and trains were maintained despite the telegraph wires being down. Other railroads serving the area were essentially in the dark. I Include a New York Times link with a period newspaper article on the event.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 946596D6CF

Here is an interesting link to an article in Technical World Magazine (1914) which describes the wireless telegraphy system. It also shows a young David Sarnoff as a technical inspector for the Marconi Company in one of the DL & W wireless cars. Sarnoff eventually would become the founder of NBC and the longtime president of RCA.

http://earlyradiohistory.us/1914trn.htm

The Railroad’s main goal for the wireless telephone was train dispatching, with passenger telephones being a travel perk unique to DL& W train service.