Wireless telephoneIn 1919, a wireless telephone call was made by Secretary Josephus Daniels at his Navy Department desk, Washington D.C., to Ensign Faganwater, piloting a seaplane 150 miles away. A newspaper report said this was a record distance for such communication. Development began aided by Bell system experts since Feb 1917, with a successful test in Oct 1917. On 21 Nov 1919, President Wilson used a wireless telephone at the White House to direct maneuvers of a formation of planes nearby. Three years earlier, on 6 May 1916, the Secretary of the Navy had given orders, connected by AT&T Co. ship-to-shore radio telephone, to the captain of the battleship New Hampshire. Alexander Graham Bell had transmitted the first wireless telephone message using light in an experiment with his Photophone on 3 Jun 1880.«[Entry previously shown on this site for 16 Mar 1919, but that was date of a Washington newspaper article.] |
