Wireless--selected articles (1909)

This four-page broadsheet was issued by the New York Selling Agency, the sales agent for United Wireless Telegraph Company. The president of the Agency, William W. Tompkins, would eventually receive a one year prison sentence for his overly-enthusiastic promotion of the nearly worthless United stock.

Wireless, May, 1909, pages 1-4:
WIRELESS

Vol. I

NEW YORK, MAY, 1909

No. 1

UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH COMPANY STOCK

ADVANCES FROM $25 TO A POINT SOMEWHERE

BETWEEN $26.50 AND $29.50 A SHARE MAY 10

________________
The pleasure of introducing a great opportunity for certain and large profits, combined with absolute safety of principal, is seldom accorded a financial agent. Too often the investments which promise large profits are speculations and have not passed the experimental stage. Occasionally, however, a company that is developing a business which is based on an invention like the telephone, the telegraph, the electric light, the typesetting machine, the air brake or the kodak, after becoming thoroughly established on a profitable commercial basis is confronted with a demand, for its apparatus or service, which requires an immediate outlay of cash exceeding the amount they have on hand, and in excess of the net profits being received from its business.

WIRELESS.

A Record of the Development and Progress of the Wireless Telegraph.

PUBLISHED BY

The New York

Selling Agency,

18 BROADWAY,

NEW YORK.

MAY, 1909

    To achieve success, study, think and act for yourself. ________
    If you have changed your address recently, notify us, giving your old as well as new address, to enable us to make change in our records so "Wireless" may reach you promptly and regularly. ________
    When the June issue of Wireless reaches you, the price of stock will be $26.50 a share or more, now selling for $25. Steady advances may be looked for, the price of stock increasing with the development of the business of the United Wireless Telegraph Company. ________
    The main office of the United Wireless Telegraph Company is at 42 Broadway, New York. Orders and inquiries for stock should be addressed to The New York Selling Agency, Incorporated, 18 Broadway, New York. ________
    One estimate gives 1,769 cables with a total length of 189,000 miles in the world, costing over $300,000,000. Another source reports 405 cables owned by corporations, a total length of 203,052 nautical miles and in addition 1,651 Government cables with 46,056 miles in length, a total of 2,056 cables aggregating 249,108 nautical miles in length. ________
    Prof. Alexander Graham Bell, in a published interview, expressed the opinion that wireless telegraphy would supplant every cable in the world. The great money making cables will have to give way to wireless. ________
    In 1897 there were but two Wireless Stations with a range of 14½ miles. Since then the usual range of Wireless Telegraphy has increased in direct route to 2,500 miles and who will say what may not be done in the Wireless field in a few years more? ________
    It is estimated that one billion, five hundred million dollars are invested in lines for electrical communication in the United States and that the yearly cost of maintainence is nearly three hundred million dollars. ________
    No expensive wires to run, poles to set, franchises to buy, repairs after storms with wireless, hence the remarkable dividend possibilities. ________
    The telegraph, telephone and wireless were first considered impracticable by the public. All are in successful operation to-day. Wireless is in its infancy and growing rapidly. ________
    The authorized capital of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company is $250,000,000, $153,000,000 is outstanding, not including $27,110,400 held by the American Bell Telephone Company. The stock received dividends from April, 1900, to July, 1906, at the rate of 7½ per cent. per annum, since which time the distribution has been at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum. ________
    Alexander Graham Bell offered Senator Don Cameron, of Pennsylvania, one half of the Bell Telephone Company for nothing more than the use of his name and his approval of the invention. Cameron called Bell a fool and his telephone stock a fake. Senator Chauncey Depew called the telephone a clever toy without commercial value. ________
    Bell Telephone stock increased in eighteen months from $10 to $4,000 a share. An investment of $500 increased to $200,000 in this remarkably short time. ________
    Can you realize that the era is dawning when the future transmission of power, heat and light will be by means of WIRELESS, just the same as the transmission of communications is now an accomplished fact in WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY and TELEPHONY? ________
    General Electric Co. dividends to shareholders, $4,344,342. Surplus, $3,083,502. ________
    In an editorial on the possibilities of Wireless, the New York World, April 19, says:
    "The ordinary telephone in its commercial application has not yet outspanned a generation; the long-distance service, a tremendous development, has become possible within the lifetime of men now barely out of college. Once it was to laugh but now it is to marvel at the idea of a voice travelling a thousand miles by wire. And the world knew much more about wire thirty years ago than it will know about ether waves (Wireless) for some time to come."

    History records that such need is the investor's opportunity and that an early investment, in any of the inventions enumerated above, was safe as to principal and the returns were a hundred and, in some cases, were a thousand times the amount invested. Usually such an investor made a fortune for himself in only a few years, from a small outlay, and though none of the companies had paid a cash dividend until after its stock had sold at enormous figures, the advance in price was so rapid and the dividends, when received, were so large, an investor of comparatively a very small amount, obtained a regular income which was sufficient for his support through life.
    "UNITED WIRELESS" offers such an opportunity to you. The business and the company is comparable only with the above-mentioned big-money-makers. The company is established on a commercially successful basis and is now earning a substantial net profit from the operations of its business. It is ably and honestly managed by officers and directors of the highest integrity and standing, who have invested their own money in the company. "UNITED WIRELESS" stock has increased in value nearly 200% within the past year, and continues to advance rapidly, but it is still sufficiently low-priced to increase another 200% within the next six months, and should increase 1,000% within two years.
    You should buy United Wireless now--without delay, because now is your opportunity. Invest $50, or $100, or $500, or $1,000, or several thousand dollars, according to your means. Buy some United Wireless stock now and hold on to it and watch it grow and grow and increase in value BECAUSE
    FIRST--When the many thousands of ships on the seas and the waterways of the earth are equipped with "wireless" (and they will be, just as the wire telegraph companies have established offices in the thousands of cities and towns on land), because of the more economic operation and the greater charge for the transmission of wireless messages over the sea (as compared with wire service on land), the net revenue from that source alone will be more than double that which is earned annually by the wire telegraph systems with their hundred millions of capital; when "wireless" supplants the cables for communication between the continents and the tens of thousands of islands of the seas (as it will in a comparatively short time), the net revenue from that source will run up into the millions of dollars annually. Add to the above the revenue from overland telegraph business which the "wireless" will receive when stations are built in all the important inland cities and the company is in a position to compete with the wires estimate of the enormous future cash dividends which will be paid out, of the earnings of the wireless telegraph, as well as the great amount of increased capitalization which will be necessary to issue and pay out to its shareholders in stock dividends, in order that the cash dividends on each share may be held down to what would seem to be ordinary earnings, may be arrived at. The anticipation of sharing in these enormous future dividends is ample justification for a much higher price than now asked for the United preferred participating stock.
    SECOND--In addition to its wireless "telegraph" system, the United company is developing the wireless "telephone," and other methods of wireless signaling, such as its "fog-phone," which will be used for locating the position of a ship in a fog, and thereby prevent loss of life and property through collision at sea, etc., all of which belong to and is a part of the assets of the company. The conditions under which "wireless" operates justifies the belief that the successful wireless telegraph company will also develop, and establish on a commercial basis, all other means of "wireless" communication and operation. As the wireless telephone, the fog-phone, etc., are developed in the United company's laboratories (even though policy may now prevent making public the result of such experiments), the real value of the company's assets is materially increased. A consideration of the future earnings from a perfected and commercially established wireless telephone system covering America, the safety signaling devices for ships, dangerous coast points and railway service, as well as wireless fire alarm and police alarm systems, etc., put into extensive use, further justify continuous advances in the price asked by the company for its stock.
    THIRD--The United Wireless Telegraph Company has an authorized capital of only twenty millions of dollars, with no bonds or other debts except current monthly bills. This capital is only about one-eighth of the liabilities of the Western Union Telegraph Company, about one per cent. of the liabilities of the telephone companies, and just equals the cost of the Pacific cable from San Francisco to Hawaii, between which points two wireless stations, costing only about $20,000, transmit messages every night. A substantial amount of the capital stock of the United Wireless Telegraph Company will still remain in its treasury after the company has sold all the stock which it needs to sell, to provide for its future extensions and operations. The majority of the outstanding United stock is pooled or tied up under contract and cannot be sold or transferred for some time, therefore the rapid progress made by the company during 1908 and the knowledge that the United Wireless Telegraph Company now practically is in entire control of the "wireless" field on this continent and is really the only large "wireless operating concern in the entire world, doing a commercially profitable and satisfactory wireless business, in itself justifies a premium on its stock.
    FOURTH--The large additional factory facilities for manufacturing wireless apparatus, which have been recently added to the company's manufacturing department, together with the considerable number of additional stations on land, new ships equipped, new contracts, etc., tangible assets belonging to the company, will produce increased earnings sufficient to justify an advance in the selling price of its securities, irrespective of any other cause, but coupled with the prospective earnings in the future United stock should be selling today at not less than double the present price. If the stock of the United company is not selling at considerably above $200 per share within the next two years, some of the shrewdest and most conservative of American investors will be very much disappointed in their calculations. When the "speculative" investors begin to fully understand and appreciate the wireless situation, United stock will undoubtedly be snapped up at whatever price is asked for it and will start bounding upward to quickly sell at big figures, the size of which would now seem impossible.
    FIFTH--The United company is offering only a portion of its treasury holdings for sale, and as they prefer to scatter the stock over as broad a territory as possible the amount which may be placed in your community may be limited and all of it be taken by others should you delay. At the same time the price is advancing enormously and delay may mean not only that you might have to pay a higher price, but that the stock may suddenly advance to a point at which it may be beyond your means to purchase more than a very few shares; or possibly the present limited offering may be disposed of and you may be unable to obtain any of the stock, until after the greater portion of the advancing values have been secured by others.
    Until May 10th you can purchase United Wireless Telegraph Company 7 per cent. Preferred Participating stock, at $25 a share. After May 10th the price will be somewhere between $26.50 and $29.50 a share. To secure stock at the present price, $25 a share, orders must be mailed on or before May 10th.
    Stock may be purchased on five equal monthly installments, one-fifth of the amount with the order and one-fifth payable monthly.

DOUBLE ITS PAR VALUE.
The par value of United Wireless Telegraph Company stock is $10 a share. The selling price until May 10, 1909, is $25.00 a share. After that date the price will be advanced somewhere to between $26.50 and $29.50 a share, as the directors may decide.
The past history of the Electric Light Companies' stock shows that their shares sold considerably above par for several years before the first dividends were declared and paid.

BUY UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH COMPANY STOCK NOW.
"A FEW REASONS WHY."
    Professor Alexander Graham Bell said: "Find the newest, greatest business invention and buy its stock." Wireless Telegraphy needs no new tests to establish it as the "newest and greatest business invention."
    Mr. Russell Sage said: "The time is near when the wireless telegraph will supplant every telegraph cable in existence."
Because:
    Wireless will become the most important means of communication. It should outstrip all others in the rapidity of development and commercial extension. It should become a dividend payer in a shorter period than any other electrical discovery. It is now urgently needed for the following purposes:
    Governments need it to equip their ships, forts, armies, weather and forestry departments.
    Ten thousand islands in the oceans, seas, lakes, harbors, bays and rivers need it to connect them with each other and the balance of the world.
    The hundreds of thousands of vessels on the seas need it and will be forced to install it.
    Transportation companies need it to keep in touch with their various craft.
    Railroads need it in connection with running their trains and for the use of their passengers.
    Mine owners and isolated enterprises need it because it may afford uninterrupted service under all conditions.
    Newspapers and stock brokers need it because it will supply an efficient news distributing service at small expense.
    Business men need it because it will bring them in immediate communication with the entire field of commercial activity, and at reduced cost.
    All the world needs it and this worldwide demand insures its rapid development and commercial extension.
    When an invention has become proven as commercially useful, an enormous increase in the market price of its stock quickly follows.
    Western Union Telegraph, Bell Telephone and Edison Electric Light each created great fortunes within a comparatively short time after the commercial value of the invention was established.
    The United Wireless Telegraph Company operates the greatest commercial wireless telegraph system in the world, supplying constant reliable service at a substantial profit to the Company.
    "United Wireless" Telegraph is conceded to be the greatest future money maker. It is now established as commercially useful and the period of rapid advancement in the price of its securities is at hand.
NOW IS THE TIME TO INVEST.
    Because the United Wireless Telegraph system is a substantial, established, commercially successful enterprise, conducted at a profit and directed by men of unquestioned ability and integrity who have their own money invested in the Company.
    Because every new means of communication has proven enormously profitable for an investor who purchased its stock after it had become established as a profitable commercial enterprise.
    Because the United Wireless Telegraph Company has in sight, during the next twelve months, ten times its present telegraphic business, with a corresponding increase in the income, which insures the payment of large dividends quickly.
    Because the United Wireless Telegraph Company has developed a wireless telephone which will largely supplement its telegraph business and secure for the company a practical control of wireless communication, both over land and seas.
    Because "United Wireless" to-day presents the most plausible, sensible and safe investment, with better founded reasons for yielding large returns than any other stock now before the public.
    Because the logical period for the rapid advance in the price of "United Wireless" securities is now. Bell Telephone advanced from the present price of United stock to $3,250 per share in twelve months with less foundation of established value than "United Wireless" offers to-day.
    Because the company is already earning good profits above the cost of maintaining contiguous shore station connection, and every one of the two thousand new ships expected to be equipped within the next twelve months will add a net profit for payment in dividends.
    Because in buying now an investor secures stock at its present low price. A small investment made now will purchase as many shares as a large investment will obtain after a few months of the anticipated rapid increase in the price of the stock.
    Because shrewd investors consider this a perfectly safe investment which will grow rapidly in value and pay enormous dividends in future.
    Consider that while the wire system is confined solely to the land and to stationary objects, the Wireless has, in addition to that field, all the Islands, Isolated Communities, Moving Trains, and other vehicles on land, together with the enormous traffic of the Seas, Lakes, Harbors and Rivers. The latter business in itself is so enormous that the United Wireless Company need not seek patronage now being received by the Wire Companies, in order to advance the value of its stock to enormous premium over par value.
    There has always been a period in the development of all great inventions when after long and expensive experimentation, litigation and discouraging mistakes, the business became established on a profitable commercial basis. Then the great investing public, realizing its enormous profit possibilities, clamored for its stock and bid prices up in such enormous proportions that a few shares, purchased at a low cost, represented a comfortable fortune.
    Twenty-five years ago many feared the telephone would to a large degree undermine the telegraph; but instead it proved itself a powerful feeder of a great general utility, supplementing by many fold the range and value of wire communication. So with the wireless system. First of all it makes the zone of electrical communication co-extensive with the earth's surface. It places the oceans practically on an equal footing with the continents.
    There is no need to argue that the wireless telegraph operates as successfully over land as does the wire telegraph. Argument cannot change a fact, and it is a fact that wireless does just what is claimed for it and transmits messages over land with the same degree of accuracy as it does over the sea.
    The cable between Havana, Cuba, and Florida cost about $800,000, and the owners charge 10 cents a word for transmitting messages over it. Two United Wireless stations, one at Havana, Cuba, and the other at Key West, Fla., which together did not cost more than $10,000, have been operating between the two points for over a year, charging a rate of only 25 cents for a message of ten words, and two cents for every additional word, from which they have derived a large revenue and made a handsome profit, and the completion of the local station will afford the residents of this community the same proportionately low rate to the Island of Cuba.
    It only need be added that a careful study of the situation justifies the conclusion that before very long United Wireless stock will be regarded as one of the best, safest and most profitable investments to be found in the money markets of the world. The company has mastered all the preliminary difficulties and obstacles, and is now on the high road to a magnificent, legitimate and enduring commercial success.
    The United Company is offering a portion of its treasury holdings for sale, and as they prefer to scatter the stock over as broad a territory as possible, in order to create a commercial interest, the amount which may be placed in your community may be limited and all of it be taken by others should you delay. At the same time the price is advancing enormously and delay may mean not only that you might have to pay a higher price, but that the stock may suddenly advance to a point at which it may be beyond your means to purchase more than a very few shares; or possibly the present limited offering may be disposed of and you may be unable to obtain any of the stock, until after the greater portion of the advancing values have been secured by others. Fullest facts will be supplied on request.
    You should buy United Wireless now--without delay, because now is your opportunity. Invest $50, or $100, or $500, or $1,000 or several thousand dollars, according to your means. Buy some United Wireless stock now and hold on to it and watch it grow and grow and increase in value.

WIRELESS TELEPHONE.
    The wireless telephone will be demonstrated on the grounds of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. On Klondike circle near the main entrance, will be built a rustic tower 100 feet in height at the base of which will be an exhibit hall for wireless apparatus invented to the date of the opening of the exhibition.
    Wireless telephones will be installed on the grounds and daily demonstrations made by the United Wireless Company. A daily newspaper, containing news from vessels at sea, will be published at the fair. The wireless equipment will be installed on the top of a fifty-foot pole to stand on the tower, giving the wireless station a height of 150 feet from the ground.
    Near the top of this pole will be a series of tubes, and, as messages are being sent out from the station, there will be a kaleidoscopic effect produced by the electricity passing through the varicolored globes.
    At the present time the company has a station at Vancouver, B. C., where the wireless telephone is being perfected. The wireless phone was used to some extent on the warships during the cruise of the Atlantic fleet to Seattle and experiments are now being made in New York.--Seattle, Wash., Times, Feb. 14, 1909.

FOG FONE GREAT INVENTION.
Official of United Wireless Company is inventor of Valuable Device.
    R. H. Marriott, assistant scientific manager of the United Wireless Telegraph Company and inventor of the Fog Fone, contributes the following article to the March number of the Aerogram:
    Fog has caused great loss of life, property, money and time in many industries, but more particularly in the shipping industry.
    An example is to be found in the case of S. S. Columbia, which, in the summer of 1907 was making the trip from San Francisco to Portland. She was caught in a fog and proceeded at half speed. About the same time a tramp steamer bound south, was caught in the fog and proceeded at half speed. Both vessels were blowing their whistles and each heard the other but could not tell how far they were apart, nor could they tell from which direction these sounds were coming.
    The tramp steamer struck the Columbia amidships. The Columbia sank almost immediately. Many lives and a valuable ship and cargo were lost.
    Some of the readers of this article may have had sufficient experience to know how hard it is to tell which way a sound is coming from in a fog, and how much harder it is to even estimate the distance to the bell or whistle.
    A navy officer told me of a place on Puget Sound where a fog signal cannot be heard over a hundred yards in one direction, while in other directions it can be heard two miles or more.
    The main use of the Fog Fone is to prevent vessels from running into each other or into rocks or shoals.
    The Fog Fone enables the vessels to tell just how far apart they are, and knowing their distance apart at different times, they can calculate their direction.
    Probably you have noticed the steam leave a distant whistle and that quite a little time elapsed before the sound reached you.
    Wireless waves travel with the same velocity that light waves travel; that is, about 186,000 miles per second, while sound waves travel in the air about 1,000 feet per second. This is taken advantage of in the Fog Fone.
    A bell ringing in the air before the transmitter of a wireless telephone is heard in a wireless receiver one mile distant, in 1-186,000 of a second or instantly, so far as we can tell, while the sound coming in the air will arrive about five seconds later. The two sounds received are identical. A device like a stop watch is used, but instead of being calibrated for seconds, the calibrations represent distances in feet. When the sound of the bell is heard over the wireless receiver, the operator presses a button which starts the clock-work. When the bell is heard in the air the button is again pressed and stops the clock-work. The indicating hand then shows how many feet apart the vessels are.
    The sounds received in both instances are identical in note, which eliminates the possibilities of confusion with other sounds.
    In some instances it in desirable to use the submarine bell instead of the bell in air.

WIRELESS FOR OVERLAND SERVICE.
    There is no need to argue that the wireless telegraph operates as successfully over land as does the wire telegraph. Argument cannot change a fact, and it is a fact that wireless does just what is claimed for it and transmits messages over land with the same degree of accuracy as it does over the sea. Enough said.
    It is only a matter of time and money and within a reasonable short period the wires will disappear and wireless will take their place. First the current news and stock quotations will be distributed by wireless, for the reason that one sending station, having a radius of 500 miles, can transmit a message to every newspaper and every stock broker's office within that distance. It requires only one operator to do the sending, and the enormous expense of maintaining poles and wires is saved. Secondly, the railways will use the wireless telegraph for sending massages to their stations and direct to their fast trains. The railway station agent will become the wireless telegraph operator and the wire telegraph system will thereby lose its ability to maintain the many thousands of smaller stations. The wire companies cannot continue their expensive systems of collecting and distributing messages in the large cities without the considerable business to and from the smaller stations; therefore, with some exceptions, of private or special lines, the wire telegraph will cease to be a business of profit.
    This is no idle prophecy. It is a plain statement of facts, justified by common sense and commercial logic. The change from "wire" to "wireless" will be gradual, but will be positive nevertheless.--The Aerogram, Nov., 1908.

CASH SUBSCRIPTION FORM Binding only on acceptance by NEW YORK SELLING AGENCY 18 Broadway, New York	THE UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH CO., Capital $20,000,000 $10,000,000 Preferred, $10,000,000 Common Par Value $10 Each, Fully Paid and Non- Assessable
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I, the undersigned, hereby subscribe for and agree to take . . . . . . . . . . . . Shares of the Capital Stock of THE UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH COMPANY, and hand you herewith New York draft--check--money order--Payable to the order of NEW YORK SELLING AGENCY, for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dollars ($ . . . . . . . .), at the rate of . . . . . . . . . . Dollars per share, being Full Payment for same. Issue certificate in the name of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and forward to address below. (PRINT THE NAME VERY CAREFULLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS.) If payment is made in any other manner than that prescribed within it is solely at the risk of the subscriber. The Company is not responsible for any representations made which are not contained in its authorized printed literature. No employe or agent of the Company is authorized to vary the terms and conditions of this subscription.
Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Street and No . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

INSTALLMENT SUBSCRIPTION FORM Binding only on acceptance of NEW YORK SELLING AGENCY 18 Broadway, New York	THE UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH CO., Capital $20,000,000 $10,000,000 Preferred, $10,000,000 Common Par Value $10 Each, Fully Paid and Non- Assessable
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I, the undersigned, hereby subscribe for and agree to take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . shares of the Capital Stock of THE UNITED WIRELESS TELEGRAPH COMPANY, and hand you herewith New York draft--check--money order--payable to the order of NEW YORK SELLING AGENCY, for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dollars ($. . . . . . . . . .), at the rate of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dollars per share, being part payment for same, any balance remaining to be paid in five equal monthly installments of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dollars each; commencing one month from date. This subscription is subject to the terms and conditions printed below, all of which are hereby agreed to. If payment is made in any other manner than that prescribed within it is solely at the risk of the subscriber. The Company is not responsible for any representations made which are not contained in its authorized printed literature. No employe or agent of the Company is authorized to vary the terms and conditions of this subscription. In case of default in payment of any installment when due, the subscriber shall forfeit all rights under this contract, except that the Company may issue stock, for the amount paid in by him up to the time of default, on the following basis: No fractional part of a share will be issued, but as many whole shares will be issued as the money received by the Company will pay for at the rate herein named, and the subscriber shall have the privilege of making up the difference if any money is left over, and receiving another share at the same price. Issue certificate in the name of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and forward to address below.
Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Street and No . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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