"The Aerogram" was a publication issued by the United Wireless Telegraph Company, and as such might have been used to give investors accurate information about growth opportunities for the company. However, because United Wireless was being run mainly as a stock promotion scheme, more often the magazine merely drummed up enthusiasm for stock sales, by getting potential investors excited about developments where the company actually had no real plans. Much of the speculation in this article about the future possibilities for audio radio communication and broadcasting appear to reflect the ideas of United Wireless' former scientific director Lee DeForest, who had been forced out of the company in late 1906. (The photograph of the navy officer actually is from an installation by the Radio Telephone and Telegraph Company, the new company which DeForest formed after his expulsion.) In spite of the talk about potential innovations, and the claim that "The United Wireless Telegraph Company is developing and protecting by patents, three distinct wireless telephones", the company actually did not do any significant developmental work in wireless telephony before it went bankrupt in 1912.
 
The Aerogram, November, 1908, pages 139-141:

THE  WIRELESS  TELEPHONE

By  R.  Burt

(Copyright 1908 by The Aerogram Publishing Company)

    When one realizes the actuality of telephoning without wires, and the mind turns to what it may mean in the future, about all that it is possible to immediately express, is a "gasp." It is almost beyond comprehension and the thinking of it, at first, is a mental jumble, that can only be brought to orderly understanding by comparative figures, obtained from sources that can be partially-appreciated by reason of daily association.
    Most people imagine they know all about the telephone because they use it frequently and because it appears to be so simple. They have little to do with its actual operation, therefore they do not appreciate the immensity of the telephone systems, all of which have been developed during the past 32 years. The following figures will aid the imagination in an attempt to estimate what the "wireless" 'phone will mean when at some future time all telephoning is done without the use of wires:
Total amount of capital of telephone companies (Bell and Independent), operating in the United States, about . . .$2,000,000,000
Two of the larger "Bell" Companies have over $200,000,000 capital each and nineteen companies have from $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 each.
Total number of Bell exchanges . . .4,889
Miles of wire on poles and in buildings (Bell) . . .2,754,571
Miles of wire underground (Bell) . . .3,241,471
Miles of wire under water (Bell) . . .11,690
Total miles of wire (Bell) . . .6,007,732
Total circuits (Bell) . . .1,384,175
Total stations (Bell) . . .2,727,289
Total employees (Bell) . . .90,324
Total number of instruments in use (Bell) . . .7,107,386
Total number of messages per year (Bell) . . .5,305,900,000
Average daily calls per subscriber (Bell) . . .6
"Independent" companies in the United States . . .9,000
Number of instruments in use (Independent) . . .3,500,000
Number of messages annually (Independent) . . .3,700,000,000
Number of telephone shareholders in the United States . . .550,000
Increase in business per year . . .15% to 20%
Total yearly income, Bell and Independent, about . . .$450,000,000

    The field on land is not nearly covered at present by the wire telephone systems and without the advent of wireless telephony it is reasonable to expect that the business of the wire companies would double in the next ten years. The wireless phone, by reason of eliminating the enormous cost of maintaining the poles and wires, should eventually not only usurp the business of the wire 'phone on land, but greatly extend its present utility and profits. The wireless telephone will also cover the seas, lakes and waterways, supplementing the wireless telegraph over short distances and will be installed on all the smaller craft. Inhabitants of islands in the lakes and rivers and along the coasts will be available as subscribers and have the advantage of a telephone system, where they now have no adequate means of rapid communication whatsoever.
    The Bell Telephone has been most profitable from an investor's standpoint, inasmuch as those who obtained an interest in it, during the early period of its development, and retained their interest, have been made comfortably wealthy by their small investment. A $100 investment made thirty years ago, has paid $201,000 in dividends. Bell Telephone stock advanced in twelve months, after it had proven its commercial value, from a few dollars a share to $3,200 per share.
    The question naturally arises "How will it be possible for so many wireless 'phones to be operated in a city like New York?" It is impossible to say just now. If the inventors of the wire telephone apparatus and its pioneers could have known twenty-five years ago how to accomplish, with the wire telephone, what is being done in "wire telephony" to-day, do you for one moment suppose they could have expended the years of labor they have in overcoming the many difficulties and obstacles, that they have had to contend with? There really should be no more difficulties to overcome, in extending the use of the wireless 'phone, than there were in developing the wire telephone. Also, it should be remembered, that engineers working the wireless 'phone have benefited considerably by the knowledge gained from the experience and difficulties encountered and surmounted by the engineers in the extension of the wire telephones. The questions still unanswered in one's mind are,--How is it done? How can it be possible? Will not the hundreds of thousands of messages sent out into the ether get "mixed," without the wires to guide or retain them along a well-defined course? The mind does go agroping, and it is not surprising. But, after grasping the following figures regarding the ether waves, by which a wireless message is transmitted and received, it would seem, that with so great a "flexibility" and with a more intimate knowledge of the ether currents and their actions, some means will be devised of overcoming the possibility of "mixed" talk.
    Ether, which is everywhere, vibrates normally at 650,000,000 vibrations per second; the action of some rays of light increases the normal vibration up to 850,000,000 per second. These ether vibrations transmit an electric charge from one particle to another with such rapidity, that the wave travels at the rate of 186,000 miles per second or a distance equaling seven and one-half times the distance around the world. Therefore, a wireless message with sufficiently far-reaching force, would envelop the world and also lap over halfway round again in one-tenth of a second.
    Every electrical discharge from lightning exerts an electrical force sufficiently powerful enough to send a wireless wave throughout the entire world, and every discharge of electricity in commercial use also emits a "wireless wave." It is also probable that all chemical action releases a minute wireless wave and so on until, as a matter of fact, there are already millions of wireless waves mingling and intermingling in and over New York City at the present time.
    Yet, a wireless wave message transmitted from a point a thousand miles away, rushes into this maelstrom and "finds" the station for which it is intended and records the intelligence it brings. There are already more than a hundred wireless stations, on shore and on boats, transmitting messages, everyone of which at the same time must pass the antenna wires of a wireless station in New York. A visit to one of the four "United" stations in New York City will show the operator calmly taking down the message intended for that station. He is operating and pays no attention to the other messages coming down over the same wire to his receiver, for he has tuning devices and other mechanical instruments, which disclose to him only the one message intended for his particular station.
    Isn't it wonderful? Just think a minute! It is only necessary for the wireless telegraph and the wireless telephone to be developed and fully extended, to entirely dispense with the unsightly and costly wires. wireless telephone aboard battleship
    Let's look a little further into the future, and see the time when the wireless 'phone will be in general use. It will be used in business and private affairs just as the wire 'phone is in use to-day. In such use one subscriber, to talk to another will have to call "central" or will probably be connected by an "automatic central." The wireless message sent from one central station, in a special tone or to be more exact having a special electrical "resistance," may be received in every home, within the range of station, by every subscriber having a receiver corresponding to the electrical resistance of the sending station. By this means it will be possible to send news, stock quotations, lectures, monologues, music, merchants bargain announcements, etc., etc., broadcast for whomsoever may subscribe for that service. The man of moderate means may have Grand Opera music and the best of entertainment always at his elbow for such members of his family as may care to listen--or each member of the family can choose the form of entertainment which their fancy, at the time, may dictate. Will not this be a Godsend as a means of making peace with the neighbor who objects to the phonograph, which will find its way to the scrap-heap with the advent of the wireless telephone.
    Yes! This is all a dream now, but, if a reader could join Rip Van Winkle's brigade and wake up twenty years hence, he would probably find it a dream come true. We have much to learn and there are still some people who scoff at the future possibilities of all scientific discoveries.
    What has been done towards developing and perfecting the wireless telephone? For one thing, voices and music have been transmitted distinctly for a distance of a hundred miles or more. Some of the most prominent Governments of the world already have some of their battleships equipped with the device and report fairly satisfactory service. The United States Atlantic Fleet, now on its voyage around the world, has the wireless 'phones installed for use in connection with giving and receiving orders, reports, etc., from the flagships to the other vessels.
    The United Wireless Telegraph Company is developing and protecting by patents, three distinct wireless telephones, in order to protect its interests in the development of wireless communication. They report progress to the extent of transmitting voices and music for 30 miles over the land and 100 miles over the sea. These 'phones are part of the assets of the United Company and the strong organization of that company will extend the telephone as well as the telegraph. With its telegraph already established and commercially successful, the day should not be far distant when its 'phone will be brought into commercial service and used as an adjunct to its wireless telegraph equipment.
    But remember! The wireless telephone is in its early infancy and that there is a considerable difference and lapse of time between "having," a wireless telephone that merely operates, and having an established wireless telephone system that produces a net profit revenue from actual commercial use.
    The wireless telegraph has gone through many vicissitudes, in order to gain its present position. Many wireless telegraph companies have been started and much wireless stock has been sold to the public. Only one wireless telegraph company has thus far succeeded. The bright future and enormous possibilities of the wireless 'phone may attract many promoters and many investors. Many companies may be formed and the printing presses be kept busy printing certificates to be issued and representing hundreds of thousands of shares of stock. All is not gold that glitters. One should be most careful in making an investment and should not risk money too carelessly, neither should one allow enthusiasm to blind one's judgment. The wireless telephone will win fortunes for many, but may also prove a pitfall to some. Do not invest recklessly; do not jump at the first offering made by stocksellers; investigate; be cautious.