Telephone Engineer, January, 1921, pages 40-42:

From  Ocean  to  Ocean  by  Telephone

Banqueters  at  Waldorf  Hotel  New  York  Hear  Talk  from  Steamer  Gloucester  in  Atlantic  Ocean  to  Catalina  Islands

Courtesy  Telephone  Review.
continental map
A  NEW record of telephone achievement was made in the course of a demonstration witnessed by the members of the preliminary International Communications Conference at a dinner given them by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company at the Waldorf, New York, on the evening of October 21. They were able to talk and listen over the line of the Bell System from New York to Los Angeles, and by wireless from Los Angeles to Santa Catalina Island and eastward by wire to an Atlantic port and by wireless telephone to the steamship Gloucester at sea, and they were also able to hear people talking from the ship on the Atlantic by wireless to shore, by wire across the continent, and by wireless to an island on the Pacific. U.S.S. Gloucester
    This new feat in the art of communication, remarkable in itself, was all the more interesting because it was made in connection with the dinner given by President H. B. Thayer on behalf of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and Associated Companies, the Western Electric Company, Incorporated, and the International Western Electric Company, which was attended by some fifty conference delegates representing Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States, together with the principal officers of the Bell System and of the General Electric Company and its associated companies.
    "You, Captain Nichols on the Gloucester, and Operator Spiker on Santa Catalina Island, are taking part in an epochal event in wireless telephony. You are the first men to talk to each other from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the waters of both oceans and the stretches of the continent."
       --Col. J. J. Carty, Vice-President of the A. T. & T. Company, at Atlantic-Pacific Demonstration.

    The Communications Conference, which has been holding sessions in Washington, took advantage of an opportunity given them by the General Electric Company and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company to inspect some of the highest developments in America in the line of electrical communication.
    The party left Washington Sunday night and visited the New Brunswick, N. J. wireless telegraph station of the Radio Corporation of America on Monday, the factories of the General Electric Company at Schenectady on Tuesday, the West Point Military Academy on Wednesday, and on Thursday the general offices of the A. T. and T. Company in New York, the operating rooms of the Long Island division on Walker street, and the laboratories of the American Telephone and Telegraph company, and Western Electric Company on West street.
    At the main offices of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company demonstrations were given of the cipher telegraph, of transmission through a 1,000-mile cable, and of carrier currents. At the Walker street building they inspected the long distance switchboards, the test boards and mechanical switching apparatus, and at the West street building they were shown through the research and development laboratories of the Bell System and Western Electric Company, where most important work for progress in the art of communication is being carried on.
    At the dinner, which was given at the Waldorf-Astoria, they were shown a motion picture descriptive of the building of the transcontinental telephone line. They were welcomed by President H. B. Thayer, and were addressed by Col. John H. Carty, vice-president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, who had charge of the demonstration. Santa Barbara
    Colonel Carty spoke briefly of radio development and explained the singular advantages of the wire telephone service over land and of wireless telephone transmission in situations where wires could not be used. He referred to the wireless telephone record made by the Bell System in 1915, when wireless transmission was accomplished by engineers of the Bell System, not only across the continent, but from Washington to Honolulu and from Washington to the Eiffel Tower. In this connection he expressed gratitude for the co-operation of the navy in permitting the use of the Arlington Tower, and of the French nation in permitting the use of the Eiffel Tower, particularly of the courtesy of General Ferrie, who was in command at the Eiffel Tower, and who was present at the dinner.
    Each place at the table was equipped with a receiver, and as Colonel Carty called the roll of the district chiefs along the route of the transcontinental line, the guests heard each answer and learned from each the distance from New York, the local weather conditions and the local time. As the roll was called a large map hanging on the wall was illuminated so that the course of the connection across the continent could be followed.
    When the connection with San Francisco had been established, conversations were held between the British consul there and a representative of the British delegation, between the Italian consul and a representative of the Italian delegation in the Italian language, between a Frenchman and the representative of the French delegation in the French language, and there was to have been a conversation in Japanese but for the inability of the Japanese consul in San Francisco to be present.
From  Sea  to  Sea

    Lines written on learning that on October 21 a man spoke from the island of Santa Catalina, in the Pacific, to a man on a steamer in the Atlantic.

Little children, born beside the sea,
Soon hear its haunting song within their ears.
They build sand-castles, which the rising tides
Melt down and leave no trace, as in the years
Their builders, grow, love, labor, dream and die;
So short a span 'gainst ocean's ceaseless heart,
(Their dreams, you say, scarce held beneath the sky?)
Frail, like the sand-pipers at dusk who dart
Along the wave-swept rain-bow tinted beach.
From Catalina's shore man's voice did reach
Last night. O'er sea and mountain snows it passed
O'er river, plain, and city's din, at last--
Atlantic surf--to the horizon's rim
Where one who listened, heard, and answered him!
              --Sarah Atherton Bridgman.

    Then the connection was carried down from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and a conversation was had with a representative of the company at Santa Catalina island. The representatives of the conference found that a communication of over 4,000 miles by wire and of 30 miles by wireless to Santa Catalina was as clear as if it had been from another part of New York City.
    The connection was then established with the steamship Gloucester, which had left port four hours before, and unfortunately had not gotten far enough from land interference to make possible the best wireless results. There was also at times considerable static interference. Nevertheless the conversation between Colonel Carty and his representative on the Gloucester was clearly heard, and later, when the conversation was put through from the steamship Gloucester to Santa Catalina island, the hundred guests at the dinner were able to hear the talk from off shore in the Atlantic to off shore in the Pacific.
    In behalf of the representatives of the delegates for the preliminary international communications conference, Mr. F. J. Brown, assistant secretary of the British post office, and presiding officer and senior delegate of the conference, spoke in behalf of his confreres to express their high appreciation of the marvels of the art of communication which they had been shown and of the hospitality of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and its Associated companies.
    Representing the various European countries were the following delegates at the demonstration:
    British: Mr. F. J. Brown, Major General H. K. Bethell, Mr. R. A. C. Sperling, Lieut. Col. B. Gardiner, Lieut. Col. Mackworth, Lieut. Commander E. W. M. King, Commander L. Robinson, Captain J. A. Echaverri, Mr. H. Madge, Mr. C. B. Edwards, Mr. F. W. Phillijs.
    American: Mr. Van S. Merle-Smith, Mr. Walter S. Rogers, Major General George O. Squier, Brigadier General D. E. Nolan, Captain George W. Bicknell, Rear Admiral W. H. G. Bullard, Dr. Walter Wallace McLaren, Mr. W. W. Andrews.
    French: M. Broin, General Ferrie, Brigadier General L, Collardet, M. Poulaine, M. de Lapradelle, Captain Franck, Lieut. Robin.
    Italian: Commandatore N. Mirabelli, Colonel Marquis Vittorio Asinari di Bernezzo, Colonel Bardeloni, Commander Raineri Biscia.
dinner participants