Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/165

 shown during the Moroccan troubles when the War Department was able to keep in direct touch with the Army there through its station at Casablanca.

The need of a new, permanent, high-powered station was strongly felt and work was commenced on it in 1908. Now instead of a couple of makeshift shacks at the base of the tower a concrete building was put in under the ground so that its roof was on a level with the surface of the park. This was done in order that a clear view across the grounds could be had and also to prevent the noise of the sparks from being heard in the neighborhood, which would not only be disturbing, but, what mattered more, any one who knew the Morse code could read all the outgoing messages a block away.

When I got settled in Paris I struck out to see the Eiffel Tower station. I found it was just about to be opened and it was my intention to try to get a job there for I believed it would be the only way I’d ever get to see the installation.

I asked a gendarme, as they call an armed policeman over there, who was standing hard by, where the office of the wireless station might