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NEWS BY WIRELESS FOR FARMERS 77
telephone lines with which the
country is gridironed.
While he is a genuine, allaround
farmer, working 160
acres of fertile Iowa land, Mr.
Banks has two particular hobbies
—electricity and bees. He is a
good business man and realizes
that those who stop to read his
news bulletin rarely leave without
buying his honey. Up to
Thanksgiving of last year he had
sold 150 cases of honey, aggregating
more than 3,000 pounds,
at a good market price, largely
as a result of his sign across the
road and of his news service,
patrons being attracted in this
manner invariably returning to
him because of the high quality
of his honey.
Mr. Banks employs a one-step
amplifier which amplifies signals
from 10 to 100 times. He copies
messages from all over the
world ; from Hanover, Germany ;
Mare Island, California; San
Diego, California; Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba; Arlington, Virginia; New York
City, and so on. New York messages
are received so loudly they can be heard
all over the farm house.
The news service comes through a re-
Government Licensed WIRELESS
Station9.A.G.D.ArchieBanks
OPERATOR, mTM&MCRT TODAY
Getting the Last Report
The Banks' Wireless Bee Farm
ceiving set which copies nothing but
spark stations, the bulletins coming daily
from Springfield, Illinois, and Ames.
Iowa. Mr. Banks is in touch with hundreds
of other stations, as far away as
Key West, Florida. By this means, although
out on the farm, he is kept advised
of world happenings better than
the average city man but a square from
the large metropolitan newspaper offices.
So successful has the Banks' wireless
news system become that
both Iowa and Illinois now
offer free wireless service to
any one who will install a
modest receiving set,
weather reports being sent
out daily at noon and news
bulletins at noon and 8:30 in
the evening. Another step
has been taken in the campaign
to rout the isolation
and loneliness of the farm
and to bring town and countrv
still closer together.
J