During the war the Navy controlled all radio in the United States and its possessions, taking over and operating 59 commercial stations. These fitted easily into the extensive system which the Navy itself had developed, for on January 1, 1917, it owned and operated 55 stations at various points from Panama to Alaska, and from our Atlantic coast across the continent and the Pacific to the Philippines. This had been the work of years. In August, 1914, immediately after the outbreak of war, Commander S. C. Hooper was sent to Europe to study the latest developments in radio and war communications, and spent six months in England, France, Ireland, Holland and Belgium. His report proved of decided value. A special board, headed by Captain Bullard, was appointed, and this led to the expansion of Navy Radio and the creation, in 1916, of the Naval Communication Service. Nearly a year before we entered the war, May 6th to 8th, 1916, naval communications, wire and wireless, of the entire country were mobilized, under the supervision of Captain (later Rear Admiral) W. H. G. Bullard, Superintendent of Radio Service. All the apparatus necessary for country-wide communication by radio or telephone was provided, by the Bureau of Engineering, specially marked, and placed in readiness for operation on twenty-four hours' notice. Inaugurating war service was, therefore, comparatively simple, and, under the supervision of Captain D. W. Todd, Director of Naval Communications, was easily accomplished. Trans-ocean service with Europe was improved by increasing the power of Tuckerton, N. J., and Sayville, L. I., the German-built stations we had taken over, and placing improved apparatus at New Brunswick, N. J. Work was pushed on the big new station at Annapolis, Md. At Otter Cliffs, near Bar Harbor, Maine, a receiving station was built that more than doubled the capacity of the existing ones at Chatham, Mass., and Belmar, N. J. Sending and receiving stations were connected by wire with the Navy Department, and use of high speed apparatus, automatic senders and receivers enabled us to handle an immense amount of traffic. Speed in transmission increased from 30 to 100 words a minute in actual practice, and 300 words in pre-arranged tests, and there was almost as marked progress in receiving. In 1916, experts considered it a very creditable record when 125,000 dispatches were transmitted or received. In the twelve months following April 6, 1918, when traffic was at its height, a million dispatches, averaging 30 words each, were handled from the Navy Department alone. The Naval Communication Service in a single year handled, by wire and wireless, 71,347,860 words.