Construction on a radio laboratory for research and development started December 1917. By 1925, the Signal Corps work had become so integral that Camp Vail was made a permanent military post and renamed Fort Monmouth. There were 47 radio lab buildings on site plus experimental airfields.

Image Courtesy of CECOM Historical Archive.

By 1925, the Signal Corps work had become so integral that Camp Vail became a permanent military post and was renamed Fort Monmouth.

Image Courtesy of US Army.

(Left to right: Edward B. Craft, First Lt. Ralph Bown, Major Nathan Levinson, Col. N.H. Slaughter)

The radios on the table here were similar in style to the SCR-67 and SCR-68 developed by Western Electric. In 1918 higher-frequency sets were built and tested at Camp Vail after they were deemed to be more useful in the air because a smaller antenna could be used.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Morris Rosenfeld, photographer

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Special headsets used by pilots were able to overcome the significant wind noise experienced in open cockpits. The transmitter set can be seen strapped around the pilot’s chest. Plane-mounted radio sets in the 1910s were powered by wind-driven generators. The whole set of equipment aboard the plane weighed about 58 pounds.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Improvements in equipment continued after the war. The long distance call photographed here was transmitted from Hadley field via land lines to the overseas operator switchboard in New York, and directed to one of two transatlantic radio telephone transmitting stations. Radio waves carried it to Scotland where it was transferred to a landline and carried to a Miss Martha Dalrymple in London. 

Note how the headsets differ now that the cockpit is enclosed.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

This wearable apparatus for pilots was developed around the physical conditions of the open cockpits of the 1910s. The helmet-style headset kept the receivers in place on the pilots’ ears while reducing ambient noise. Microphones on the transmitter were also designed so that the person on the ground could better hear a pilot's voice over the wind. Communication equipment also had to deal with the physical vibration of the plane and electrical interference onboard. 

The coupling on the breast plate plug was based on switchboard technology. Operators also wore breast plates for hands-free communication.

Western Electric

Collection of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Western Electric, Inc

Collection of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Telegraph Battalions, or forces dedicated to maintaining telecommunications equipment, were formed at Camp Vail. On October 18, 1917, the 11th Reserve Telegraph Battalion of Camp Vail boarded the train to the Hoboken Port of Embarkation, on the initial leg of the journey to the theatre of war in Europe.

Western Electric, made in Kearny, NJ, 1918-1945

Collection of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Radio sets incorporated vacuum tubes, which had been introduced into the Bell System with the recent transcontinental telephone line.

Western Electric Co. Inc., Patent Applied for 1916

Collection of AT&T Archives and History Center.