Biographical Note
Eugene Tyler Chamberlain, born in Albany, N.Y., in 1856, died in 1929, was an 1876 graduate of Harvard University. He entered business with his father in 1879 before joining the staff of the Albany Journal, where he became associate editor. He moved to the Argus in 1887, and later wrote for other newspapers elsewhere. In 1884, Chamberlain published a campaign biography of Grover Cleveland and was active in helping organize the Civil Service Reform Association. Between about 1893 and 1915, Chamberlain served as commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Navigation. He was a delegate to the International Conference on Safety at Sea, 1913, and published several works and articles on navigation. As head of the bureau of navigation, his assignment of marine-radio call letters to ships depending on their location was said to have led to the application in the 1920s of call letters to commercial radio stations in the United States.