The Aurland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1907. THE "WIRELESS" WONDER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 250, 19 October 1907, Page 4

The Aurland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1907. THE "WIRELESS" WONDER.

■ 1 X Tor the cause thmt racks aiHefnce. For the wrong that needs retUtmnoe, For the future in the distance, Anri the o«od th«t ice can do.

It is now four, years since Marconi transmitted a message from President Roosevelt to King Edward by wireless telegraphy over the intervening Atlantic; and the great inventor then declared 'that within six months his system would be on a business footing. But it is almost impossible to realise the immense difficulties that have had to be surmounted before the new system of communication could progress even as far as it • has n6w advanced towards its final. achievement. There have been many subordinate problems to solve, not the least important being the necessity for "tuning" the instruments so that the messages could not be "picked up" by other receivers in transmission, i There have been commercial' and. even diplo-matic-obstacles to face.;..ibr "the immense importance of this wonderful* invention has induced Germany to lead an international crusade against England's rights in the Marconi system with tie hope of, preventing us irom securing ail the advantages that our enterprise in taking up Marconi has justly entitled us to claim. Then there has been the constant completion of rival systems—the ArcoSlaby which Germany has adopted, the De Forrest, which America favours, and several more. Recently the researches of Poulsen with "damped" electric waves have enabled wireless operators to send messages continuously instead of by spasmodic discharges of the current. All this time Marconi has been adapting and modifying his system in accordance with the latest developments of electrical ecience. A company, with a capital of £1,000,000 sterling, has been formed in England to work hiß system, another of the same size in the United States, and a third in Canada. And now, after all these long preliminaries, he is at last in a position to offer Europe and America, as a'"business proposition," the opportunity of sending "wireless" messages over the sea for private or commercial purposes.

,It is difficult to suggest in a few words the immense scope of this marvellous invention, or the possibilities that lie hidden in it for all the world to use. For Marconi holds that there is no limit to the distance that can be covered by the wireless communications. He has no doubt that he will soon be able .to send messages direct from San Francisco to Japan. Ho is arranging to establish direct communication between France and Russia, between Italy and 1 South America; and he has even predicted that within a few years New Zealand will be able to "speak" to London direct by means of the etheric waves. At one time the inventor held that the distance which his waves would carry was limited by the height of the receiving stations. This view he has now rejected, as it seems that the waves conform to. the curve, of the earth, and that the more wires there are at each station the less, height is required. In the hands of this magician, all the difficulties that at first seemed insuperable, have melted away; not least being the presumed excessive cost of operation. The public rates now proposed for transmission over the Atlantic are 10 cents a -word for commercial matter, and 5 cents for Press matter; and at 30 words a minute, this offer should meet with a very encouraging reception. In a short time, Marconi confidently asserts, every newspaper office will have its "wireless" station; in time every home could have its receiver. All Press messages could be "cabled" on ticker tapes to household subscribers; and the political as well as the commercial and social advantages of such a system are obviously too numerous to need detailed description. Much has already been done to popularise "wireless" by the great Atlantic liners, which constantly Teceive messages from either shore while en route, and publish tha news in daily bulletins. America,, with her customary enterprise, has determined to connect Alaska with Washington at once, and to set up stations at every point of vantage on the. Pacific and Atlantic coasts. : But the Marconi system was fortunately taken up in England first of all, and it is fitting that the inauguration of a regular commercial service across the Atlantic should, in Sir Wilfrid Laurier's words,'establish a new bond between Great Britain and Canada, and achieve- another triumph, for. the Empire. ..