RADIO WONDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 2, 3 January 1925, Page 5

RADIO WONDERS.

TELEMECHANIC TESTS. ~ I ITALIAN INVENTIONS i In the presence of many high military and naval officers from Rome and Spezi» and the Under-Secretary for Communii cations. Deputy Celesia, together with | newspaper men from all parts of the ! world,-the third public raido-teleme- ; chanie experiments took place with I complete success. By the new radioteleinechanio invention, the Italian * engineer, Xormanno Fiamma, can ! use electromagnetic waves not only | for telegraphic messages, but for telej mechanic writing, and telemechanic | direction of movable objects, liko ships at sea, motors on land, and flying I machines and dirigibles in the air. All ! seems possible with Signor Fiamma's i invention, which to-day is only iv the | embryonic or rudimentary stage, but | which to-morrow may once more convulse the world's communications and add a new feature of progress to the machinery invented in the last 50 years. 1 We proceeded, says the special correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph,*' some forty persons in all, across Spezia Bay to the picturesque little promontory of Varigtiano, where Siprnor Fiamma, by permission of the Italian Government and with the aid of ; the naval authorities, has for the last year established his experimental station. A simple pole, some 50ft high, with , the usual wireless paraphernalia dangI ling from its top, is erected at the end of ! the promontory, and there we saw ' attached to the wall a small brass register containing eight magic words of command for tbe little wireless-directed boat with which the experiments have hitherto been made. They were "forward, reverse, and stop," composing the first group of words, and "helm to right, helm to centre, and helm to left," for the second grotip, with two more for the siren and signal. Under-Secretary Celesia was invited to go aboard the mysterious chaser, which is fitted with a small i electric motor, and before long he found I himself with his companions wandering I out on the waters of the bay without any expert aboard to give command, steer his little boat, or manage the engine. An hour was passed in this way. With the permission of Signor Fiamma I I was allowed to help to execute the last manoeuvre. I pressed some buttons, brought the litt'e boat round, steered her homeward, and got her safely alongI side the wall, where her passengerstepped ashore. ' This invention reminds one of the tentative efforts of the Wright brothers in America, and of Santos Dumont, Farman, Bleriot, and others in France, to solve the problem of flight. Their instruments then also looked quaint, awkward and primitive, and many persons imagined that nothing would ever come out of their reckless smashing of wood and wings. So it may happen with Signor Fiamma's invention, which to-day is regarded with some scepticism by naval engineers, who think he is only groping about in a direction already known, and using devices tried in other navieß but found to be unpractical. He, on the contrary, claims that his invention is entirely new, that its possibilities are unlimited, and that some day I shall bo dictating my messages from Rome to an ordinary typewriter in the office of the "Daily Telegraph" in London. Superior Italian naval officers with whom I have spoken are convinced that the invention is entirely new. Each machine is perfectly individual, and its waves cannot be interfered with. How the complete isolation is achieved Signor Fiamma has not revealed to mc. but he assures mc that it exists, and tbat it eonstitn'es one of the principal features of his I invention. I Other experiments. I understand, wit.i submarine mines and the direction of torpedo craft have taken place lately, but thej are kept entirely secret by the j Government.