THE MAGIC SPARK.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 13

THE MAGIC SPARK.

RECEPTION OF BRAIN

IMPULSES

POSTERING ESPERANTO BY RADIO. I'URTIIEE LOCAL DELAY. A FEW RADIO SIDELIGHTS. ißy PHONOS. I Sir. J. Bingham. engineer to the Nonunion Broadcasting L onipany, arrived in Auckland yesterday, in connection with the erection u£ the new Karangahape Load station. Mr. Bore, the Superintending engineer for the English manufacturers of the plant, comes here by the next trip of the LTimaroa. nnd will see the local plant in operation before he goes south to complete the equipment of the Christchurch station. Those who care to tune in Dunedin to-night will hear the southern city's new Savoy Orchestra, and. among other items, a talk on the Otago lakes and the Aliliord Sound track. Here is a radio story that has at least one definite attribute —that of truth- A well-known Xew Zealand experimenter h;td been delving into the subject of oscillating crystals, and had discovered that when a crystal "goes dead"' its peculiar powers can be resuscitated by applying pressure to it, edgewise. Thrilled with his discovery the enthusiast communicated to his fiancee tlie fact that by squeezing them he could make crystals that had lost theii previous power resume the capacity to oscillate. "Oh," she remarked ingenuously- Are they like girls; the more you squeeze them, the better they osculate?"

"Phonos" understands that there is a likelihood of a two-way short-wave service being inaugurated between Auckland and the South Island when our new plant starts here. ■' this means quick comment on the quality of reception from "distance" jl! be obtainable at our own station, arid the operators there will immediately be advised from afar of how their transmission is coming in. The innovation, if carried into effect, will be an eminently 7 desirable one in the interests of both the broadcasting company and the listeners, and should obviate the difficulties experienced in the early stages of the transmissions from Dunedin.

. There is quite a lot of short-wave transmission to be picked up in the Dominion at present. A southern listener reports that during one afternoon he received the overseas stations WHAS, IXB, and WGY, the experimental transmitting station of the General Electric Co. The one peculiarity noticed was a pronounced high speed fading at about half-second intervals.

Mr. T. W. Ward, of Tariki, Taranaki, imnounces particularly pood reception of telephony from KFON and KNX (California) and also the seldom heard transmissions of 7ZL (Hobart) and 2TJW (a privately-owned Australian station). a delay—but not a serious one;. It was anticipated in last -week's notes, and it is now confirmed officially, "that the new Auckland station will not commence operating on the definitely forecasted date, July 1. However, officials are sanguine, even if expectant listeners are not, that the new plant -will be on the air -within a very few days of the promised time. Next week should see j the lattice towers, now in Auckland, making their appearance on the skyline, and everything will be in readiness for the installation of the transmitting plant, due here on the 25th instant. Quite the latest thing in the way ot studios will be ready for occupation, so that we may hope, as we have hoped for so long, to hear experimental transmissions early in July! Then it will * be definitely up to the Broadcasting Company to be as liberal in performance as they have been in promises. ESPERANTO— THE RADIO LANGUAGE. A very interesting broadcast on the above subject was made from the Eadio Broadcasting Company's station (2YK) at Wellington on the evening of the 10th instant. The manager- of the company is very desirous of carrying out the recommendation recently made .by the International Kadio Union to the effect that items in and about Esperanto, the international language, should be included in broadcast programmes in order to assist the rapid spread of the language. During a fifteen minute lecturette, Mr. Wm. H. King, who is well known in Esperanto circles, explained the fundaments of Esperanto, its origin, construction and aims. A brief outline of the movement in Xew Zealand was given, Mr. King concluding his broadcast by making an appeal for an increase in the membership of the Auckland

Esperantists' Association. The, second ' of a series of lecturettes will be madein about a fortnight's time. .In the event of a sufficient number of listenersin. so desiring, the radio station will conduct regular lessons in Esperanto. BRAIN MESSAGES BY WIRELESS. By experimenting witli the apparatus used in the reception of wireless, Dr. E. D. Adrian, of Cambridge University, has evolved' an instrument which makes it possible to record the messages that travel along the nerve centres to the brain. The instrument has three valves, an amplifier which magnifies 'the nerve messages 2000 times, and a photographic plate. The valves receive the messages as they would receive wireless waves. The nerve messages are recorded on.the photographic plate in the form of dots, and clashes. Explaining his discovery, Dr. Adrian says: "If we touch the skin or prick.it with a pin each nerve fibre which is stimulated sends a message to the brain in the form of a series of .small electric oscillations called nerve impulses. The impulses in each fibre are so small that until the advent of wireless it was impossible to detect them, although we knew what they were like from other lines of work. The valve amplifier has made it possible to magnify several thousand times, and the impulses can be recorded by a special instrument called a capillary electrometer, which traces the electric changes on a photographic plate.''

Dr. Adrian has already recorded the messages sent to the brains of frogs" when their muscles are in play and when pressure is made on the skin. These messages. s:iid Dr. Adrian, are fairly simple, but it may bo a long time before »■(■ <•«:' 1.7-ow what happens to them wi•'■■• • reach the brain.