WIRELESS TELEPHONE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 282, 28 November 1929, Page 9

WIRELESS TELEPHONE.

NEW ZEALAND TO ENGLAND. WOULD BE EXPENSIVE. SIR WILLIAM NOBLE'S VIEWS. Wireless .telephone communication between New Zealand and Australia, and also between New Zealand and England, is predicted for tlie not far distant future by Sir William Noble, a director of the British General Electric Company. While pointing out that it was "bound to come," Sir William, who was Engi-neer-in-Chief to the British Post Office when he retired from that department some seven years ago, stated that such a service would necessarily be expensive because of the powerful plant required and the short time in which it could be used. Sir William, who is visiting New Zealand for the purpose of inspecting the company's branches, spoke of his recent experience of speaking .by wireless telephone from Sydney to London. "It was as good as you could have it in this city, speaking to someone a hundred yards away," he said. "A few ago no noe would have dreamt such a development was possible. Australian Experiments. There is not yet any commermlwireless telephone service from Austraha to England, and anything done so tohaj been purely experimental. Sir WiUiam believes, however, that the seivice between London and Australia will be regularly established on a commercial basis at an early date. He spoke at the invitation of the head of Amalgamated Wireless (Mr. Fisk) and his conversation was with Lady Hirst, wife of the chairman of the General Electric Company (Sir Hugo Hirst). The speaking was remarkably good considering that connections had to be made to the Hirst home out of Reading, some 50 miles from London, and that it was rather early and atmospherics were noticeable. Conversation with some friends living four miles from London was better, but when he came to speak with the general manager of the General Electric Co. in the heart of London the atmospherics had died down and hearing was perfect.

Drawback to System. "The drawback to commercial wireless telephony," said Sir William, "is that we are asleep in London when you are awake Here. A telegram sent off in the afternoon from here would be ready for a man in London when he reached his office next morning. It is not so easy to arrange a" telephone conversation. That is why'it is not possible to have more than a limited service of about three hours a day. The time will be late in' the afternoon in Australia and early' in the morning in England. When I was' speaking from Sydney late in the afternoon, one of the men at the other end had just 'had his morning bath and another was having breakfast. The atmospheric cosiditipns would be better at midnight (Australian time), but most respectable people are in bed at that time, so it is proposed to arrange i the service earlier.

One Man Pays £180 a Day. "The time for the conversatoins will have to be arranged ahead," he proceeded. "If you wished to speak to frieuds in England from Sydney, _ would be sent the night before asking them to be ready to receive the message at such-and-such a time in the morning. You could not. afford to wait when you were spending fJs.or.so for three minutes' conversation. They talk of making U?cZ S , either £15 or f? for three minutes. Not many people m Wellington could afford that, but it is worth while for men with big business at stake. There is one American who uses the telephone to Britain for an hour a day. It costs him fl80."

Reference was made by Sir William 'Noble to the beam system of wireless. This, the stated, had been a great success and there were only occasional delays, due to atmospherics. Messages were sent at the rate of 200 words a minute. He considered that wireless would never take the place of cables. Wireless was so often affected by the weather, which interfered with longdistance conversation.