TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14907, 4 March 1914, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Writing Through Space. Wβ take wireless telegraphy quite as a matter of course now, but tho extension of the principle of signalling without wires is rich in developments that tickle our jaded mental appetites. At a meeting held some weeks ago in London to start a Wireless Society, somo of tho latest wonders of wireless were displayed by Mr A. Campbell Swinton. the Society's president. At a quarter to nine, while Mr Swinton was discussing technicalities, a horn placed on tho table gave several warning; sounds, and twenty seconds later tho magnified image of a pen was automatically tracing on the whitened wall of a darkened room the up and down strokes, dots and dashes, of a special message of greeting being wirelessly discharged from tho Eiffel Tower in Paris, 260 miles away. <{ Lo Commandant Forrie present© au President eminent" it spelt slowly out, when suddenly, without any warning, there was a splashing of ink and a confusion of meaningless signs. The Admiralty had temporarily taken comman3 of the situation. Later on the uncanny message completed. Throughout his lecture. Mr Swinton was interrupted by messages. Paris sent, in signals which could be heard all over the hall, a message intended for Morocco; a small jet of flame jumped up and down in response-to distant signals; and an organ piwe sounded in response to a similar far-off control. • Mr Swinton said he had been able to make a motor horn respond to distant wireless eignals, and he was now considering whether he should be infringing the terms of his Post Office license if he made daily and nightly motor-horn announcements •of Greenwich time, from the Eiffel Tower to the whole of the inhabitants of the square in which ho resided. He discussed the probability of a widiTappli-. cation of wireless telephonyfi places like picture palaces fitted up with wireless receiving apparatus, and people going there to hear all the prominent speakers of the day, though they might be hundreds of miles away. Wireless tnuistniesion of power was included in the vision of some eminent scientists. It was difficult to imagine but they had to remember that tho whole of the power on tho earth came from the sun in the form of electromagnetic waves. In the Gallery. Most people who toke an interest in Parliamentary rule and tradition know that, strictly speaking, it is still a breach of privilege to publish anything relating to tho proceedings in either House of the British Parliament. But most of these will be- grateful to Mr Spencer Leigh Hughes, M.P.. who for years was a distinguished member of the Press Gallery, for mentioning that in the 18th century a certain Mr. Winnington said: "If wo don't put a sneedy stop to this practice you will havo the speeches of this House erery day printed, and wo shall be looked on as tho most contemptible assembly on the face of the earth." Surely no outside critic of Parliament was «ver moro severe on the House. But the voice of com-mon-sense came from 3lr Pelhain: "Let them alone. They make better speeches for Uβ than we can make ourselves." Many a reporter is doing this to-day. The address in which Mr Hughes referred to these utterances was made before the Authors' Club a few weeks ago when he was the gueet of the evening, ami a very entertaining guest, too. Ht> told how when he descended from the Gallery to the floor of tho House, a sketchwriter in the Gallery said of his maiden speech that he had treated the House to a lot of stuff that might havo gone down in the tap-room of a village ale-house. Press Gallery men, he said, were impartial because they were indifferent. They did not care what was said. Ho recalled remarking to a veteran in the Gallery what a bore it was that men made such long speeches. "My dear fellow" the reply was, "what does it matter? If ouo d fool is not talking another will be." That, he said, was the Press Gallery tone. But Mr Hughc-s himself belies this generalisation. If ho had been co disillusioned as that, he would not have taken the trouble to get elected a member of a House composed entirely of d fools.