RADIOPHONE DEVELOPMENTS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17431, 17 April 1922, Page 8

RADIOPHONE DEVELOPMENTS.

A Great Future.

INTERVIEWING SH. TRAVELLERS. (FROM OTJB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SAN FRANCISCO, March 16. Optimists who look forward to the time when every one will have an individual pocket radio set, and thereby will be able to communicate at will with anyone whose "line" is not busy, are considerably encouraged by reports coming from New York that transAtlantic passenger liners are being equipped with wireless telephones. Distinguished travellers aboard vessels bound for New York have been interviewed "over the phone" by Gotham newspaper reporters while the ships were nearly four hundred miles out at

Anxious business men aboard the ships were able to follow the latest developments' of the stock market and they talked directly with their subordinates ashore regarding business deals. It seems that half a dozen newspaper men demonstrated that dodging the curioii3 reporter by the simple expedient of sailing away oh the briny deep 'has ceased to be quite as simple as might be imagined. These scribes wished to talk to persons aboard the United States Shipping Board liner America, but did not Care for the vessel to span the 370 miles of ocean that separated her from New York. So they hurried to a. telephone exchange,, tossed coins into as manv slots took down six receivers, and saw "Give me the America," and waited. In due time someone said: "Here s your party," and the interview was on. The reporters learned the exact time the liner expected to dock; that the weather had been "heaivy with strong seas, which delayed us," and that there were. 663 passengers aboard, including nineteen Americans, who had been soldiering for the King of Spam in the war in Morocco, were "broke and out of smokes." A Successful Test.

"Just :ike talking to Harlem or the Bronx," the reporters agreed, when the interview was concluded. In talking to the snip their voices were transmitted by wires to the Deal Beach transmitting station and thence by wireless. The incoming messages were wirelessed from the vessel to the receiving station at Elberon and transmitted to the New York exchange by wire. ' . ■ • The demonstration was in the nature of a test of.new lone distance telephone equipment installed on the America with the, consent of the United States' Shipping Board. At its, conclusion it was-predicted that wireless phones soon would be in general use on ocean liners. J F. Farrington and J. T. Byrnes of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, were the passengers whom the reporters interviewed. Listenm" 1 in'oh the conversation was H. B. Thayer, president of the company, who heard the messages at his home at New Canaan, in faraway Connecticut State. When the reporters concluded their interview, Thayer conversed for several minutes with the master of the America, Captain Rind. ' 'Well; captain, I'm glad to have had the pleasure-of speaking to you, he said before ringing off. "I-think it is fine that we can meet and talk this way." Of course, the captain *i the liner readTiy agreed. •' Pending the success of these expen 7 ments, Pacific Coast companies are making enquiry into the cost and prac T ti6ab'ility : of installing wireless-;-tele-phone sets on their ships. Several conditions at present interfere with the greatest commercial success of the experiment, acoarding to wireless experts, the principle one being the necessity for the regulation of radio conversation so that the operation of radio telegraphic plants may not be hampered. Would Speed Business. Shipping men of the Pacific Coast believe that the first use to which radiophones aboard ships would be turned would be to lighten the operating labours of the steamship companies and to transact official Government business and important messages Much of the work that is at present delayed umtil' a vesi-el reaches quarantine could be les-ened, if not avoided, by the possibility of telephonic conversation between company officials and the officers of the ship. In turn, the master, purser, chief steward, and other officers could report to their department chiefs ashore. The freight and passenger departments would be able to learn well m ndvance what provisions would have to be made for the accommodation of arriving passengers and freight at the wharf. Immigration and customs officials could ascertain before the vessel reached port the number of passengers aboard and just what cases would require special investigation. That the Shipping Board in San Francisco stands ready to Older in the radio phones on the ships operated for it by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and other lines as soon as the telephones are proved practicable was stated by Shipping Board officials. The statement was heartily endorsed by Thomas A. Graham, vice-president and general manager of the Pacific mail. First-class staterooms on the "State" boats would be equipped with a telephone, connected witn a radio switchboard aboard the ship which could.be called by any telephone ashore through the central offices. Public booths also could be installed in the social hall of the vessel, it was stated.

Music in the Air. ' Thousands of ..private and: amateur wireless stations are scattered throughout every State of the American Union, bavin" ranges up to. 50 miles. Stations In Detroit, Michigan, Clevelaud, and Akron in Ohio, and Davenport in the State of lowa, while less powerful than many others of phenomenal power, have transmitting radio great enou'di in extent to enable thousands of listeners in their vicinity to enjoy the daily news reports and regular evening concerts. It is stated that the American nation is now b.aukocted by wireless news and muiic, and im.'fct of the amateurs possessing wireless sets, listen in at the evening concert given by theatres-and big hotel orchestras, obtaining thereby cheap entertainment durin ,r the evening hours. With the proper receiving set, and provided atmospheric conditions are right, there is nothing to hinder this listening in. Los Angeles boasts one of the widest broadcasting wireless stations on the American continent, it being possible to serve a region at a range ot 1000 miles. The station of the Radio Corporation of America at Rose/ile P-.u-k in \ew Jersey, also has a similar range, while the Westinghouse Station in Chicago provides a grand opera programme live nichta of tlie week during the soS Cincinnati, in Ohio, has another wireless station whidh. broadcasts a procramme of music, vaudeville, and sport reports, all of which is eagerly looked forward to by the radio amateurs Kansas City station sends out market reports and weather forecasts twice a da£ with concerts in the evening. In Massachusetts, at Medford Hillside, news is distributed, concerts and music are "on tap" every weekday, with sermons every Sunday.* - As nu>ht be expected, there haa been a tremendous sale of radio sets recently owmc to these central stations, which nrovnb such an estens:ve service of useful and entertaining information. (Continued at foot of next column.)

Mr A. H. Morse, managing director of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada, believes that economically, socially, and intellectually, the rapid development of wireless transmission of messages has tremendous possibilities for Canada, if only the nation would realise its importance. "I shall be greatly surprised and disappointed," he said recently, "if within two years from now there are not direct wireless services between Montreal and London, and between Vancouver and Melbourne." He went on to state that if Canada were to maintain her lead in the commercial applications of wireless, Governments would have to take cognisance of the importance of wirelessing. As a means of linking up the outposts of Canadian civilisation with the more thickly populated centres, he said that the wireless was_ invaluable. It provided, as he saw it, an effective means of solving the unemployment problem, not so much in tihe work of insta&ia-tion of apparatus, but in making life more bearable in the hinterland, where work might be awaiting the workless. "It is my firm oonviction," he added, "that no more economical and effective step could be taken to solve this problem, than by linking up by wireless every outpost in Canada. In that way lands forbidden to the majority of people at present because of their intense isolation, would at once become attractive fields of enterprise. Imagine, for instance, the isolated farms and mining and trapping settlements to be in daily; touch with the culture and news of civilisation, as they would be were they equipped with simple and easily operated wireless receivers, and arrange-, ments ware made for the radiation of music, news, etc., from not more than twelve broadcasting stations throughout the Dominion, whose cost, excluding transportation, would be less than 10000 dollars each." _Mr Morse stated that the transmission of power, as such, by wireless, was inherently a difficult matter, and is not yet commercially, nor likely to be for a long time. It was feasible now, though, he added, to transmit telegraphic messages ihalf-way around too world, which was the maximum distance' necessary. It would be possible to-day to send a message from anywhere to anywhere on earth.