RUGBY STATION.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18912, 29 January 1927, Page 4

RUGBY STATION.

empire wireless. VISIT OF PREMIERS. (IB OH OUB ow* COBKI3JOMDEST.) LONDON, November 11. On their way from Manchester to London the representatives of the Dominions took the opportunity of visitin.r tho hio-h-power wireless station at Rugby Government" officials wen* north from London and tho parties "ere met at Rugby Station by motorcoaches. But the drivers did not know the way and they got lost trying to find the main gates of the place. where they went, however, they couW see the station's giant masts, either to the left or to the right. 111 front 01 behind them. A shepherd met tvvo motor-coaches of armised but puzzled people in Lower Hillmorton to which they had returned for the third nine. He thought they were beanfeasters. "Hello," he cried, as a head came out of the first coach. "Good afternoon," came the reply. "I have here the Postmaster General. Jl "Really," rejoined the shepherd, "and here you see the Prinoe of Wales." "Honestly, hero is the PostmasterGeneral and Mr Bruce, the Prime Minister of Australia. Could you kindly show us the way to the wireless station?" "I got in," recounted the shepherd afterwards, "and it was the Post-master-General, and the other chap was the Prime Minister of Australia. There .were a lot .of other well-to-do people in a flurry and I took them to tlie station in two ticks." These coaches were late but not ho late as two others, which got stranded in a long, narrow lane which ended with a gate and a ploughed field, and took more than an hour doing the fourmile journey. Message to Australia. There are other big British wireless stations from which, under favourable conditions, messages reach the uttermost parts of the earth, but from the towering masts, of Rugby—or, to be precise, Hillmorton —alone can the whole Empire be brought simultaneously by day or night, in winter -or summer —with only very occasional atmospherio interruptions—into ethereal kinship. It is difficult to imagine a bond of Empire union more potentially effectual than the fact that "God Save the King I" wirelessed from Rugby would reach Nova Scotia, Sydney, Hong Kong,-Capetpwn, and Wellington before the last of the spoken words could be heard at the end of a large hall. The visitors were conducted on a tour of the establishment in company with the Postmaster-General and other high officials, explanations of the gear and processes employed being given by Mr Shaughnessv, the chief engineer of the Post and some of the resident staff. At 3.6 p.m. the following message was sent off by Mr Stanley Bruce: "From the great wireless station which communicates with every part of the Empire, near or far, I send to. the people of Australia greeting, and the most sincere wishes . for their happiness and prosperity." This was received at Sydney at what was locally 1.9 on Sunday morning, and an acknowledgement reached Rugby at 3.30 p.m. 100,000 VoltsMany constructional details concerning the Rugby station have previously been published, and some are so highly technical as to have no interest for the general public. ' But the Dominion Premiers could riot fail to be impressed with the extraordinary combination' of immensity and precision in regard to minutiae which was here exhibited on every side. For the general jjublic, and more especially for the wireless amateur, there are some eye-opening facts apart from the 820-feet masts and the huge generating plant. There is something almost appalling about the great banks of condensers weighing many tons and the colossal coils wound with a cable compounded of over 6000 strands of insulated wire. The currents dealt with are, of course, terrific, those carried by the coil next to the aerial lead-in reaching 100,000 volts. In the upper galleries of the mam building wood is exclusively employed for passage-ways and supports to prevent induction losses, and indeed precaution against loss of power is most carefully studied throughout the length and breadth of tho 900 acres comprised in the Hillmorton station area. The two most distinctive features of tho installation, apart from its size, are the special transmitting valves employed and the little tuning-fork which acts as a "master oscillator," and which by governing the frequency enables the wave-lengtli to be kept to its exact dimensions. The valves are of a new and singularly efficient design, much less cumbersome and much more powerful than the old glass variety, a power ot 10 kilowatts being easily reached by a single valve and the tremendous heat generated being assuaged by. watercooling. Normally a power of some 500 kw. is delivered to the aerial for broadcast transmission purposes, about 200 kw. being used for telephony. It Rugby were merely a commercial transmitting station the cost. of its construction —sonig £400,000 —might be deemetl excessive. But it is very much more. It broadcasts daily a service, of news, officially compiled, which is most acceptable to ships aud to British residents abroad, and also of considerable propaganda significance. Strategical Value. At momentous junctures the most distant Dominions and colonies can be brought instantaneously into touch wiflh the Mother Country, and it follows that the strategical value of the station in time of war would be incalculable. Added, to all this, Rugby, being the most powerful telephony station in the world, has enabled experiments in trans-Atlantio telephony to be carried out which early next year are likely to be translated into a commercial service. At a fraction of the cost of a modern battleship it can hardly be considered a bad national bargain. As a piece of Empire machinery it mav prove one of the very beßt of all our" investments in that line.