THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3140, 23 October 1922, Page 2

THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS.

(London Daily Telegraph.) Of all the inventions of our age none probably would 1 have seemed to our forebears so utterly beyond the powers of mankind as the Rontgen rays and 1 wireless telephony. For the eye to see through opaque matter and a single human voice to speak in the ether and be audible in almost every corner of the world, is miraculous' indeed. In the light of such wonders, who would he so bold as to prophesy the limits of •scientific discovery? In his speech to the sh a reholders ill M arcon i’s Wi rcilcss Telegraph Company Senator Ma.reoni said that what seemed impossible today has a way of becoming possible tomorrow, and he pictured the day when the chairman at an annual meeting ol shareholders would address an audience comfortably seated in their armchairs at home. That is an anticipation of future developments that does not go beyond present possibilities. But be spoke also of the progress that i.s being made in the improvement of longdistance wireless communication. What is the nature of the tests and experiments now being made lie did not reveal. but it may be assumed that they are directed towards the attainment of fhe stability at present only assured for comparatively short distances', and the overcoming of the obstructions which are from atmospheric disturbances. However that may he. research is going steadily forward, and. if we may judge irom the rapidity with which wireless lias already been developed, its fruits are not likely to bo long delayed. Madame Melba singing at Chelmsford has already been hoard as far off as Persia, and before long Professor Ayrton's humorous prophecy may. as Mr Pike Pease suggests in the Empire Review. he fulfilled. In the early days of wireless the professor looked forward to a time, when, if a person wanted to speak to a friend, be knew net where, he would call ;n a loud electro-magnet voice “Where arc you?” And the reply might come. “T am at the hot tom of a coal-mine,” or “crossing the Andos.” or “in the middle of the Padlie.” Rut that peep into the future pre-vsupposed the possibility of wireless communication between two individual?. Wireless experts, says Mr Pease, are clear that the use of the radio telephone for comnnur’catiou between single individuals, a.s in the cake of tine ordinal y telephone, is a perfectly hopeless notion. So for the present wireless tolepbmiy must be used for what lias come to be ternVed “broadcasting”— the sending forth from central stations of sounds, whether speech or music, deemed; to he of general interest to the public. Meanwhile, it is possible that in the midst, of the more romantic and immediate interest aroused in broadcasting wireless telephony there are developments of wireless telegraphy which are being overlooked. Wireless telegraphy is to-day capable of transmitting words at the rate of lot) a minute. A message at that speed was recently received at the Central Telegraph Office from Cologne. As Senator Marconi explained, these messages are received in the form of printed words. They are tapped out at the transmitting ollice on a machine resembling a typewriter, and without being once handled on route are received in the form of a printed tape. Assuming wireless telegraphy to he capable of the transmission of words at a speed greatly higher than speech, and of reproducing the symbols in a form which every educated person can read, it is arguable that the advantage of the printed word might transcend, that of rlic spoken. The obvious convenience of wireless telephony is that anybody can speak and anybody can hear, whereas wireless telegraphy needs the assistance or an expert to signal and an expert to receive. On the other hand, there is no privacy about telephony, hut there are prospects that it may be- attained in telegraphy. Until wireless communication becomes directional as well as radial, every wireless signal i.s of necessity broadcasted. The Morse code which is used in wireless i'efegraphy is readily intjejlligihlp Hpi the trained car. but the code known as the five-units system is meaningless without a key. For each letter or figure the system uses a combination of five positive or negative units —never less and 'never more than five. It is even said that the Hermans have perfected a scheme whereby different allotments of the five-units system may be made for each day of the month, with the result that a method of wireless transmission in itself reasonably •secure from interception would be absolutely secure by making the code, cryptic. At present the Post Office use,- wireless routes as a part of its regular system. so that a telegram for Pome, for example, may be sent either by cable or wireless, according as traffic' conditions determine. The only wireless nunc belongin';; to the Post Office which is definitely advertised a* -.m il is that to Egypt, and by if telegram-' may be sent for ninopeiice a word, as against a shilling by wire. The route to Egypt is the first of (lie links in the imperial Wireless Chain, but thousands ol words arc telegraphed every dav direct to stations as distant as Nova Scolia. Some of these messages have been picked up at Perth in Australia, and in Xcw Zealand. This is one more prool_ that Senator Marconi was right in thinking the Imperial Wireless Telegraphy Committee, in recommending geographical steps of “()()() miles each for to Imperial Wireless Scheme, was absurdly cautions. However, direct wireless will India. South Africa, and Australia is now to be established, while in the event of serious atmospheric disturbances the shorter links will be available. On the whole there is every season to be satisfied with the progress that has been made, and continues to he made, in tin's country in the perfection of. wireless communication. To few inventors is it given, as it has; been io Senator Marconi, to see Ure work of their brain brought to sneli a state of practical utility as to i ran--cend in fact wind few imaginations had even dallied with.