ROUND THE GLOBE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1912, Page 4

ROUND THE GLOBE.

THE WHISPERS OF WIRELESS. THE WORLD'S, INVISIBLE GIRDLE. While the little bailding is going up on top of the Tinakon Hills for New Zealand's first effective "wireless" telegraph station, it is hard for New Zeafcmders to realise that the rest of the world is already in the grip of wireless to an extent that it- is possible to speak of a wireless girdle round the globe. To-day one could hardly circumnavigate the earth without' being in. touch with one or other wireless station somewhere. This, of course, refers to the regular steamer routes, whereby, with the necessary crossing of America, one could get round the world in the quickest time. The position is well put i>y Mr. F. A. Talbot, in the World's Work, where he traces the steamer on its vbyage out of London. The splendid isolation of the vessel in mid-ocean is a thing of the past. , SPLENDID ISOLATION GONE. Say a liner in setting out from London and the passenger is bound for the East via the Suez Canal and Home again by way 3f3 f Canada. The aerial stretching from mast to mast of the liner and » c mmunicating with the small cabin on. the uppermost deck of the liner is a •. jnspicuous feature. Ere the vessel has slipped its leasb in the Thames the ghostly communication is commenced and is maintained without cessation wi f h various stations as the linef glides down Channel. Passing through the portal tp the Atlantic with the stern turned towards Cornwall and the bow towards Ushant, the impulses travel to and fro between the steamer and the "Farewell" station at Poldhu, whence a grip is maintained upon the American Continent from Europe.' Ere the coast of Spain is within a hundred or so miles the vessel is talking directly ahead and directly astern at the same time, forming a kind of half-way house between Poldhu and one or other of the stations scattered along the Spanish: mainland. The flow of messages between the land in front and the country behind is swelled by those proceeding from passing vessels, and indeed the electric impulses signifying words seem to bo jostled to and fro through the air from veeeel to vessel liko a ball upon a tennis court. WIRELESS IN THE SUEZ' CANAL. Past Gibraltar and through the Mediterranean communication ', never ceases. If the vessel ie not" speaking in front, ehc' is still talking to a station astern or to stations at the side. The spurts and splashes in the Marconi room on, the deck above offer convincing testimony that conversation is being maintained across space. *In -tKe Suez Canal wireless ,telegraphy has been found exceedingly valuable for communication between ships as to where one shall "tie up" for the other to pasis. If every vessel were compelled to instal "wireless," the traffic of the canal could be handled much more easily than it is at present. TJHANGING TIDINGS. In the Red Sea, as the steamer churns her way south, the character, of the news flashed .to her wireless operator changes. While .the. Somaliland station is rapping in messages concerning . the life ■ and movement of Abyssinia and the Court of the- Negus and Suez is emptying details concerning the Genii and Turkey. Other messages force their way onward from England announcing the winner of the Derby, the victor in the University boat race, or the, result of the American Presidential election. And as Aden is paese'd the news is of the Ear East, 6f In- ; dia and its unrest, ' with forward tidings of the trouble in Chinas >f . -, ? INTO THE LONELY PACIFIC/ Along the' ce&st'of India the steamer picks up ''station after station, the last call being from Ceylon, before picking up the Calctitta operators. And so on as the steamer proceeds on her voyage there is always some station withm reach until the Vessel arrives at Yokohama.' Here commences the long crossing of the loneliest waites of water in the world— the' mighty Pacific. Hero communication may fail, the invisible girdle may break doiVnJ The only coni verse daii be with 'approaching or passing vessels and possibly the "fiery torch" of thft world's new.s may be handed on in wifetess ; but there are chances against it. ' While, pounding across these silent leagues <t>f ocean the messages are few and far between, but, nevertheless, ■scarcely ad hour flits by but what some electric impulses spurting through space are arrested in their progress by the steamer's antennae to give vent to ddts and dashes of the Morse code. Still there are stations on the American Continent to welcome the steamer from the Far East. THE HOME OF WIRELESS. In the Atlantic it is different. Messages pour in from all points of the compass. News comes in such abundance as to be worth the printing on board ship in the daily Gazette. Not only do stations communicate with ships at sea, bat with stations 3000 miles away on the other side of the herring pond. Ships communicate with ships, and the wireless- whisper* becomes a shrill hubbub. So it continues across the Atlantic until the vessel sounds Clifden station on the Galway coast, and thus establishes direct- communication with every part of- Great Britain. Soon Malm Head station swings into the circuit, and then Liverpool is spoken, and thus with wireless conversation still proceeding the traveller completes the circuit of the world.