NEW NEWS ERA

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 7, 8 July 1922, Page 15

NEW NEWS ERA

BROADCASTING EXPERIMENT

i 'LISTENING IN" TO FIGHT TALK.

(FROM ODE OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 17th May. As announced by the PostmasterGeneral a few days ago, the British public are to have the privilege of

j "listening in" with their wireless rei ceivers during certain periods each week. The first broadcasting experiment was made by two of the London daily papers on the night of the Car-pentier-Lewis fight at Olympia. This was carried out under conditions similar to those which will'prevail when the official scheme of broadcasting ctmes into operation .in a few weeks' time, thus enabling t amateurs to know .what to prepare for. • - . It was arranged that the story should be told by a correspondent who watched the fight. The correspondent passed the story on by telephone to an operator at Marconi House, and he in turn gave out the message which was received by many thousands of amateurs throughout Great Britain. Explaining his part in the scheme, the operator at Marconi House said: "Carpentier not only cut short his own work, but mine, too. I was prepared for a long run of messages. I just happened to lie on duty in the ordinary way at the hour of the contest and took my turn as I would have done in the ordinary course of events. . The messages came through to me without a hitch,, and I just repeated them into the wireless 'phone as I would have, told a friend through the ordinary instrument. . I spoke in my natural voice and did not have to raise it in any way. Although I knew that everything was O.K. as far as our instruments were concerned, and that there was no fear of a breakdown, everything having been tested thoroughly before, I was glad when it was over and learned that it had.been a success." The wave-length chosen was one of the wave-lengths most likely to be used for the. official scheme. The Government will decide upon a length between 350----and 425 metres. The messages last week were broadcast on a wave of 360 metres, which covers a radius of 50 miles but can be heard on more sensitive instruments at a greater distance. HEARD IN ABERDEENSHIRE. ! Both the Daily Mail and the Daily Chronicle, threw out thejr story from Marconi House, and it seems that the message was heard as far north as Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, 400 ' miles from London as the crow flies, and a ship off the Lizard, 300 miles away, , got the news. It was also heard in- Sutton Coldfield (117 miles), Tamworth,. Staffordshire (110 miles), Grimsby, Lincolnshire (155 miles), Sheffield (157 miles), and Doneaster (156 miles). Messages have been received. by the two journals from a very large number of people who heard the story of the fight. Home-made sets seem to have obtained the .message just as easily as the more elaborately constructed apparatus, and one reads of a schoolboy of 15 receiving the message quite clearly on a set which cost him 14s, and which he constructed himself. In addition, concert halls and picture houses possessing receiving sets, gave their patrons the benefit of the message. MUSIC FOR DANCING, The success of the experiment is a remarkable illustration of the possibilities of the scheme for distributing wireless reports, sanctioned by the Postmaster-General. Within, a A few weeks, this' scheme will be in general operation. Householders will be able to purchase instruments which can be handled with the ease of a snapshot camera, and which will every day bring into their own homes news and entertainment from distant places. Already the distributing station at Marconi House is sending out messages two or three times a day. These messages have considerably puzzled wireless amateurs who have picked them up, because they have been meaningless, composed, for the most part, of letters of the alphabet and names of towns. They are test messages transmitted by operators, who are, preparing to send out a daily service of news and music as soon as the official regulations have been drawn up. Wireless amateurs have expressed particular curiosity concerning peculiar vibrant noises which.become audible at intervals during the test. These have been fcransmittsed to test' the, microphones—to see whether there is any

limit to the variety of sounds they are t capable of reproducing, for it js in mind to send out even grand opera music from the .wireless stations. If the instruments provided are sensitive enough, and have suitable amplifiers, musio should be reproduced loud er.ough for dancing purposes. MR. GODFREY ISAACS ON THE TEST. Mr. Godfrey Isaacs, of the Marconi Company, expressed the opinion that the "broadcast wireless" of the fight was a great success. "The only regrettable thing about ' it was that it was so soon over and did not get a really long test. ' But everything went off quite smoothly. Everybody with receiving sets heard 'quite plainly in all parts of the country. The messages reached Paris, where the news of the great contest, of, course, had a peculiar interest. Most of the private receiving stations in the country would be strong enough to receive the report of the fight. But one set Alight possibly distribute the news quite clearly to 50, 100, or even 500 people, if fitted with the special instrument and the megaphone horn. The test is merely the beginning of the . broadcasting system, and I fully expect that it will now make rapid strides."