In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 129, 3 June 1933, Page 21

In the Public Eye

Optimistic as ever, the Marchese Marconi has predicted a new age in wireless in which everything shall be as he would wish it. This famous Italian, an Hon. D.Sc. of Oxford Uni. versity, Hon. LL.D. of Glasgow, Hon. Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, a Senator, of Italy, and presidont of the Eeale Accademia d'ltalia for the last three years, is half-Irish, his mother having come from the "distressful country." From an early age ho showed an inclination towards science, and first turned his attention to the subject which made him famous when he listened to the lectures of Professor Eighi of Bologna University, who was following the path marked out by the great Hertz. Marconi's discovery was not radio waves as many people suppose, it was the commercial possibilities of the waves. Ho began a series of pxperiments to turn them to use in commercial telegraphy, and made a wireless transmitter and receiver, a crude device froni which came, by orderly development, that great network of wireless stations which now surrounds the- globe. In 1896 Marconi first went to England, taking with him his new apparatus and was introduced to Sir W. H. Preece. His greatest step was in convincing this eminent telegraph engineer that he had obtained something new and valuable. Experiments continued with ever increasing success, and before long Marconi became famous, and honours were showered upon him. Many seats of learning, and numerous governments, have recognised his work since those days, and in 1909 ho became jojnt recipient of the Nobel Prize for physics. Five years later ho was made a Senator of the Italian Parliament, and he would have received this honour oven earlier but for the fact that he had to attain the statutory age. In the same year he received from England the Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, and the following year, he was given the Albert Medar-by the Society of Arts. On the outbreak of war Marconi placed his services at the- disposal of his Government, and was sou t. abroad on various missions, being transferred from the Italiau Engineers iv I'MG to be a temporary captain iv the Navy, a rank he still holds. In the'experiments which opened the way to his present position of wealth and influence Marconi was aided by his father who, report says, bought the wires and poles for him to work in the garden. The poles he planted at opposite sides of the garden. One of them had a wire with a spark-gap. A Morse key controlled the eparks, and he found that he was able to send messages across the garden without wires. Ho was not satisfied with his experiments, and worked until he was able to control bis instruments better. Soon he was able to signal over a distance of eight miles. His announcement of his invention was received with some incredulity;. But in England his system was tested between Penarth and Weston with success, and one day in 1901, n:hen lo was twenty-seven years old, he received signals transmitted across the Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall, to St. John's, Newfoundland, a distance of 2100 miles, and the battle was virtually won. Mr. JT. P. Morgan, The cables dia not specify the fact that it was Mr. J. P. Morgan the Younger who was asked to appear before the Senate Committee investigating the state of American finance during the last few days, but it is, of course, the. son of the famous millionaire who now controls the business of the great banking house. Mr. J. P. Morgan, jun., is remembered for many things, but one of the chief is the fact that he was the man who introduced afternoon tea to Wall Street. He act quired the habit while in England (he received early training in Jhat country) and brought it back with him to the United States. '.'Jack" Morgan he is called iv "the Street," and he worships his father's memory with an intensity described as "almost oriental." In power the House of Morgan is without an equal; compared to it the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, and Krupps are small. It extends into every corner of America and includes almost every famous American in its sphere of influence. Morgan senior was the Alexander of American finance. He lived in the one age of the country's development which would have tolerated his methods. An improved financial system has made him unnecessary in a time of panic and improved laws governing trading corporations, backed by public sentiment, have made another such man impossible in the field of industry. The son remembers his father best as ho was during the panic of 1907 when he was, in all save name, dictator of the United States. J. P. Morgan the Younger was at his father's side night and day in this time of crisis. Two friends of the first Morgan played a great x part in shaping bis son's life. One was George F. Baker, who might be called the boy's financial grandfather, the other was the Rev. Dr. \V. S. Rainsford. Baker was the first Morgan "Secretary to tlio Treasury," aiding in titanic consolidations of railways and shipping and steel. He was counsellor and friend to the heir to the Morgan leadership for many years. Mr. Morgan is the owner of two yachts, of a house on Long Island, and an estate at Aldenham in Hertfordshire. He often paints his own yachts,- or helps to do so. Ho has a magnificent flower garden on his estate,,and spends much of his time in it when at home. He graduated from Harvard in 1889 and worked in the British branch of his firm, Morgan, Grrenfell, and Co., while studying European methods and foreign exchange. It was in 1901 that Uo was called back to the 6ido of bis father to aid him in the big undertakings of the early part of this century. At the request of French and British officials in 1915, Mr. Morgan undertook the flotation of £100,000,000 war loan in the United States and ha lias been prominent in many post-war financial deals.

The appointment of Mr. Hugh Ruttledge to lead the new expedition of the Eoyal Geographical Society to Mount Everest late last year focused attention on the personality of that intrepid climber. Mr. Euttledgo was given full authority to form' his own party, and while it was realised from the first that he himself could not be one of the high climbers, his great experience in the Himalayas in the last ten years, and his knowledge of the Himalayan people and of-the- Tibetans makes him eminently fitted to command the latest venture. Mr. Euttledgo retired from the Indian Civil Service at the beginning of last year, and in the summer last past he was engaged in an expedition to Nanga Dcvi, one of the greatest peaks in the Himalayas. Mr. Euttledge was born in 1884, and was educated at Cheltenham and Pern* broke College, Cambridge. Ho was appointed to the Indian Civil Service in 1908, and served in the United Provinces as assistant-Magistrate and collector. In 1925 ho was made a Magistrate, and in October of the same year was appointed Deputy Commissioner. He retired in January of last year. The attempt this year has boen made from the Tibetan side, the Lama having consented to allow another effort to scalo the peak from that. direction. The scheme for the venture is very complete, and the party includes some fanv ous climbers. It was with high hopes that the latest expedition made its pieparations, and among other things it wished to discover whether or not the ill-fated G. L. Mallory and A. C. Irvine succeeded in their, final dash towards the summit in 1924. The two men, equipped with oxygen apparatus, were seen quite near the summit, and were never heard of again. Mallory was a very experienced and able climber, and Irvine, though young—he was only twenty-two—had proved his ability. Lord Ashfiold. ' The chairman of the first London Passenger Transport Board, which has been appointed by the British Government to control traffic in the metropolis, is Lord Ashfield, a famous figure' in transport. • Lord Ashfield, -whose ap-, pointinent is for a term of seven, years,, is-the chairman of the Loudoti Traffic Combiuo. He • was born in Derby in 1874, and was educated at American colleges aud technical schools. For twelve years he was general manager of American electric railways, chiefly of the Detroit United Railways and of the Public Service Bailways of New Jersey. His successful career in business started when at the age of fourteen he ran away from school and became messenger for the Detroit company, which later he managed. At twenty he was earning £1000 a year. At twentyreight he was general manager of a system of 1000 miles of electric railway,' with a salary of £3000 a year and control of 25,000 employees. At thirty-one he was general manager of the London Underground, and at. fortytwo a Minister of the Crown. This Ministerial post was that of President of the Board of Trade, which he received in 1916, and resigned in 1919 on the grounds of ill-health. Ho was a Conservative member '* of Parliament from 1916 to 1920, representing Ashton-under-Lyne, a constituency which later turned to Labour for a time, but when he left the Board of Trade post it was to become chairman and managing director of the London underground railway group, . which takes in the Metropolitan District Railway, the London Electric Railway,; the Central London Railway, and the City and South London Railway, as well as the London General Omnibus and the Associated Equipment Co. Lord Ashfield's other concerns in traction have been-the principal electric supply companies and the tramway, companies of the city, and he is also a director of the Midland Bank, of Imperial Chemical Industries, and of the British and German Trust, Ltd. He is the first Baron Ashfleld, and the firmest of believers in the economy of high salaries, proclaiming not so long ago that Britain's great need was £10,000 a year men. The Rev. C. A. Alington. On© of the world's most famous schoolmasters, the Rev, C, A. Alington, M.A., D.D., who has retired from the headmastership of* Eton, is a_ keen cricketer. For many years prior to 1916, when he became headmaster of Eton,.he was located in Shrewsbury, where cricket is looked upon as the best of all games. He is also of a cricketing family, and his father, the Rev. H. G. Alington, was a famous amateur, playing first for Rugby and later for Lincolnshire and Oxford University. ■ He was born in 1872, and was educatod at Marlborough and Trinity, Oxford, where he obtained firsts in the two classical schools and became a Fellow of All Souls. He was assistant master successively of Marlborough and Eton, and became headmaster of Shrewsbury in 1908. Mr. Alington was an examining chaplain to the' Bishop of Lichfield, and has been select preacher at Oxford. He is the author of "A Schoolmaster's Apology" (1914), "Shrewsbury Fables" (1017), "Twenty Years" (1921), "Eton Fables" (1921), "Strained Relations" (1922), "Mr. Evans, a Cricketo-Detective Story" (1922), "Why We Read the Old Testament" (1923), and other books. In 1904 the Rev. Alington married Hester, daughter of the late Lord Lyttelton, and a half-sister of Dr. Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton, whom ho succeeded. Mr. Alington has held the office of Chaplain to his Majesty the King since 1921, and for the last seven years he has been a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. He has taken a prominent part in the politics of education,, and has acted as chairman of several conferences which discussed educational administration. His favourite occupations now are racquets and fives when ho is not writing new books about religion or literature. Woods' Great Peppermint Cur« for Influenza Colds.—Advt.