FUTURE RADIO WONDERS

Evening Star, Issue 18161, 29 December 1922, Page 6

FUTURE RADIO WONDERS

WHAT RESEARCH MAY DISCOVER. BREAKFAST TABLE NEWS. [By H. Pcweix R.rr.s, Managing Director of 11.P.1U Wireless, Ltd.]

I am asked in this year of grace 1922 to express an opinion as to what, wireless may bo like in the year of the British Empire Exhibition. At Wcmbly, in 1924, magnificent attractions, triumphant industrial achievements, amazing scientific discoveries, and their applications, will compete with one another to arrest attention in a manner hut palely adumbrated by any former exhibition of any time or place. One may bo sine, however, of one thing—namely, that the prospect of such an opportunity will stimulate wireless inventors to such’ a degree that advances and achievements in their domain will he in tho forefront of the marvels to be seen at the British Empire Exhibition. To bo asked to suggest some of them in detail is to bo assailed by a temptation _to loosa the reins of imagination and lot it gallop into regions in which tho present impossible has become tho actual commonplace. MORNING’S NEWS SUMMARISED. With music already in Hie ether for anyone’s enjoyment at no more pains than the turning of a handle, it is a short stop to conceive oneself listening at breakfast time to a summary of tbo news of tho day being broadcasted by one’s favorite newspaper. One imagines such a summary being prepared’ as a gramophone record in tho small hours of the morning after the paper has gone to press. This record automatically broadcasts itself wirelessly every ten minutes between 7.30 and 11 o’clock. Subscribers to tho newspaper are supplied with a small receiver containing a loud speaking apparatus, from which at the pressure of a button the news issues while the bacon and eggs are being put away. On the way to Ws office, the subscrioer ■reads in detail tho news which summary has enabled him to select without loss of time as most interesting or important to him at tho moment. The car in which he is riding draws its power from flhe municipal ether mains, a motor automatically registering the amount consumed. As his car glides along he perceives against the sky’s blue background what appears to be a flight of huge birds, which, however, manoeuvre themselves into positions which spell out the name of a well-known household article. These are manlcss aeroplanes directed wirelessly from the ground—a method of advertising which pays its inventor and its patron very well. NEW OFFICE METHODS. On arrival at his office his desk is singularly clear ot correspondence, due not so much to a secretary’s efficiency as to wireless,” which has become the invaluable handmaid of the man of affairs large and small. As he sits a faint whirr issues from a small box on the desk, and simultaneously there flows from a moving stylus a printed message agreeing the terms of a proposed contract followed by the necessary signature handwritten at a distance and wirelessly transmitted of course. Most of tho correspondence throughout the day is carried out in this manner. During the afternoon our imaginary business man is inspecting the progress of a new factory building ho is erecting in tho depths of tho country, and it unexpectedly becomes necessary for him to stay overnight in tho neighborhood. He therefore plants his stick firmly in the ground, takes a watch like piece of 'apparatus from his pocket, and attaches its chain to the handle of his stick. From another pocket he takes a small earpiece, tho cord of which ho also attaches to his stick. He then informs his wife that “business detains,” etc. Ono or two remarks pass, the watchliko apparatus and the earpiece are returned to their respective pockets, tho operation is finished, having lasted exactly fifteen seconds. WIRELESS CONS ULTATIONS. At homo, his wife, who happens to he somewhat out of sorts, after having conversed with her husband by means of the apparatus at her boudior desk, places its wave-length, indicator at her physician’s number, and is soon in touch with iiim. After symptoms have been discussed, tho doctor takes her pulse, which is effected by the lady pressing her wrist against the mouthpiece of her transmitter. As a consequence of this, medicine arrives in the course of a. few minutes, tho prescription for which has been wirelessly written by the doctor ou tho chemist’s wireless receiving tablets. A change in tho dinner arrangements boing desirable the cook, who has boon summoned to tho boudoir, informs her mistress that sho is pleasedi that the draught on her kitchen resources is lessened because she thinks that the teletherrnatic apparatus by which her ovens axe wirelessly heated must ho % little out of tune. Tho lady’s husband, after his evening meal at tho country inn, fills in his timo with tho wireless broadcast ..apparatus provided for tho entertainment of tho hostelry’s visitors. Ho listens to a couple of London music-hall numbers, a song or two at a concert in Paris, and strays thence to Rome, Berlin, Cairo, and Ncw_ York. Becoming tired of mundane music, ho switches tho indicator to 100,000 metres, and is connected' to the principal operahouse in the metropolis of the planet Mars, and is straightway THINGS LESS SENSATIONAL. I am afraid few such sensational developments as these can ho prophesied for 1924, but ono may seriously look forward to very important improvements in several directions being developed with success before that date. The multi-electrode valve and the valve with a low temperature filament may confidently be expected to produce, great, if not revolutionary, changes in present practice. The experiments now being carried on with a view to confirming the area over which eavesdropping may bo practised to a comparatively uamfw belt bordering the straight line between transmitter and receiver give great promise of success. Tho satisfactory elimination from the receiving instruments of the effects of atmospheric electrical conditions may bo accomplished, for the need is great, and many skilled inventors are at work on this problem. Tho interference with regular working experienced at present from this cause is such ns frequently to render stations inoperative for tho greater part of the day, especially in tho tropics. Research may discover in. time for Wembley tiie reason for the accession of strength of wireless signals in twilight hours, and tho .generally improved state of tho ether during tho hours of darkness. This thought puts us in touch with the electron theory, on tho basis of which that explanation will .probably be found. Tins, in turn, suggests that the release of atomic energy may possibly be accomplished by tho time the British Empire Exhibition opens, always provided that at tbo moment of his discovery by some ardent experimenter tho material fabric of things docs not disintegrate, and tho clock-spring of tho universe’s timo machine run down l to a stagnant state of nothingness, as some have suggested. But these bo the croakers and pessimists, who stand ever in the road of progress, endeavoring to set tho face of the experimenter away from his goal. LAND, SEA, AND SKY.

The wireless control of sea, land, and sky conveyances which is now in actual practice bids fair to he a commercial proposition in the near future. Utilisation of wave-lengths of a few metres, now only used experimentally in laboratory research, presents a field which may be bearing a marketable crop in a couple of years. The stepping down of the frequency of these low wave-lengths by stages and applying the practicable limit of amplification at each stage seems like a hopeful means of receiving messages from a great distance with a comparatively email expenditure of power. She necessity tar a soally efficient “ loadspeaking w dcrvioo wfll probably produce its '«Pii rlv.mPM to

comes the better tor all who wish to hear wireless song and music as purely rendered without the head ’phones, as they may already bo hoard with them in good receivers. This problem at present is not so much a “wireless” one as one of mechanical acoustics, 'but its solution is badly needed, and therefore, ip my opinion, likely to come quickly. GREATER SELECTIVITY..

Although the range of wave-lengths employed for wireless purposes extends from about 150 metres to nearly 25,000 metres, it is so crowded) with the allotted wavelengths of existing stations as to make the assignments of a suitable wave-length for a newly-established station a very difficult matter. Tins is because interference may bo caused with existing stations operating on wave-lengths somewhat above or below any which may be proposed. Receiving of great selectivity have been developed in recent years, but at the expense of simplicity and ease of operation. It seems probable that some simple and easily-tunable device of oven greater selectivity may be discovered before ,1024. The quaint story now going round the community to tlhe effect that “wireless is hurtful to health will probably receive its quietus before the exhibition, though that other perhaps quainter statement that ■wireless makes the hair grow may prove to have a stronger vitality, because hope springs eternal in the bald man’s head. . The development of broadcasting beyond its present status and projected plans_ is certain to be effected before the British Empire Exhibition opens, and the suggestion of a news summary with one’s breakfast only requires for its attain menu the will to accomplish it, because its possibility already exists to-day; but wireless power and heat are, I fear, far, far in the dim and misty future, while as for Mars but there, who knows?