EMPIRE WIRELESS SCHEME

Evening Star, Issue 18999, 22 July 1925, Page 5

EMPIRE WIRELESS SCHEME

< ALLEGATIONS OF BELAY. ASSURANCE OF PROGRESS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, July 20. When tho House of Commons was debating tho Rost Office Estimates Mr V. Hartshorn (Lab.) taxed the Government with lacking energy in tho completion of tho Imperial wireless system. Lord Wolmor (Undersecretary of tho Post Office) assured tho House that the Government was pressing tho matter with real energy. Ho denied that delay had occurred, except in connection with the construction of the North-eastern stations communicating with Australia and India, in which connection ho pointed out that beam wireless was still in its infancy. Both the Post Office and the Marconi Company were constantly gaining fresh information, which on several occasions had made a consistent policy difficult. Moreover, the technical form a Hides connected with tho ownership of "sites for stations had produced delay, but it was hoped that those would be completed in a few weeks. lie declared that the Wireless Advisory Committee was steadily progressing in arriving at recommendations regarding tariffs and routes by means of which it was hoped to formulate a consistent working policy. Lie added that nowhere in the Empire was a beam station yet working under the conditions of public service, but ho hoped that services would he working in October between Britain and South Africa and Britain and Canada. Mr C. G. Ammon (Lab.) said he hoped tho Postmaster-General had not so handed himself over to the Marconi Company that’ Imperial communication was going to he hampered and checked. Ho stressed the necessity of getting a move on.

Sir IV. Mitchell-Tliompson (Post-master-General) said ho thought that Mr Ammon’s fears would prove to bo unfounded. The beam system was really more nr less in the experimental stage. They knew, and Marconi’s franklv said that they knew little about it, and until the stations, were actually working they would ho unable to do more than theorise. I lie debate was adjourned.—Router. Mr E. T. FISK ABROAD. ACHIEVEMENTS OX THE WAY. LONDON, July 16. Mr E. T. Fisk, managing director of the Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Company, has arrived _in London. In the course of an interview ho said lie had obtained information in Canada and the United States in reference to wireless which would be useful to Australia.

The arrangement of the programmes at tlie Australian broadcasting stations compared favorably with the American programmes. The daylight range of the American stations was less than those of Australia.

Americans were increasingly using wireless internationally. Experts were keenly interested in tlie Marconi beam system. A New York to London beam service was being arranged; also a New York to Buenos Aires service. Before Mr Fisk left. New York bo arranged to send messages to Sydney through the Niagara while bo was midway across the Atlantic on the Majestic. By so doing lie, established a world’s record for communication between merchantmen and the land. Another achievement was tlie issue twice a day of an Australian news sheet aboard tbo Aorangi throughout her voyage across the Pacific.

fu a lecture on tho beam system before tho Royal Society of Arts, in Loudon, Signor Marconi said that nearly thirty years ago ho had been able to demonstrate the “beam” system to tbo Engincer-in-chiof of the Post Office, using short waves, and pointed out how his attention had been diverted from this method by the easier method of the long wave. 'This he now regretted, for it was only recently that it had been discovered that tho short waves alone could bo focussed in definite directions like a searchlight, and wore capable of effects unobtainable by tho long waves. Thus for many years there had been no research, in this most important branch of the science. The scries of experiments .carried out between his yacht Elcttra and a. small transmitting station at Pole!lni had shown that many theories held by experts were _iiot comet, and tho definite results had proved that, the day range of signals was reliable, the Might_ range greater even than he had anticipated, and that intervening continents were no obstacle. ft bad also been discovered that tho altitude of the sun boro a relation to the strength of the signals received, and that certain 'mathematical formula', generally accepted as applying to wireless. did not operate, in the ease of the short wave method. In his experiments at a distance of 2,.T18 mil's from Poldhn, ho had found the strength of the received signals so groat that none of tho ordinary 11 a I mosphoriVs ” over approached interference with signals from Poldhn. During these iesis the radiation energy’ from Poldhn was 12 horse-power. The reflector concentrated this energy on tho yacht, and to get the same result without' a reflector at that distance it- would have been necessary to radiate over 100 horse-power. Signor Marconi went on to explain how the etfieieney of communication between distant parts of the Empire could ho increased, and also the speed of the transmission of messages. “ I am,” ho said, “of the opine j, - that by means of comparatively small siaions a far greater number of words per twenty-four hours could be transmitted between England. .India, and her distant dominions than by means ol the previously-planned powerful and expensive stations.”