ON ALL WAVELENGTHS

Evening Star, Issue 21518, 16 September 1933, Page 4

ON ALL WAVELENGTHS

By

STRAY SPARKS After making elaborate arrangements in the'way of pit organisation the winning team at a motor race at Brooklands recently was forced to abandon the preparations. Each car was provided with a receiving set and a special transmitter was placed in the pit, hut it was found that a rival pit also had a receiver, and as instructions sent out from the transmitting pit would be overheard it was decided that the wireless would be a handicap. * * * * The report that Mr and Mrs Janies Mollison, the aviators, were hampered by fog before they ultimately crashed in the United States is a reminder of the disability under which an air pilot labours when his machine is not fitted with wireless equipment. » * * * It has been reported that all German studios have been equipped with a form of telewriter, in order to avoid errors in the transmission of news items. Previous to the installation of this new device news was sent from head office, Berlin, over the telephone,- frequently causing errors due to misunderstandings between the sender and receiver. , * * * * A gathering of more than usual interest took place at Wellington last week, when representatives of the Manufacturers’ Association, of the Department of Industries and Commerce, the Radio Broadcasting Board, and others interested in the development of the radio industry in New Zealand met in the new premises of the Courtenay Radio Company. Parties of visitors inspected the factory, which occupies in three floors no less than 12,000 square feet of space and is equipped with the very latest plant for the manufacture of the greater number of components in radio sets of the latest type. COMING MILNE PLAYLET BROADCAST Presentation of the A. A. Milne playlet, 1 The Princess and the Woodcutter,’ is scheduled for next Friday from 4YA. Milne was born in London over fifty-one years ago, but because of his child intuition lie says that nobody will believe it. He began writing verso and parodies for his school magazine, which ho subsequently edited, and after going to Cambridge it was not very long before he edited the under-graduates’ magazine. Leaving the university, his parents desired him to take up school teaching or to enter the Indian Civil Service, but the pen claimed him, and he began to write for newspapers and magazines. The first year brought him £2O, and the second over £IOO. In 1906 ho joined the staff of ‘ Punch,' and when war broke out he occupied the assistant editor’s chair. After demobilisation Christopher Robin inspired him to write for children-—of all ages —and it would seem that ‘ Pooh,’ ‘ Piglet,’ ‘ Eyore,’ and all his son’s favourites will be evergreen in the centuries to come. SUCCESSFUL FIRST ATTEMPT As a first attempt at relaying on a largo scale, 4ZW’s broadcast from the Town Hall on the occasion of the services queen ball was a very commendable performance. That the station authorities meant to carry out the relay as thoroughly as possible is obvious from the fact that three microphones were used—one for the dance band, one for the gallery, and one for broadcasting from the foyer. It was through the microphone in the foyer that the lady announcer broadcast descriptions of the latest creations in dresses, etc., which was more understandable to the feminine section of the audience than to the males, and the same microphone was used by those taking part, who spoke for a few seconds to the listeners. Stationed at the gallery microphone was the station’s chief announcer, who had a busy time endeavouring to keep up with everything fresh that occurred on the floor below him, and to convey some idea of the scene to those at homo. However, despite one or two unforsoen handicaps —listeners were not aware of these at the time—the three persons in charge of the microphones rendered noble service. The adjective “ noble ” is used because everyone who realises the unenviable task of the microphonists a' such functions will agree that all announcers stuck to their job like heroes., The band microphone must have been placed in a previously tested position, for it caught all the instruments in the orchestra, preserving the balance, without causing any one instrument to predominate. As already mentioned, this was the station’s initial try-out in a big relay, and from practically all points of view it proved very entertaining for nondancers and those who were not fortunate enough to be present at the ball itself.

NOTES AND COMMENTS

CHANGE OF CONTROL Writing on the matter of the recent announcement regarding the change in ownership of IZR, Auckland, a local scribe says:— “ That IZR should now bo virtually a Government station is the surprise of tho year. It was as much of a shock to the IZII Club members themselves as it was to the general public, and the air of secrecy about the whole proceedings had been intriguing. “ Speculation is rife as to the use to which IZII will be put if it is to form part of our license-supported system. If it is to be merely a standby plant in case of breakdown of the main station —a state of affairs hardly conceivable —then broadcasting in Auckland will suffer a setback. If it is to bo used as an auxiliary, properly co-ordin-ated with IYA, and in no sense overlapping it, then there is a chance for much improvement. An alternative service has become the recognised ideal in many centres, both within and beyond the Empire. It gives a chance to cater for more than one section of the listening public at a time, but it can do this effectively only with true co-operation between the two stations. This is hardly possible when both arc separately controlled. Such a factor may have been a guiding one that determined the Minister to take the stop Ire has. “ But with the change-over there comes the danger that a station which is essentially a local one will be lost. Might it not be a very wise policy to give Aucklanders a ‘ national ’ station of tho power promised for the new IYA, and a ‘ local ’ one in which they themselves might have a very effective controlling voice? In the old company days there was at least some attempt to co-opt local effort with centralised control. This has disappeared under the board regime, and has no doubt been to some extent responsible for tho appearance of local ‘ radio clubs, 1 giving listeners personal interest in stations handy to them. It will bo a pity if that local interest which has kept IZR alive should disappear. There should be scope for maintaining and increasing it, while at the same time allowing of the real co-ordination of service between the two stations which is tho best prospect from the Government's action. “It is not too much to anticipate that before long the question will bo raised, ‘ Arc further stations than two, providing correlated programmes for city and district, necessary?’ The official answer to that question may mean that further licenses to B stations will not he issued, and that the B station as we now know it null cease to exist unless for special service in isolated districts. Interesting developments appear to be forthcoming. Listeners will ■welcome them if they 7 mean better and brighter service.” CALLING UP THE PLANETS The Bishop of Birmingham is of the opinion that we shall one day be able to communicate by wireless or some variant of wireless with other inhabited planets in the universe. There is still a tendency among modern thinkers toward a belief in life on other worlds, and, indeed, when we consider the millions and billions of stars which do exist, it seems at least feasible that there may be other stars like our sun, with planets more or Jess the same as our own, and having a planetary family whirling round tnem (says G. H. Daly, in ‘ Popular Wireless '). A certain section of opinion believes that wireless signals cannot leave the earth or penetrate as far us Mars, but if wireless is impossible, there are still light waves; we know these can get through the layers in tho earth’s atmosphere. But despite various rumours which have arisen from * time to time that flashes from Mars have been seen, investigation lias shown these to be without foundation. Even the celebrated canals do not materialise as such on the most exact photograph. Mars is a much older planet, from a habitable point of view, than tho earth. Martians, if they existed, would be, logically, almost millions of years ahead of ns. Yet we see no giant Martian space ships flying about the heavens. And it is almost inconceivable that a people millions of years in advance of ourselves will not have conquered space. Dismissing Mars, there is only Venus left among all our planets where life could possibly exist. It is believed that Venus always turns the same face to the sun, and, if this is so, then one side is boiling hot while the other side is as cold as space itself. It is possible, however, that a narrow bolt might exist between tho two which would approximate to tho climatic conditions of our own earth; there is plenty 7 of air. But although it does not do to be dogmatic, there is very little possibility of life except in a very low and unintelligent form, if, then, there is other" life in the universe, it must he among the more distant stars, possibly in the vast area which wo call the Milky Way. But to communicate with them by wireless—that is a different matter Wo are not sure yet that it is possible to transmit by wireless as far as the other planets in the solar system. There are at least two layers the Heaviside and the Appleton—which appear to do their best to confine wireless waves to the earth’s atmosphere. Wireless echoes —i.c., wireless waves which it is believed passed through the upper layers and travelled millions of miles into space—are now believed to do no such thing. That, at least, is the latest theory, although Stunner, of the original wireless echo fame, still holds that tho waves pass out to space and are reflected back from there. , Yet, oven if Stormer is correct, and tho waves do get into space, they will never bo of much use for speaking to inhabited worlds which may exist outside our solar system. Even the nearest stars of the Milky Way arc 25,000 light years away from us—that is to say, light or wireless waves would take 25,000 years, even travelling at their

great speed of 186,000 miles per second, to reach the Milky Way. So that if anyone lives in that part of the universe we shall never know anything of them if wo arc to depend on our wireless waves, which merely crawl where astronomical distances are concerned. If we are to establish communication across the universe then we must discover something infinitely more swift than our wireless waves. ORCHESTRAL BROADCASTING Christchurch recently took a forward step in broadcasting orchestral music, when the newly-formed professional orchestra made its first appearance at the local station. However, the Australian Broadcasting Commission intends to cover orchestral broadcasts in an even more ambitious manner, and to this end has engaged the services of Sir Hamilton Harty, conductor of the Hallo Orchestra in England, to give concerts with the A.B.C. Orchestra next year. Writing of Sir Hamilton as he personally knows him, Thorolcl Waters says in the ‘ Listener In ’ that Harty’s evolution into an orchestral Commander of international renown surprised his friends. Sometimes he had taken the baton over performances of his own ‘ Irish Symphony ’ and symphonic poem, ‘With the Wild Geese,’ and at last a turn at conducting the London Symphony Orchestra’s concerts began .to show the stuff that was really in him. Then he went to Manchester to take in hand the orchestra which Sir Charles Hallo had initiated and the great conductor, Dr Hans Richter, had developed into the finest musical force in the North of England for a number of years. And Harty made it a finer force still. He focussed the attention of all musical England on the Halle Orchestra ; on repeated visits to London convinced the critics that it had then become the only English ensemble comparable at all with the major orchestras from abroad which also go to London, such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic; thus made history. Sir Thomas Beecham had toyed with the idea of making the London Symphony his own body; suddenly ho sheered off, and as if by magic brought to life a totally now orchestra, the London Philharmonic, which leaped to the very foreground at a debut which dumbfounded every critic—or so they said, but they were not so dumb about belauding it. The London Symphony players turned to Sir Hamilton Harty, who took them oVor ns permanent conductor, and now by all accounts London possesses in that lot a third orchestra, which, like Beecham’s London Philharmonic and Adrian Boult’s broadcasters, can bear the English musical banner triumphantly against those of Europe and America. The creative force being still so alive in Harty, the Australian ‘broadcasting orchestras ought to be lifted to an inspired plane when he comes, but it will be a pity if the inspiration is permitted to flicker away because the number of concerts allotted to him is too restricted to ensure a permanent flame. His conducting is sure to be an instantaneous incitement to his players and the audiences which will cram the halls in Melbourne and Sydney to hear them. He lays on the tone colours with a splendid lavishness and yet can make a gentleness which is most bewitching. There is more than a hint of tho fiery ardour of the Celt in his interpretations, The finest gift he will bring us is that of an extraordinary flexibility in his treatment of rhythm, for this is the quality Australian orchestras lack the most. Yet Harty is as quiet a conductor ns anyone would wish to see. A minimum of gesture is his.. He differs in all essentials from Beecham, who is an egotist and a genius, eloquent in his shirt-cuffs and nonchalantly disrespectful of everything except the music ho has committed to his marvellous memory. He differs from Malcolm Sargent, an engineer of wiry positiveness —and indeed, from any other of the baton “ stars.” Harty never goes to the platform without having the orchestral score in front of him. Tho quietude of his conducting is said to be like that of Berlioz, the debated composer of whose music he is tho supreme propagandist. “ There is no halfway house with regard to Berlioz,” he has said. “ You are either enraptured by his music or its bitter enemy.” Bub Sir Hamilton is almost as strong an adherent of the English composers,' Elgar and Delius, and ho will have no time out here to do much for Berlioz. He is a fighter when his blood is up. Tho British Broadcasting Corporation filched his best obocist and one or two other outstanding players from the Halle band when forming its present great orchestra. He arose and smote those broadcasting folk, and they could hardly shelter behind the excuse that they'had been subsidising tho Hallo Orchestra with a thousand or so of sterling each year. To “pinch”.an oboeist is, of course, the cardinal ernno in the view of any conductor.