Grey River Argus THURSDAY, January 13th., 1927. THE FLU.

Grey River Argus, 13 January 1927, Page 4

Grey River Argus THURSDAY, January 13th., 1927. THE FLU.

Eight or nine years ago tlic worst epidemic in half a century entered this country through a northern port, so that it is to be hoped the reported view of the .Health Department that the present European epidemic is nowise serious will not deter the Government from taking proper precautions. When there are three thousand eases in one continental city, forty deaths a day in another, burials without coffins in a third, people collapsing in the street in a fourth; when some districts arc crippled, and schools and universities elsewhere are indefinitely closed, it is certainly difficult to discover the justification for the New Zealand Health Department’s conclusion that the figures appear to indicate merely that Europe’s visitation is “somewhat more severe than New Zealand experienced last winter.” Somewhat, indeed! It is a notorious fact that the Department is prepared to say a lot of things with the object of averting anything like a public scare. Last year there were not many deaths in New Zealand from pneumonic influenza, and there was certainly no wave of the disease. Consequently there is no comparison > between it and the evident wave . sweeping now over Western Eu- 1 rope, which the Department is 1 scarcely warranted in describing ' as the common winter type of the s ailment. There is the pneumonic ( type in a. severe form. The anticipation of our authorities that the infection could scarcely reach New Zealand until the winter suggests that no precautions are 1

meantime likely to be taken. It is quite possible an immigrant ship will convey infection, and it (is even more likely that an ordinary passenger liner may repeat the infeciion which a similar vessel caused in 1918. when fhe toll of life was at least seven thousand. That enidemie, as a, matter of fact, did not begin in midwinter, but at the start of the sumliner, being at its worst in the • month of November, and surely i the lesson then taught has not so !soon been forgotten. Although the period of incubation is very short, a traveller could leave any I Australian or island port apparently free from infection, and yet develop the disease just before, or even just after, entering a New Zealand port. Precautions, of course, require to be stringent in order to be effective, and they should forthwith be instituted. It is better to be sure than sorry-. ; WIRELESS. The institution of trans-oceanic wireless-telephony, following so . closely upon wireless telegraphy, is a scientific marvel people at this distance from the scene of operations scarcely yet realise in its full significance. Last century witnessed wonderful developments in communications, but the transmission of the human voice round the globe verily annihilates distance. It is but another evidence of the vast strides made in material progress by the human race during the past couple of centuries, although the foundation was doubtless laid in preceding centuries to an extent which the developments of modern times tend entirely to obscure. What is of more immediate interest in these countries is the coming of beam wireless telegraphy on a commercial scale as a competitor with the submar inc cables at rates two-thirds the cheaper of the two. Already the experimental stage of the beam service between Britain and Australia has practically been completed. The station in Australia is situated at Ballan, about 4G miles from Melbourne, and, although the part for transmission to Canada is not yet complete, the section for traffic with England is daily in communication with the English reciprocal station. One of the most striking features of the beam station is the aerial system. It is on the form of the aerial that the production of the concem-ated radiation known as the beam depends. There are two different aerials at fhe Ballan station. one for communicating with Canada and the other for working with Britain. Lach of th? aerials is supported on three lattice steel masts, each about 250 ft. high and arranged in a straight with about 1600 ft. between the outer masts of each line. At the top of each is a steel crosspiece supporting a system of horizontal steel cables extending along the top of the masts. The line of masts for communication with England is at right angles with an imaginary Ijne joinin'; Ballan with the English receiving station. The beam is projected in a direction at right angles to the line of the masts, and therefore

passes over the receiving station. A brief outline of the system may be given. Imagine a dozen tuning forks all vibrating at the same pitch and arranged in a row above a basin of water. To the tip of each fork is attached a pin with its point just touching the water surface. Each individual pin vibrating would tend to set up a. series of ripples moving out in circles. If the distance between the vibrating pins is properly arranged in respect of the wavelength of the ripples, each series of ripples will combine with its neighbours, and a clearly-defined concentrated wave having’ a straight front instead of a circular front from a single disturbance will be produced, and it will advance in a direction at right angles to the line in which the tuning forks are placed. At the beam station the row of vertical aerial wires represents the row of pin points touching the water surface, and the energy supplied by the transmission line through coupling boxes from the ground represents the energy of vibration supplied to the pins by the tuning forks. As each pin tended to produce a. scries of waves spreading 'all round the point where it touched the water, so does each individual aerial wire tend to produce a. system of wireless waves advancing- in all directions. As the waves from each of Ihe pins combine to form a concentrated wave with a straight front, so do the waves produced by the individual aerial waves combine into a concentrated wave in the ; wireless system. The wave-length used is rather less than 26 metres, ■ and this is absolutely unvarying. The transmitter produces currents i which surge up and down the : aerials more than 11,000.000 times a second and at an absolutely con- > slant frequency. '