THE LIFE RAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 November 1924, Page 14

THE LIFE RAY.

WIRELESS BEAM WONDERS

(From a Scientific Correspondent in London Times.)

In 1873. the heyday of Victoria’s reign, an Englishman published some remarkable mathematical papers, in which it was established that energy travels through space in wave form and at the speed of light. Some 14 years later a young German succeeded in creating this form of energy, reflecting it and directing it at will, but only with minute effects, and by the aid of what may be termed embryo apparatus; yet this was definitely a wireless beam or ray of energy. Eight years later, when a young Italian unearthed the aerial and coupled his circuits through the medium of “jiggers,” the whole scientific and commercial world became interested in the possibilities of wireless telegraphy. Yet Marconi’s inventions distracted attention from the beam form of transmission, because they were originally associated with long waves and consequently open transmission, which.simply means that the wireless energy radiated from a centre, following the wellknown and rather beautiful analogy of the surface ripples caused by a pebble dropped into still water. But in 1916 the now mature Italian set his mind seriously to a problem that appears always to have fascinated him: the development of rays of energy on the lines of the earlier experiments, hut with the deeper and more accurate knowledge that had keen gained since 1887. In this work he was assisted bv Mr. C. S. Franklin, and, together, with that infinite capacity for taking pains which Nature has richly endowed them, they have investigated the pronerties of the wireless beam. Their Initial successes were followed by a period of wearying and apparently barren research, which, however, has at length condensed into results that are highly satisfactory; and, apart from more serious, undertakings, it may be mentioned that at present visitors at Wembley are able to inspect a- small working model of the rotating beam. Energy being energy, it follows that when a beam is’directed on to a certain spot and there suitably transformed either into heat or light, the resultant may be employed in various ways. For instance, every schoolboy knows that the sun’s rays, condensed through a burning-glass, may be made to ignite paper, boil water, etc., and there is actually near Cairo a small power plant in the form of a. steam engine supplied by a sun-fired boiler. Now, the wireless ray may similarly be directed on to a certain spot, transformed and made to light a lamp, give a warning signal, or possibly ignite combustible material; it may even, under very special conditions, be directed on to the motor of an aeroplane and so bewilder the poor magneto with eddies or swirls of high-frequency current that the timing is all upset and the motor ceases to function,; but this is'a. sober article, and we verge dangerously near the province lying between truth and nonsense. Let us deal with the work of Marconi ,and Franklin, about which there is no mystery other than the natural reticence of men who prefer to talk after, rather than before, facts are accomplished.

An address was given in June, 1922, before a joint meeting of the American Radio and Electrical Engineers, while earlier, in May, a paper was read before our own institute. Both are published. and from, them the reader may form an accurate idea of progress up to that time. Since then further and more important results have matured, some of which were disclosed by Senatore Marconi in an address delivered before the Royal Society of Arts on July 2 last. It should he noted in connection with the recent epoch-marking transmission of clear speech between Ppldhu and Sydney, N.S.W., that in the near future it is intended to utilise a beam directed towards' Sydney as being the probable solution of one of the greatest difficulties connected with trans-oceanio. telephony For the present, how r ever, let us confine ourselves to the use of the beam in connection with pilotage and the safety of life at sea.

On the island of Inchkeith, in the Firth of F<orth, the apparatus that harnesses wireless energy into a ray or beam has been installed upon a large revolving platform. During foggy weather, when the Inchkeith light is obscured, the structure slowly revolves, the apparatus is started, and two beams of wireless energy sweep the waters of the Forth. As the meridian of the beam passes through the various points of the compass, there is a series of flickers, invisible to the naked eye, which are caught by a small, compact apparatus installed on a ship’s bridge. This apparatus acts as eyes to the navigating officer whose duty it is to steer the vessel, telling him, through the medium of telephones and the sound of musical dots and dashes, what is his hearing on Inchkeith. There is no danger so insidious or so detested by the mariner as a fog, and at last science is rapidly unfolding a plan which almost adds a sixth sense to humanity, so that the navigating officer is able to discern, by direct signals, through the densest fog or foulest weather, and withqut any calculations, the accurate bearing oi ship to lighthouse. The value- of this is enhanced by the fact that, while the little apparatus in the wheel-house chin-ups out the bearing of ship to lighthouse, it also indicates the approximate distance between the two, just as the eye has learned to gauge distances as well as direction. In the light of all that science has achieved in other fields, the toll of life of such places as the Fame Islands, the 'Wolf Rocks, and the Mumbles is pathetic. The reflector on Inchkeith was first described in The Times of April 26, 1923, and it is satisfactory to be able to report that during the past twelve months it has been AA’orking without a single hitch or breakdown. Is it too much to hope that Ave are on the verge of the definite utilisation of a ray, not . neAvly dis-coA-ered, but long neglected, and hoav evolved by patient hiA-estigation into a veritable “Life Ray”? Perhaps the time i s not far distant Avlien the rocks and headlands along our coasts, now so menacing in fog and blizzard, will be shorn of their evil reputation by the joint efforts of ,lighthouse engineers and their wireless colleagAies. The first boat to be fitted Avith the special apparatus is the Royal Scot, of the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company; and on Mondays and Tvtesdays any reader who mav be in the vicinity of the Tower of 'London will find her berthed at Hermitage Wharf, and note with interest the tiny aerials on either side of the bridge. Those Avho this summer visit the pretty little resort of St. Margaret’s Bay will have the opportunity of seeiug tli£ latest form of rotating beam. On the grounds of the neighbouring South Foreland lighthouse there has been erected a strange contrivance, not unlike a giant clothes-horse mounted on a turntable, and Avith this ap-

paratus it is hoped to bring to a successful conclusion the long series of experiments. It is fitting that the spot chosen to terminate this Avork should be the site of one of the earliest successful experiments in, the history of av ire less telegraphy, for it was from here on March 27, 1899, that the first crossChannel wireless communication was definitely established.