LAUGHTER FROM N.Z.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 3 February 1926, Page 7

LAUGHTER FROM N.Z.

AVI IMCIUiBS TALK AVJTH THE ANITLPOIDE6. 2AVJ COMEDY. (London. Daily Express.) WI HELENS STATION 2AVJ, Dec. 6. AYe have just discoursed with New Zealand learnedly, if briefly, on the subject of work, from this station, much to the amusement o-f the transmitter on the other side of the vtoild, who is enjoying light and laughter, in the sunshine of .summer, while England is growling its way through the tiWilght fogs of winter. New Zealand 2AC. of Gisborne. North Island, was the distant operator, and his 1 laughter, expressed hy the Morse abbreviation “Hi” was fiendish when lie was told that life here was the reverse of life in the land ol perpetual English summer. Amusement. Romance and mystery both lurk in the strange scientific marvel ot long'd i-ta nee communication on short wave lengths and low power. Comedy, however .is the one thing that obtrudes, itself a.s .soon as a transmitter is in touch with a fellow mortal in some lardistant corner of the world. Communicating with New Zealand, lor instance, seems to be so tunny a proceeding in its defiance of the usual boundaries that all the other canons of behaviour in the conduct ot a conversation give way to the onslaught of Gargantuan laughter. AYe connected with NZ2AO about 7.10 a.i11., and carried out tests of impel lance to future work here, that lasted until S. 10 a. m. “it is now ten minutes past eight,” our operator warned NZ2AO, “and 1 must switch oil to catch a train to London. Work (alls.” New Zealand was I rankly, ribald.

“lli! Hi!” came his laughter. “I have finished my work lor the day. Hope you will enjoy yourself Tli!” Hi> time was 7.10 p.iii.. approximately the same day.

New Time Machine.

Our world turned topsy-turvy lor a while. We saw ourselves masters ol a new time machine, which at a touch would annihilate lime and space. A collection ol the weirdest instruments in a sound-proof room, an array of glouing valves. or “bottle*. ’ as all soil-respecting' amateurs call them, a maze of wires, some of which hold instant death in their snake-like grasp, a flashing neon tube, energised with liigli-1 1 equency currents, and the intermittent buzz ol our signals, bad transported us through time to an age we hail not cxnei ienccd. A\'e were eleven and a half bonus older tor a little. The next puzzle was, had our signals travelled east, or west to New Zealand. - ' II they haul travelled east they had made a journey ol 11 ,(.100 liples over sea and land, going nearly all the way in daylight. If they had gone to the westward. ti a versing America. and making the vast sea voyage in almost negligible time, they had travelled liciti ly all the way iti total darkness across a distance ot. roughly. 14.000 miles.

AA’e listened this morning to stations in Biazil. America. South Africa, the Argentine. Australia, and Cairo.