“FATAL” RADIO WAVES

Hawera Star, Volume L, 17 May 1930, Page 11

“FATAL” RADIO WAVES

SCI ENT 1 ST’S AMAZING THEORY

Thu startliing theory lias been advanced bv a Canadian scientist that radio concert waves may in certain 'circumstances, be responsible for fatal results. The cynic might pretend not bo be: surprised. I It was in .an endeavour to ascertain the cause .of four mysterious deaths in a Toronto hospital that Sir George Filmer, the scientist in question, hit upon this “death lurking in a song’’ theory. According to the Paris edition of an American newspaper (quoted by the “Central News’’) the four patients were brought into the operating theatre and were given ether before the opera- '

lion. Simultaneously a radio station near by was .sending out a concert programme. The theory advanced by Sir George is that the fumes from the ether formed | direct contacts witli the lamps and other electrical apparatus over the operating tables, and that the electrical apparatus was thus able to pick up the various waves from the radio station and pass them through the rising ether fumes into the bodies of the persons about to be operated upon.

The store reads like > ihinly-veiled hoax, but ‘with delightful naivete the message adds that “the Ontario Medical Association is holding a special| meeting to hear the scientist expound i his idea.” _ I When a, representative of the “Daily Telegraph” sought enliglitment at the St. Bartholomews Hospital recently he was received with a very broad smile.

The, tape message winch conveyed' the the news- was lett with the medical stuff in order that they might ponder and discuss it over the luncheon table. Their verdict, delivered after due deliheration, was that they “can not conceive such a thing possible. At the 8.8.G'. the verdict of the ongineers was ©veil more omplicvtic. “Utter nonsense’’ was their terse summary The power in radio tia.us-mi-S----sion* they no in ted out, was so infinitesimal that it could never cause or contribute to the death of anyone. Someone was even bold enough] to suggest that if the electrical apparatus referred to happened to be an X-ray equipment it might provide an alternai tive explanation of the ofur deaths. i It would seem, therefore, that radio, I although credited with many short- ! comings, often quite unjustifiably, is not to be saddled with the power of execution.