FIFTY YEARS’ PROGRESS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 147, 6 June 1936, Page 9

FIFTY YEARS’ PROGRESS

The Growth of Radio Broadcasting 8.8. C. SETS EXAMPLE Twenty-five years ago the practical application of the science of radio broadcasting could hardly have been said to have been in its infancy—it was unknown. To-day its operations reach every corner of the globe, and daily bring the remotest habitation into touch with the currents of the world, giving to millions of people tho fruits of a discovery as startling and momentous as any that tho world has known. Tho birth of wireless as we know it to-day was not in Great Britain, but tho first wireless signalling company was formed in England, and tho Mother Country has taken a very important part in tho development of the science, and the operations of the British Broadcasting Corporation have been taken as a model in other countries. A comprehensive and very interesting outline of the history of wireless is contained in tho arniversary supplement of the Christchurch “Press,” special stress being placed on the progress made during the past fifty years or so. Tlie birth of radio is closely associated with the development of electrical science generally. The enormous service which electricity as we know it today gives to the world had its origins in tho remote and obscure civilisation of tho East. It is known that more than £(>00 B.C , the Chinese had found a stone with magnetic properties which they used for the direct’ou-finding purposes of the modern compass. This stone was undoubtedly iron ore. Later, in the early days of Western civilisation, the Greeks were interested in certain phenomena, and 500 years B.C. the sages of that country were writing about tho attraction properties of amber, which had been rubbed with silk. Then Aristole discovered curious properties in a certain fish which people to-day kuow to bo capable cf giving au electric shock to those who touch it. GROWTH OF INTEREST. Electrical science made practically no progress from, the time of the Greeks until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Then scientists in various countries began to give particular attention to the mysterious phenomena which tho Chinese and the Greeks had noticed. From then, brilliant scientists of all nations devoted themselves to the problems of electricity, and at frequent intervals valuable contributions were made. The extensive study which has been given to electricity is indicated by the nationalities of the great men in its history. There were the Italians, Volta and Galvani; the French, Coulomb and Ampere; the Germans, Ohm and Herta; the Scandinavian Rontgen; the Englishmen, Joule, Faraday, and Daly; the Scot, Watt; and the Americans, Franklin and Edison. It may be said that the birth of wireless as it is known to-day took place in the laboratory of Heinrich Hertz, in 1867. Hertz discovered that when an electric spark was produced, energy radiated into the surrounding space. If a loop of wire was placed some yards away from the apparatus producing the spark, and the ends of this wire were brought close together, a second spark would jump across the gap, although there were no connecting wires between the two pieces of apparatus. The existence of these waves had been predicted about 10 years before by the English mathematician, James Maxwell, and he had even stated the velocity at which these waves travelled, but it was not until Hertz made his experiments that the waves were actually detected and mca. sured. But it was some years after Hertz’s discoveries before this knowledge was developed on a practical basis. MARCONI’S WORK. This came when a few men, such as Lodge, Muirhead, and Marconi, saw the immense possibilities of a method by which signals could be sent without connecting wires, and they set themselves the task of adapting wireless waves to telegraphic communication. It was Marconi, a young Italian experimenter, who was to take the leading part in utilising the discovery commercially. H e had been studying the new waves in Italy, and from the knowledge ho had gained had actually built radio sets which he had been able to use in a small way at home. However, his conceptions of radio development were extremely bold, and it soon appeared to him that his amateur signalling had great commercial possibilities. He went to England, and in June, 1896, the first wireless patent was filed. A year later the first wireless signalling company was formed. With the co-operation of the army, the navy, and the Post Office demonstrations were arranged, and although there was a great deal of public scepticism, rapid developments followed. Before long, messages had been broadcast and picked up over a distance of 14 miles, an achievement which naturally gripped the imagination of the whole world. Bv 1899, reception had been increased to nearly 200 miles. This brought confusion to the sceptics, ami intelligent people began Io realise that discoveries had been made which offered enormous possibilities. FIRST BIG CONTRACT. Thirty-six years ago, the first big wireless contract was signed with tho British Navy, and in April, 1900, the Marconi’s Wireless Telegraphic Company was termed. However, to establish definitely bis theories, Marconi decided to attempt transmission across the Atlantic from what was then the world’s only high-powered station, Poldhu, in Cornwall With two assistants, Paget and Kemp, Marconi went to Newfoundland to pick up this first trans-Atlantic transmission. The receiving aerial used was raised by kites, and it was arranged that there should be sent from Poldhu the letter “s” at regular intervals, from December 11. 1901, for 1 some days. On December 12 Marconi

picked up distinctly the three dots of the letter “s” and thus was the Atlantic bridged by the new power. This made the whole world acknowledge that a new era in communication had begun. Two years later it was possible for tho president of tho United States to send a wireless message to the King of England, and during tho same year “The Times” published the first radio Press message. It is now a little more than 24 years since the first telegraphic service was opened across the Atlantic, and during those years the modern wonders _ of broadcasting and wireless communication generally have become possible. Marconi continued to apply himself consistently to the development of the problems he had already gone so far to solvo. His improved magnetic detector increased the range of reception enormously, and be discovered that signals travel better by night than by day. SAVING LIFE AT SEA. A tremendous impetus was given to tho cause of radio when it was used for the first time for tho assistance of man at sea. Jn 1909, for instance, when the s.s. Republic was sunk in the Atlantic, more than 200 Jives were saved through wireless appeals. Again, three years later, when the Titanic camo to disaster there was a similar saving of life Many brilliant men have been attracted by the importance of the science. Perhaps the men to whom tho world owes the most for its knowledge of radio are Hertz, for his early and somewhat theoretical discoveries; Edison, for his invention of the glowlamp in 1883, which was in fact the first wireless valve ever made, although it was not actually made for that purpose; Marconi, for his many contributions and tremendous application to tho subject in its practical developments ; Fleming, for his application in 190-1 of a valve consisting of a hot filament and plate to the detection of wireless waves, and De Forest, who first introduced the triode valve. Some idea of the rapid development of the science will be gathered from the fact that the modern wireless service can handle messages of more than 400 words a minute to any part of the world, and this is regarded by eminent men as merely a beginning.