MARCONI AND THE MONOPOLISTS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7383, 8 February 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

MARCONI AND THE MONOPOLISTS

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ACROSS

THE ATLANTIC.

The best proof that the Cable Companies believe t~at Signor Marconi has solved the problem of Avireless telegraphy across the Atlantic, and that the Avireless system Avill before long prove a formidable riA'al to the cable systems, is the miserably mean action taken by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. That Company, Avhich enjoys a fifty years monopoly of telegraphic communication in NeAvfoundland, Avhich has still tAvo years to run, has declined to alloAv Signor Marconi to engage on any further Avork at present, and has given him notice to stop his experiments and remove his appliances from the colony. If the Company had nothing to fear from his competition, and believed that his system was not adapted for practical commercial purposes, it Avould surely have encouraged him to continue his scientific experiments. In Aiew of its action the man in the street attaches little importance to the glib assurances of the Cable Companies here mat the "S's" he receiAed by means of his kite and delicate receiving instruments from his long distance station near the Lizard Avere probably "electric strays" due to disturbances in earth or air, that the wireless system could never affect cable AA-ork because of its lack of secrecy, its slmvness, its irregularity, and that though the "Avireless" might be very pretty science, it Avas not business. Cautious critics, including Sir William Preece, are cynical of the success of Signor Marconi's experiment, and attribute the series of S's to electric strays, S. and R. being the letters most frequently signalled as the result of disturbances in the earth and air. But Signor Marconi knoAVs at least as much about telegraphy as his critics, and should be the last person in the world to be misled by atmospheric disturbances. He himself has declared his confidence that his tests Avere in no way thus affected.

The Eastern Telegraph Company has suggested that the inventor should make a trial upon commercial lines. "Take from Gibraltar to Tangier, a Aery nasty place in Avhich to maintain a cable because ofthe current. " It is ahvays breaking. Let him try his system there, and if it be proved a commercial success -there

are other portions of our system, where it, might be serviceable. .But we should like to see it actually working, and commercially a success first."

But if when Signor Marconi's system is still in its infancy, the fir3t of his trans-oceanic experiments, which is purely scientific, is blocked by a Cable Company, we may be pretty certain that against a "trial onr commercial lines" will be arrayed all the forces of monopoly. Signor Marconi's progress in this country has been checked by the PostmasterGeneral's monppoly. That official, who as history shows, has thrown every obstacle in the way of improvements in communication, whether by district messenger, telephone, telegraph, has refused Signor Marconi a Jicense. The Postmaster-General's monopoly extends to the transmission of messages within the territorial waters of the United Kingdom. Ships within the three mile limit cannot communicate with the shore without an infringement of this monopoly, bnt ships beyond the three mile limit may signal to. stations inland, and upon this basis and that of communication between ships and ships, and across seas and oceans, that the Marconi business is now being done. Anyone who has any experience of post office ways here can easily realise now protracted and heart-breaking the struggle for the adoption of the Marconi system for inland telegraphy will be, long after its practical efficiency has been proved to be undotibted. Every new invention is at first imperfect, but the marvellous success which Marconi's system has achieved since he was invited in 1896 by Sir Wm. Preece to send messages across the Bristol Channel justifies us in believing the inventor's anticipations that in the near future even more marvellous results will be obtained. The success of the installations set up in IS9B between the Smith Foreland and the East Goodwin light-ship, and the South ' Foreland and Wimereux in France was followed by an extensive use of the system during- the naval manoeuvres in 1899, and in the course of the Duke of York's voyage to the colonies .the utility of the system was strikingly demonstrated.

The Newfoundland people will not be too well pleased at Signor Marconi's tieparture, bag and baggage, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to continue his experiments. It was only by an accident that Signor Marconi went to Newfoundland at all.

The Marconi Company about a year ago decided to put up very large stations at a cost of £14,000 each at Cape Cod (Mass.) and near the Lizard, Cornwall. The stations consisted of heavy machinery and tAv.enty poles 210 ft high, supporting- a large number of vertical wires. The station in Cornwall was practically destroyed during the heavy gale that occurred in September, and was only partially renewed. It will not be completely repaired for another two or three months. The Cape Cod station was also damaged recently. However, bignor Marconi decided to see whether, with the machinery in Cornwall that had escaped damage, it was possible to obtain signals at St. John's from England. His essay has proved successful, and Major, Flood l J age, the Marconi Company's representative here, has informed the public that preparations had been made in England and America for many months for a complete installation, and it would now be proceeded with by the light of experience gained. In his opinion the transmission of messages across the Atlantic word for word Avas a matter of the immediate future. The general manager of the Company shares the same view and has said: "The enormous commercial value of wireless telegraphy over so great a distance from the Lizard to St. John's will be at once recognised when it is realised that V a cable costs about £750,000, and that its maintenance and depreciation are necessarily expensive. The cost of a wireless installation is almost a, negligible quantity. The strategic value of being able in time of war to telegraph between two points separated by great distances with hostile territory intervening is obvious. We intend to proceed with the installation of trans-Atlantic wireless telegraphy, and there is practically no limit to the number of messages that can- be exchanged at the same time between the station which, probably, will remain in Cornwall, and the one to be established on this side of the Atlantic."

There is a popular impression in England, says a Avriter in the "Daily Express," that Edison never really invents anything, but that a man named G-übbins, Avho gets 30/ a Aveek, is concealed someAvhere in his .factory, and makes the inventions clandestinely. The same thing, by the Avay, is said of every great man — Shakespeare didn't Avrite Shakespeare, and Alfred Austin's masterpieces are the Avork of his knife-and-boots boy. But Avhether Edison is a personal inventor or is merely the business manager of a herd of tame geniuses, he operates an invention factory, and Aye say to him that, Aye shall feel obliged if he will shelvo electricity for a Avhile and attend to this urgent shirt-stud matter. At present the stud-maker as making his studs as small as possible so as to saA'e metal, and the shirt-maker is boring the button-holes as large as possible so as to save linen.