SEEING BY RADIO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18949, 21 February 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

SEEING BY RADIO.

TRANSMITTED PICTURES

BY MAT A VGA

llic arrival of l'lettner's rotor ship in ►Scotland arouses speculation as to what she looks like. It is all very well to read descriptions ot her revolving cylinders, hut what, sort (if show does she make upon the water, this .sailing vessel without sails that Dr. Anton Flettner has set afloat ? Do her tall cylinders give her the appearance of a many-funnelled steamer, or looks she like nothing else on earth? Scottish eyes sec her for themselves; ours never may. 'there is photography, of course; hut the chance of profiting by that is just a chance, alter all. Why cannot we see across the world. Oh, this thing called distance! It baffles our curiosity, which persists in urging that "seeing is believing." But. we need not, despair. Tf we live a little longer on this very wonderful planet —not at all the had place that the croakers growl about—-we shall surely have eyes to see right across and round it. Radio eyes, they will be called. Already we might have seen that cunning little schooner Buckau as she lay in Firth of Forth after her voyage from the Kibe, had we used radios recent application of photography. A few weeks back, London sent to New \ork a picture of a large steamer sunk in British waters, sent it at the same, time that the cable told of her sinking. So it came about that readers of the New York Times on the first. Monday of December last found beside the news of the sinking a picture of the vessel. And the men who accomplished this are sure that, in a very short time—in a few months, perhaps—we shall bo seeing by radio, with our eyes in the ends of the earth. Recent Achievements. I his goes one better than Bella my. In Looking Backward " radio broadcasting was anticipated. The turn of a dial brought from afar a musical programme just as the listener chose. But even an author whose main idea was vision into other times did not light upon the idea of simultaneous vision of things afar oft, or t.'se thought it too preposterous for even his bit of very speculative fiction. But : .i is here. On a night towards the close of lastyear two American radio achievements came to pass. The Radio Corporation of America transmitted across the Atlantic nearly a dozen pictures. The sending and receiving apparatus was developed by one of the company's engineers, Captain Richard H. Ranger. That same night Mr. C. Francis Jenkins, using his own invention, sent by radio from Washington to Boston the picture of a written message. Both inventors admit that improvementsare necessary in their methods before they become practicable commercially, but neither of them has any doubt that a regular service of picture-transmission across the Atlantic will be possible shortly, and Mr. Jenkins promises radiomovies before very long. Why not ? Our scepticism is held in leash bv memories of what has been done already in the realm of radio ; to say nothing of other fields. Lessons in Faith. The man who, looking upon the first railway locomotive, said it would never go, and, when it did start, was equally positive that it couldn't stop, died long ago, and his family is fast dying out. People laughed at Bell's telephone not many years since: to-day they can't get fast enough through the waiting list to the installing of an instrument in their own homes. There were three funny little horseless carriages in a road race outside Chicago in 1896 and they were the mock of even Yankees, proud of their smartness. Now the United States,' " automobiles", average out at one for every seven people,— men, women, and children—or is it every six? Quito likely six, for it was seven] a month or so back, and " Henry," with some others, is wonderfully busy. We can, most of us, well recall the first beavier-than-air machine that made any show of flying; now—but everybody knows. When it comes to laughing at radio ] movies, at seeing the friends to whom I wo talk by long-distance 'phone, at sitting I by the fireside or lying in sick bay and ] cheering ourselves with peeps at what is going on in the outside world, well, we'd | be wise to do the laughing in private, otherwise we might spend most of our remaining days in a privacy found for us. | A Marvel ol Inventiveness. The speed with which radio's improvements have been made is too rapid to j leave room for much doubt as to this j next development. First, there was a ] practical use in speech between ship and j shore. Then came transoceanic communication. Soon broadcasting followed. I Now transmission of photographs and other pictures. To moving pictures is not a long step. Then, a great deal of the disability and inconvenience that come with queues and tnlka- | t.ive strangers, and other pests nearly as | bad, will vanish. Perhaps home life will j come back to bless the nations. Business, too, will be aided. Contracts j could bo transmitted in facsimile. An j Auckland business man, for instance, j

could sign a contract, a likeness of which could be shot to London for signature of "the party of the second part, " and the document could be. in execution before nightfall. Radio pictures will make easier the transmission of intricate statistics and columns of figures. The sending of columns of figures either by cable or radio frequently is a difficult matter. There are chances of errors in transmission and reception, and figures may be omitted or put in the wrong columns. Such possibilities for error would be eliminated by transmitting a facsimile of the original figures. Crime and Fashion. In crime detection and identification of criminals, a new certainty and enlarged range would come by this new means. The suspected perpetrator of a crime in London might be arrested in Auckland, whence his photograph and finger-prints could be sent at once to England for identification. Even now, despite the sketchiness of the process, Captain Hanger thinks it possible to transmit, finger-prints in a much-enlarged form by wireless. Leaders and followers of the fashions are concerned in this new development. The immediate duplication of Paris styles is a possibility that has been seized upon by rival business houses in New York. There is great competition for first-hand information, and when the December experiments were in progress the head of one of the most enterprising firms applied to the Tiadio Corporation for photo-radio-grams of Parisian models. He said that, with a photograph of the latest style, he could turn out New York copies for sale by the time that a fast ocean liner brought pictures and drawings of Paris dresses or the actual garments. Whether this be a real gain or no may be left to others' contending Whatever the uses to which it may be put, the radio picture will surely transform the world anew. If, will bring scenes crowding to one's eyes and arive others greater opportunity to see us. Put,, as for the multiplying _ liVures. there is the fact that we needn't peep, and if we must be seen, well, there is the refuge of good behaviour, even if \re have no good looks.