ROMANCE OF WIRELESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19390, 27 July 1926, Page 12

ROMANCE OF WIRELESS.

TELEVISION IN TWO YEARS. ENDLESS OTHER POSSIBILITIES. LECTURE BY MR. G. Mcß. SALT. In two years, perhaps less, it is probable the .privilege of sitting in one's home and witnessing a scene enacted hundreds of miles away will be available to owners of radio sets equipped with television apparatus. This was the assurance Mr. G. Mcß. Salt gave the large audience who attended his public lecture last evening on "The Romance of Wireless," delivered under the auspices of the Auckland Institute.

"It might mean that people will never go out of their homes at night—they will bo able to see, as well as hear, the best of talent in the home circle," was the prediction with which the chairman, Mr. E. V. Miller, supplemented the romances, past, present and future, outlined by the lecturer.

In tracing the progress of wireless from the mathematical discoveries of Clark Maxwell in 1863 and' the later revelations of Hertz in 1887, Mr. Salt said that while the popular idea that Marconi "invented" wireless was unfounded, to him was due the credit of discovering the" etirth principle, and of placing the science on the commercial basis that had brought, it to its present stage.

Tho meaning of wave-lengths was explained, Mr. Salt giving a broad illustration of the principle of wireless by comparing it with the effect on a leaf in a pond of waves set in motion by the dropping of a stone in the water.

New Zealand had played an important part in one great development of wire-less-broadcasting. Although he worked in a small way, Professor Jack's experiments in Dunedin early in 1921 were among the first broadcasting efforts in the world. The United States now led the world in commercial radio, but it was not until 1922 that their first station, KDKA, was operating. "England lagged behind in high-power stations," Mr. Salt added, "but a new station that has been erected at Rugby has made up for that. It is the last word in this class of experiment." New Zealand, too, he predicted, would make tremendous advances in the near future.

Mr. Salt made soma spectacular experiments with electrical sets.

After the lecture Mr. White "tuned in" on a specially-erected receiving set which, within a quarter-of-an-hour brought to the ears of the audience Auckland items, a performance of Faust at Melbourne, a lecture on photography, in Sydney, a missionary address in Brisbane and a jazz item in Dunedin, "Oh, Those Wonderful Nights in the Woods," one of the lighter selections that was a favourite in the programmes of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders' Band at the Exhibition. At times the reception was marred by static, which, incidentally, the lecturer had stated there was little hope of eliminaing, although the best brains in the wireless world were working on the problem. He also expressed doubt concerning the recent statement of an American expert that " fading," • another bugbear of radio, had been, or could be, eliminated.

"There are vast possibilities, almost beyond the imagination," said Mr. Salt. "This science has made greater progress than any discovery since the stone age."