EDISON'S DENUNCIATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19512, 16 December 1926, Page 18

EDISON'S DENUNCIATION.

MR. GERNS3AGK REPLIES. GREAT AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT. by thermion. Mr. Thomas A. Edison has recently been quoted in the American press as saying that radio is a dismal failure. Mr. Edison is reported as having made the following remarks; " The radio -is a commercial failure, and its popularity with the public is waning. Radio is impractical commercially and aesthetically distorted, and is losing its grip rapidly in the market and in the home. As for its music—it is awful. Static is awful, and the difficulty of tuning out—and now they are stealing each other's wave-lengths. It is. too bad that the radio has to be so crmplicated." A reply to the opinions of Mr. Edison has been given by Mr. Hugo Genisback, and part ol his remarks are quoted below as indicating the popularity of radio with the American listeners. t " Kather than waning in popularity," states Mr. Gernsback, " it is well known that radio is on the constant increase. .Witness, for instance, the recent third aruiual Radio World's Fair., in New York, where the attendance for the week was 228,000. The sales of radio apparatus for the United States alone will roach £104,000,000 tor 1926. The figures for former years are given here: 1922, £9,300,000; 1923, £24,000,000; 1924, '£70,000,000; 1925, £89,800,000. These are uoi mere estimates, but actual figuresThe fact is that the popularity of radio is iaccomiiig steadily greater rather than less, and no home to-day is considered complete without its radio set." The astounding growth and popularity of broadcasting in America is amply demonstrated by Mr Gernsback. With novelty infused into broadcast programmes it is safe to say that comparatively few listeners will give up readily such a simple and fascinating source of home entertainment as may be provided by listening-in, LONG VERSUS SHORT WAVES. A discussion on the relative values ot long and short waves in wireless communication was held at a recent meeting of the Radio Society of Great Britain and present-day conclusions, as summarised by the chairman, Dir. W. H. Eccles, are extremely interesting. "It is now about Gve years," said Dr. Eccles, " since the use of short waves for long distances began to attract the enthusiastic attention t-f amateur invi»stigators. At the end of 1922 the Pittsburg broadcasting station KDKA was transmitting on a wave-bngth between 90 and 100 metres and tin's gaviS amateurs all over the United States au opportunity of studying short-wave transmission conveniently. Before that date the genera! experience with, short waves was that they were only really useful for short distances; when they did get through to long .distances the performance was known as freak transmission: "We have now had twenty years' experience of long waves and four years of short waves, in long-distance radio telegraphy. For very long waves, say lover 15,000 metres, the facts are relatively simple; these waves travel almost equally well by day and night and the •distance to which good signals caii be transmitted depends merely on the power employed. But waves of medium length, Bay 1000 metres, are different, they travel much better by night than by day. In both cases the strength of the signals . falls off steadily as distance increases, at any rate' after the first few hundred milesj and, therefore, to send signals to the Antipodes for twenty-four hpurs; in jtha daytime requires 1000 kilowatts or more and very long waves."- . SHORT-WAYS PHENOMENA. Dr. Eccles went on to state that the ire suits of four years' experience of short graves, that is waves shorter than 200 jnetxes, had been summarised iby a number of American technical men and the general results for a power of 5000 watts is as follows:—In the daytime a wave of 100 metres long can bo picked op as far as 200 miles away; a 50-metre wave* at 100 miles; a wave 30 metres long can. be picked up at all distances up to 50 miles, and is inaudible at. .points between 50 and 503 miles, yet is audible again at all distances between 500 and 1500 miles. The space over which the signals are inaudible forms a circular silent zone over which the signals jump; this is called the "skip.'". Shorter waves have a longer skip For instance, 15-metre waves cease to ba audible at 10 miles, skip 1500 miles and are then audible with some ■ uncertainty up to 3000 miles. At night, time in winter the 100-metre wave of the 5000 watt station had been heard at all distances up to 8000 miles and the 50-m«t-re wave up to 10,000 miles. The 40-metre wave skips 500 miles and goes at all distances beyond!. The 30-metre wave skips 4000 miles, the 20-metre wave 7000 miles and both are heard at all distances beyond. But the 15-metre wave, after travelling a few miles, skips off the earth for good., Similar things happen on summer nights, but the skip is less ma.rked. As a broad rule, after the skip the signals for a time get stronger the farther you go—an amazing conclusion. With the short waves, excessive fading of the signals may be experienced. The rate of fading may be slow or may be as quick as 10C> times a second. " These phenomena occasionally make radio telephony impossible because of distortion. Ihis was particularly noticeable in the recent broadcast test to New Zealand on 63 metres from KDKA. HOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. *' the whole mass of scientific observations now' available in technical literature, I conclude," states Dr. Eccles, ."that short waves are certainly more asefnl than long waves for distances np to 1000 miles. Beyond this distance the relative utility of short and long waves depends upon the kind of work to be done and the time when it is done. Amateur investigators, will always find the short waves vastly more interesting and much' cheaper to instal than the long waves for the purposes of international communication. For commercial purposes countries that need to be in touch for only a few hours daily will also adopt short waves. On the other hand, a commercial firm which is running a long-distance service in competition with cables will find the long waves more generally trustworthy. In such a service it is often necessary to ensure the delivery of messages within a very limited time of handing them in. In that case, long waves are best during certain hours of the day and will be used even though the plant is more costly But there is the possibility that in the coarse of time, method* of changing from one short wave to r.njther exactly as atmospheric conditions demand, may be developed, and that will put the short wave on a level with the long wave, but may, of course, at the same time make the short-wave plant as costly as the longwave plant." SUGGESTIONS. FOR BROADCASTING. During the course of a reply to the re- °! a deputation of Wellington radio Te.Wvt u Secretary of the Post and stat.& ♦ Pu part i n ? ent > Mr - McNamara, tha<, vs-t, v. • c , nt, 'cism in the daily press •w-SUF&'rM '■"•J"*did not tend tr! destructive, and Hte «t, the coirrarm^ 1 either the Govern-sasa-sc*-

lions has been attacked frequently by various radio correspondents and the obvious remedy indicated, but available information shows that the department has been unwilling to admit any mistake on its part and to lake the simple steps to improve the position. The writer has taken vigorous exception to the interference caused by radiating receiving sets and has pointed out the only solution to the problem, a drastic one perhaps, which would, however, entail no great hardship to the listener. The criticism in this direction has been entirely' constructive. Concerning the broadcasting services, it must be admitted that there has been destructive criticism, but almost without exception it has been accompanied by suggestions for improvement. ■ For instance, extensive use of relay transmissions has been urged, and, as a result increased activity in this direction has been shown at the local broadcasting station. We have not heard anything better than the broad casting of the municipal band concerts on Sunday evenings and with the conclusion of the municipal concerts in the Town Hal! for the season, it is to be hoped .that arrangements can be made to broadcast the Wednesday concerts in Albert Park. It is understood that the performance of the "Messiah" in the Town Hall this evening is to be relayed and broadcast, and this, combined with relayed Items on Tuesday evening, is making for considerable improvement in the local service. Other items we should like to see on the evening programmes are addresses by distinguishd visitors and occasional short and pithy lecturettes on topical subjects. Such lecturettes may be made extremely acceptable to listeners provided they are not made too frequent, GENEEAL NOTES AND HINTS. Atmospheric conditions were exception, ally good on Tuesday night and the Sydney station, 2BL, was heard in Auckland with excellent strength. Static was absent and howling valves were less in evidence I than they have been for months past. ; Musi <> from 2FC, Sydney, and 4QG, Brisbane, was also heard at fair strength. The signals from 2BL were Fading slightly and their loudness was at times equal to that obtainable during the winter. A radio map machine, operating on the Jenkins' picture transmission system, is now in use daily broadcasting* weather charts from a United States station, lests carried out on several vessels have proved successful. The Imperial beam service to South Africa has been opened. The Indian service is scheduled to begin this month mid the Australian in January. A possibility that the wireless transmission of power might still be achieved was hinted at by Marconi during the course of a recent lecture. "I hope you will not think me too visionary," he remarked, "if I say that it may be possible that some day electric waves may bo used for the transmission of power over moderate distances should we succeed in perfecting devices for projecting the waves in parallel beams in such a manner as to minimise the dispersion and diffusion of . energy into space." One of the oldest crystal detectors is that in which the mineral carborundum is used and there seems to be a general impression that it can only be used in conjunction with a battery and a potentiometer. While it is unquestionably true that this addition makes considerable increase to its sensitivity when dealing with weak signals, it should be realised that, for short-distance work, this crystal can be used without any local battery, and is capable of giving strong signals when supplied with a sufficiently great input. Reliability is one of its greatest advan- ; tages. . The turnover of the exhibitors at the Radio World's Fair held in New York in September is estimated at £20,000,000. There are between 12,000,000 and 15,000,000 radio sets in operation throughout the world, according to the electrical equipment division of the United States Denartrnent of Commerce. The aerial tower of the Berlin breadcasting station has some novel features. Tt has a total height of 453 ft. and like tlhe Eiffel Tower it is self-snpportine. The tower has been designed to answer a double purpose, for in addition to supporting the broadcasting aerial, it is to be used as ah outlook tower and as an aerial restaurant. At a height of 150 ft. a restaurant, has been built into the tower and can accomodate 200 diners. At the top there is a revolving searchlight to act as a useful guide to aircraft approaching Berlin. Just below the searchlight is a platform to which visitors are taken by a lift for ten persons. From this platform a very fine view of the city is obtained nonncer at IYA since its official opening Mr. R. J. Craijn, who has been nn- ! in Aucrust. has left the service of the broadcasting company. .He will carry with him the sood wishes of listeners for his future career.