REMARKABLE INVENTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19567, 21 February 1927, Page 11

REMARKABLE INVENTION.

AN INVISIBLE LIGHT, ILLUMINATION OF OBJECTS. EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyrigki. ®«ceiTed Feb, 20, 5.-5S p.m.? . A. and N.Z. LONDON. Feb 13. I j Mr. John L. Baird. oi Giasgcw. a - 1 leading research student in connection j -prith television, announces that wide- : { spread international interest has been i | aroused in his invention of the '"telei visor." The countries interested include i I America, Germany and France, ■ | In consequence Mr. Baird is ccn- » S structing a full-sized model of his new , | '"black light." This consists of a 1 powerful ray like a searchlight. It is i | invisible in darkness yet brilliantly ilium--1 j mates anything on which it is. thrown. 2 t The light even penetrates fog. Mr. Baird claims that he will be able s] to pick out aeroplanes., at a height ot : {"6oooft. abo?e- London. : v-' j ; 1 Mr. J. L Eaird, the young inventor of ; i the "televisor.*' on December 31 enabled 5 | members of the Royal Institution to see j each other in the dark. The Daily 1.1 Telegraph said'at the time: In January, " | 1326. Mr. Baird had proved _ the possii bilitv of reproducing at a distance, bv J -wire" or -,ri reless, the face of a ma a who > ! sat before his transmitter. To achieve . i that result he had studied the problem j for 15 years. The demonstration at the j Royal Institution suggests that the past ' ! year's experiments have been more imit- ■ j fui than all that went before them. In January, 1926, "television" was an int j teresting scientific fact, with a pro[blemaiical commercial future; to-day it I is an instrument of great potential value, i i both for peace ar.d ■srar. I \rtued' with the perfected televisor, a ' ] belligerent could see his enemy in the j ] dark" without "givins away" his own 1 | position i a motorist could pierce the J thickest fog. and the navigator of a ship j t j need never be blinded by the mist. And, j I ! like so many other inventions of supreme j I utility, this wonderful gift to the world j : j came almost by accident: in seeking to j i I eliminate what was regarded as- a de- j s I feci in the earlier televisor the inventor : }• wrc-aght better than ewu. he had aatici- J i pated. A few months ago the image j 1 could only be transmitted it it Wis j placed in a powerful tight, "Subjects''' j •so treated complained that the light .hurt j their eyes. Mr. Baird worked on in the j hope of removing this objection, and , eventually found success in a " bght " j that cannot be seen at. all. That iight—the "black" light—con- .. sists of the infra-red rays, which., although invisible to human eyes, react as strongly upon Mr. Bai.rd's light-sensi-tive cells as did the powerful incandescent lamps.. Every movement ' made by the "subject,'"' sitting..in the dark, is reproduced across" the .wire upon. . a screen? and if a- telephone be substituted for the screen the face can actually be "heard." Well-marked features make a harsh, rasping sound: a smooth pretty face makes what one hearer has termed 1 a sibilant care.ss. A little practice en- : able? one to identify a specific "face in , the dark" by its sound. Many of the almost limitless possibilities of such an ; invention must be obvious to everyone. ; Mr Baird. the televisor's inventor, -who is a "son of the Manse,** was educated at Glasgow University, and by profession is au electrical engineer.