RADIO DEVELOPMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 7 (Supplement)

RADIO DEVELOPMENT

USE OF MICRO-RAYS Micro-rays, which use wave-lengths below one metre, will shortly revolutionise the development, of commercial radio. The aerial used on this new service is only three inches in length. For more than two months secret experiments, supervised by Senator Marconi, have bsen carried out from the Marconi building on the Thames Embankment in London to a mobile receiving station somewhere in Kent.

" Senator Marconi has already transmitted messages successfully for 180 miles by this micro-ray system," said an official of the company recently. " Economy in operation is one of its main features. The power to run a transmitting station is no greater than that required to light an electric bulb. " The new system will be of particular use between railway, police or ambulance stations. Commercial undertakings could be similarly connected to their branches in the provinces. Another development is in television. The new system is particularly suitable for the transmission of pictures. Senator Marconi has already made successful experiments. The results have been astounding in their clarity. Pictures oft. square have been received. At present the home television screen is less than Ift. square. " The new rays are not affected, either by atmospherics or fog, and messages sent from one transmitting station to another cannot be ' tapped.' Senator Marconi believes that in a few years the present high wave-lengths will have disappeared. With the new low wavelength atmospherics —the enemy of broadcast reception—are eliminated." WEATHER AND HEALTH Where marked changes in weather occur daily and yearly, the best health is found. Dr. William T. Johnson, of the University of Pennsylvania, says that people are healthier in such climates, but that they must become accustomed to the stimulating changes. To derive full benefit from the varying weather, people should not rely too much upon the protection of clothing, but on the protection which comes from ■within the body. People nre temperatureconscious, Dr. Johnson points out, and they provide themselves with fur coats, overcoats, topcoats, clothing of varying weights, sandals, overshoes, goloshes, boots, sweaters, with and without sleeves, and other special clothing. Instead of relying on a big assortment of this kind, people would be healthier if they would permit the physiological regulatory mechanism within the body to protect them, and accustom themselves to the stimulating influence of cold air and winds.

WIND RESISTANCE TESTS Wind tunnel experiments sponsored by the Canadian National Railways may lend to a new type of steam locomotive. having lessened wind resistance, smarter design and clearer vision from the engine cab. The smoke stream from a locomotive of the present type tends to sweep downwards, at times impairing the outlook of the driver. This is due to the eddying wind flow which clings to a locomotive *" travelling at high speed. The experiments already show that only slight modification in design will lessen wind resistance by 35 per cent, and introduce a layer of clean air under the smoke ribbon, thus lifting it high above the cab and train. This would render side guards, smoke deflectors and the placing of devices around the smoke stack as obsolete.

BALLOONS AND UPPER AIR When Professor Auguste Piccard, of Brussels University, made his second balloon ascent into the stratosphere from Switzerland, last August, to study the cosmic rays, he reached the greatest height ever attained by man, but he did not approach the heights to which instrument-carrying balloons have gone. Nor did Professor Piccard much more than penetrate the layers of upper air, about which man knows many facts and surmises others. Some facts are known about the atmosphere up to 60 miles, where it is dense enough to cause incandescence, as proved by shooting stars. The temperature of the atmosphere about 21 miles up rises rapidly, until at 25 miles it is believed to be about the same as on the ground.