VAST HEAT BELT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22200, 29 August 1935, Page 12

VAST HEAT BELT

UPPER ATMOSPHERE SCIENTIST'S DISCOVERY IMPASSABLE BARRIER EFFECT ON WIRELESS RESEARCHES UPSET By Telegraph-Press Association—Copyright (Received August 23, 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 23 Man will never be able to fly to the uioon, and ultra short waves cannot be of real uso to broadcasting. These facts emerge from a discovery by Professor E. Y. Appleton, who, after many months of research, declares that in the upper atmosphere there is a vast layer of heat of 1000 degrees centigrade, the existence of which hitherto was not known to science. In this layer no known machinery could function, says the professor, and therefore, it constitutes an impassable barrier between tho world and the space beyond. This conclusion is confirmed by many members of tho Royal Society with whom Professor Appleton conferred. The layer also, in tho opinion of the professor, upsets the researches now being conducted upon wireless short waves and tho possibility of harnessing micro-waves for radio transmission. An official of tho World Radio Research League says tho discovery of the heat belt means that all waves below the six metre mark would be put out of action so far as clear reception is concernedProfessor Edward Victor Appleton has specialised in radio research. He was born at Bradford in September, 1892, and educated at Hanson School in that city and at St. John's College, Cambridge. Distinguishing himself in the Natural Science Tripos, he became Wiltshire prizeman and Hutchinson research student. He had just begun experimenting with X-rays when the Great War broke out. Joining the army, ho fought throughout the conflict, first in the West Riding Regiment and later as a captain of the Royal Engineers, in which his scientific knowledge proved very valuable in the development of wireless, then hi its early Stages. Made a follow of his college in 1919, Professor Appleton was appointed assistant demonstrator in experimental physics at the Cavendish Laboratory a year later; From 1922 to 1924 hf was sub-lector at Trinity College, and in the latter year was appointed Wheatstone professor of physics at London University, a position he still holds. In 1927 he took the Cambridge D.Sc. degree.

At King'R College, London University, Professor Appleton has devoted years to radio .research, especially in connection with short waves. By sending these out over long distances and timing their return to tiny fractions of a second, he made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of wireless communication—that there was a second " heaviside layer " above the one alreadv known, estimating tho latter to be 60 miles above tho earth and the other 140 rrjiles. Ho also discovered how to send wireless waves through these reflecting belts so that they never came back to earth. The layer now discovered apparentlv is still higher in tho upper atmosphere.